There’s a gaping hole in the Tuesday morning newspaper now that the New York Times has dropped Joe Sharkey’s weekly column.

With little fanfare and zero explanation for the circumstances surrounding his exit, Sharkey offered a terse goodbye in the final paragraph of his “On The Road” column in the March 31, 2015 paper.

Sharkey wrote about domestic air travel from the perspective of a frequent flier. He wasn’t knee-jerk negative as many who write about the aviation experience seem to be. Over a sixteen-year stretch that included the period immediately after 9-11, Sharkey never failed to file a weekly column. It was a great read for me given my interest in the subject.

Knowing a bit about the day-to-day workings of a major airline, I roll my eyes at a lot of what’s written about aviation both in the mainstream press and by friends on social media who may have had a bad flight experience. Sharkey didn’t engage in that kind of hyperbole although he was plenty harsh in his take on aspects of the business when he had specific examples meriting criticism. Sharkey was great in assessing execution of screening processes by the TSA and was fair-handed in breaking down the ever-changing nature of the airlines’ mile-redemption programs.

The Times didn’t explain why it stopped the Sharkey column. Public Editor Margaret Sullivan has made no mention of the sudden removal of such a prominent weekly piece. The now-gutted page Sharkey normally appeared on carried no advisory either on Sharkey‘s last day or Tuesday‘s subsequent.

Sharkey told media writer Jim Romenesko last month that the Times ended On The Road because of constraints in its freelance budget. “Didn’t see this coming, frankly,” said Sharkey in an e-mail to Romenesko.

Today was the third Tuesday newspaper without Sharkey’s column and another regular piece entitled “Frequent Flier” which felt like a companion to Sharkey’s item but was done by another reporter. To fill the now empty space, the Times has run transportation-related news stories but has done so without regard for the familiar placement of the “On The Road” and “Frequent Flier” columns on the same page.

It’s hard to imagine Sharkey’s weekly contribution costing the Times more than what’s it’s worth when you consider the readership the column built over sixteen years. Additionally frustrating is that the Times seems to have no replacement content in mind. This was a subject that consumed nearly a full page of the paper each week and now it’s gone. At least explain in some small way through an editor’s note – or through Sullivan’s bullhorn – what the heck is going on when you shut down a page of your newspaper that people come to expect once a week.