United Cuts Flights From Its Regional Airline Schedules

United Airlines will eliminate 17 domestic routes this year, all of them flown by its regional airline subsidiaries.

The news was first reported by the aviation blog The Points Guy (TPG), which confirmed the cuts with United.

In the wake of new budget carriers like Breeze and Avelo entering the market and using smaller, secondary airports, United’s decision is a tough blow for regional airlines and even smaller airports.

It’s becoming a disturbing trend in the industry, but especially with United as the Chicago-based carrier continues to assess the viability of using regional subsidiaries and smaller destinations. TPG noted that United pulled out of 11 small markets last year, dropped 14 small markets later in the year just from Washington Dulles, and now this.

“We’re still debating what the long-term future of 50 seaters really is,” United CEO Scott Kirby told TPG, referring to 50-seat regional jets. “The challenge is, do you want to serve places like Erie, Pennsylvania, at all, or Cody, Wyoming, or do those places just get cut off of the connectivity to the world?”

In this round of cuts, United is just trimming routes. Only one of the 17 cities, Alexandria, Louisiana, is being completely eliminated. Routes to Dayton, Ohio; Oklahoma City; Omaha, Neb.; Knoxville; Allentown, Pa.; Lexington, Ky.; Madison, Wisc.; Pensacola, Fla.; Columbia, S.C.; Akron-Canton, Ohio; Bismarck, N.D.; Charlottesville, Va.; Jackson, Miss.; Pasco-Tri Cities, Wash.; and Redmond, Ore. are being cut.

Affected regional carriers include SkyWest, Republic, Air Wisconsin, Mesa and CommutAir.