The pandemic has made or broken fortunes of many. United Airlines is getting some benefits due to the pandemic. It has found space in the once congested John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York. On Sunday, United Airlines takes its first flight to JKF after a period of almost six years.

The carrier is operating two flights: a 7.30 a.m. PT flight and a 9.30 a.m. PT flight. The first flight will take off from Los Angeles International Airport while the second one is scheduled to lift off from San Francisco International Airport.

The journey back from JFK to San Francisco will take off at 5.10 p.m. ET while the JKF to LAX will take off at 7 p.m. ET. The aircraft for both the flights is the Boeing 767-300..

United Airlines had stopped flying to JKF in 2015 and had centered its services at its hubs at Newark Liberty International as well as New York’s La Guardia Airport. United’s CEO Scott Kirby, who took over the management of the carrier in 2020, had said that the decision to leave JFK in 2015 was a mistake. The carrier had lost several corporate clients to its competitor American Airlines when it had moved away from JFK.

In September, CNBC had reported that United was looking into moving back into JFK. The pandemic has made international travel almost nonexistent. Travel bans exist throughout the world and leisure travel is nonexistent. Business travel is also much lower than ever and only essential business travel is encouraged.

However domestic leisure travel has seen an uptick in the U.S. As per reports from Airlines for America, which is an industry group that represents most of the large U.S. carriers, New York State’s Airlines’ scheduled service is down by 56% in April when compared with travel figures of April 2019. The national average has declined by 32%.

There is space available that can be filled in by domestic flights and United Airlines has begun the process on Sunday by flying round trips from LAX and San Francisco to JFK, New York.