It's been a year and a couple months since United began service at the city of Los Angeles owned Palmdale Airport. And today they announced they'll be leaving come December due to the money losing endeavor.

The program began with financial assistance from a federal grant, but the city was not awarded additional money in a second granting round. "I consider the reopening of the LA/Palmdale [airport] to commercial jet service by United Airlines on June 7, 2007, one of the top accomplishments of my administration," Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa wrote in a letter to the feds seeking more money to support the failing ridership numbers.

Photo by Drewski2112 via Flickr