United Airlines will pay a $2.25 million fine but won’t be charged in connection with a special flight from Newark, New Jersey, that benefited the former head of the agency that runs the airport.
United Continental Holdings Inc. said Thursday that it reached a non-prosecution agreement with the U.S. attorney’s office for New Jersey.
The agreement was accompanied by a narrative that described how United executives were pressured into adding a flight between Newark Liberty International Airport and Columbia, South Carolina, near where former Port Authority Chairman David Samson and his wife had a vacation home.
The executives knew that the route would lose money. They gave it fast-track approval anyway, however, because they were warned that failing to please Samson could hold up a new hangar that United wanted at the Newark airport.
The flight was canceled days after Samson resigned in 2014.