Continental Airlines had begun the direct service in September 1999. United Airlines, which took over Continental in a merger concluded in 2010, notified the Dayton airport in May 2011 that it would soon end the nonstop service aboard Embraer 50-seat regional aircraft from Dayton to Houston’s George Bush Intercontinental Airport, but then appeared to have a change of heart, Slaybaugh said Friday.
Dayton airport officials had been monitoring the situation and became aware that United ended the service on Sunday, Aug. 28, he said.
The twice-daily flights had typically been 80 to 85 percent full, Slaybaugh said.
“The Dayton-Houston service was removed from the schedule as part of our network capacity reductions tied to the high cost of fuel,” Mary Clark, a United/Continental media relations spokeswoman, said in an email response to the Dayton Daily News.
Slaybaugh said he talked with United this week, but wasn’t given a satisfactory explanation. United offers similar flight service from the Columbus, Cincinnati and Indianapolis airports, Slaybaugh said.
He will continue talking with United in hopes of persuading the airline to resume the nonstop service, he said.
Travelers from Dayton can still fly to Houston via Delta Air Lines and US Airways, but those aren’t nonstop routes, he said.
Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2242 or jnolan@DaytonDailyNews.com.
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