Airline Hubs: Which Company Dominates Your Airport?
Airline hubs are specific airports that an airline company uses as a transfer spot to get travelers to their intended destination. This system is part of the spoke-hub transportation model, which has been favored by many airlines since the industry was deregulated in 1978; the model consists of a system of connections in which all airline traffic moves across spokes linked to the hub at the center.
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As you can see in the above example, Denver and Los Angeles represent hubs, with many spokes reaching outward to other cities. The purpose of this model is simple: to save airlines money and to provide passengers better routes to their selected destinations. Today, most airlines have at least one main airport that their flights must travel through, and from there, the flights go outwards on different network spokes.
So which airlines dominate which airports? Let’s take a look at four major U.S. airlines, and see where their hubs are located.
American Airlines (AAL)
The world’s largest airline by fleet size and revenue, American Airlines has been an industry staple since its formation in 1930. The company is headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas, and since its merger with US Airways in 2013, American Airlines operates nine domestic hubs:
Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport
Charlotte-Douglas International Airport
Chicago O’Hare International Airport
Philadelphia International Airport
Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport
Miami International Airport
Ronald Reagan Washington International Airport
Los Angeles International Airport
New York City’s John F. Kennedy International Airport
Delta Airlines (DAL)
Like American Airlines, Delta Airlines has been present in the U.S. airline industry for decades. It began carrying passengers in 1929, and has grown rapidly since then due to many airline mergers. Headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, Delta Airlines operates 10 domestic hubs:
Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport
Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport
Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport
New York City’s John F. Kennedy International Airport
New York City’s La Guardia Airport
Boston’s Logan International Airport
Los Angeles International Airport
Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport
Salt Lake City International Airport
Seattle-Tacoma International Airport
And three international hubs:
Amsterdam Airport Schiphol
Tokyo Narita International Airport
Paris-Charles de Gaulle Airport
Southwest Airlines (LUV)
Touted as the world’s largest low-cost carrier, Southwest Airlines was launched in 1967 and is known for its Rapid Rewards frequent-flyer program; the airline is headquartered in Dallas, Texas. While Southwest does not use the hub and spoke transportation model (it prefers the old-fashioned point-to-point system, which carries passengers short distances with few connecting flights), the airline still operates out of 10 major domestic cities:
Chicago Midway International Airport
Baltimore-Washington International Airport
Las Vegas’ McCarran International Airport
Dallas Love Field Airport
Denver International Airport
Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport
Houston, Texas’ William P. Hobby Airport
Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport
Orlando International Airport
Los Angeles International Airport
United Continental Holdings (UAL)
Headquartered in Chicago, United Continental Holdings is an airline holding company for United Airlines and Continental Airlines, which formed due to a merger in 2010. Operating more than 700 mainline aircraft, United Continental needs a lot of hubs. The airline company has nine hubs in total, eight domestic:
Chicago O’Hare International Airport
Houston, Texas’ George Bush Intercontinental Airport
Denver International Airport
Los Angeles International Airport
Newark Liberty International Airport
San Francisco International Airport
Washington Dulles International Airport
Guam A.B. Wan Pat International Airport
And one international:
Tokyo Narita International Airport
As you can see, these four major airlines overlap in their hub or major operating city location nationwide, which can be looked at as a positive thing for sequent travelers. The hub and spoke model offers each airline (even Southwest) a way to replace high numbers half-empty routes with fewer, fuller ones, which then leads to less delays and a wide variety of connections.
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