Cody From United States of America, joined May 1999, 1918 posts, RR: 9 Reply 6, posted (12 years 12 months 3 days 21 hours ago) and read 1058 times:
Not only was Greensboro a "Lite" hub it was also used briefly by mainline Continental after they merged everything together. Although profitable and staffed by some very nice people, it was closed because management did not like the idea of two hubs on the east coast. They obtained better economies of scale using only one. Piedmont had a hub at Greensboro also. As for other hubs that are no more, Continental at DEN, LGA, IAD, San Jose, CA: United at Cleveland, USAir at LAX, SFO, CLE, CMH, DAY, MCI, SYR, BWI,: Eastern at MIA, ATL, MCI, IAH: Midway at Midway and PHL: Northwest at Milwaukee: I can't think right now I am tired.
USAirwys4Lyfe From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 7, posted (12 years 12 months 3 days 20 hours ago) and read 1044 times:
RDU peaked in the early 1990's(93-94) before shutting down.
USAirways closed its hubs in MCI, SYR, and DAY as Cody said but still had a dominant prescence in those markets as one still has to connect on USAirways Express flights in the midwest through MCI. SYR was scaled back after Piedmont Airlines and Empire Air mergers were 'cleaned.' DAY was part of an airline I forgot the name of (Lake Central?). Also, BWI ranks 7th of USAirways traffic(if that doesnt make sense let me know).
Oh yeah, and of course my favorite former hub was Midway at MDW whose now at RDU and doesn't fly to MDW (yet).
Finally, I didn't know Eastwind was going under, oh well too bad they didn't expand their GSO service.
Tom in NO From United States of America, joined Nov 1999, 7194 posts, RR: 40 Reply 8, posted (12 years 12 months 3 days 19 hours ago) and read 1046 times:
If you want a little history, how about:
Braniff at DFW (peak late 70's to "82): bankrupt
Eastern at ATL (sometime until early 90's): folded by Lorenzo
Piedmont at Dayton (mid-late 80's): PI to USAir, DAY closed
TWA at Kansas City (early 80's): pulled hub
Continental at Denver (early to mid 80's): pulled hub
Mergers with hubs still here: Piedmont at Charlotte and BWI (merger with US); Republic at MSP, DTW, MEM (merger with NW); North Central at MSP and Southern at MEM and ATL (merged with each other, then with Hughes Airwest, then into NW)
There are a lot more, this is just from 5 minutes of thought. Hope it helps.
Tom in NO (at MSY, mourning Braniff and Eastern)
"The criminal ineptitude makes you furious"-Bruce Springsteen, after seeing firsthand the damage from Hurricane Katrina
Sccutler From United States of America, joined Jan 2000, 5103 posts, RR: 28 Reply 9, posted (12 years 12 months 3 days 19 hours ago) and read 1035 times:
Remember Braniff, the Sequel, hubbing at Kansas City? I still think that one coulda worked... agreat airport, well-located and (at least then) underutilized.
And Tom, we all mourn BN's passing. They did it right.
...three miles from BRONS, clear for the ILS one five approach...
RyeFly From United States of America, joined Jun 2000, 1383 posts, RR: 0 Reply 10, posted (12 years 12 months 3 days 18 hours ago) and read 1033 times:
American cut flights drastically in 1993 out of RDU (probably regreating that now)
Continental I believe left a little later around 1995 in GSO. Eastwind shut down about a year after the Value Jet crash in Miami, as start up airlines were under the microscope, and public grew leary of flying small start ups.
J_hallgren From United States of America, joined Jun 2000, 1507 posts, RR: 0 Reply 11, posted (12 years 12 months 3 days 17 hours ago) and read 1021 times:
So that explains it! I knew it had been "forever" since I used American and RDU, and didn't know they gave that hub up...Thanks!!
AFa340-300E From France, joined May 1999, 2084 posts, RR: 27 Reply 12, posted (12 years 12 months 3 days 15 hours ago) and read 1014 times:
Hello,
Why did AA keep the RDU-LGW flight after they sht down the RDU hub?
Why did EAL build a hub at ATL? It was a place already under the Delta wings, and EAL had a hub at MIA, which isn't far. Why didn't they build anything at JFK, EWR or the US North-East Coast as a hub, in order to get out of their almost sole market (Florida-North-Est Coast)?
Anyone would have the dates when RDU, BNA, GSO, Eastwind were opened/closed?
I know some dates:
AA - DFW 1981
AA - ORD 1982
AA - MIA 1989
AA - San Juan 1986
AF - CDG 1st June 1996
Here is something about RDU and BNA: feel free to make correction/comments.
"Raleigh/Durham (RDU) and Nashville (BNA)
American never has had a real strong grasp in the Northeast, leaving Delta Air Lines and US Air as the big players.
So, in the 1980s, American Airlines decided it was going to seriously bump up operations out east. It chose Nashville and Raleigh-Durham as its two hubs.
But these hubs didn't revealed to be profitable for American Airlines, and both BNA and RDU were closed as hubs May 1, 1996.
BNA was closed because its only profitable flights were to/from West Coast and they were taking traffic from DFW and ORD. The decision was made to protect DFW & ORD hub operations at the expense of BNA-west coast flights.
Doing so made BNA unprofitable and it was closed. Load on short flights were heavy, but not profitable and raising fares just US$5 per ticket dropped loads to less than 1/2 full. Not enough to maintain short-haul flights.
RDU was closed at the same time, but for different reason. American Airlines purchased Eastern Airline's Latin American operations out of MIA, making Miami a hub, and that pulled most RDU North-South connecting traffic away from American Airlines' RDU hub. Flights that were once 70%+ full began flying less than 30% full.
RDU was not good location for East-West flights, as American already had ORD and DFW for those, and it could not compete with direct MIA and MIA connecting flights. Therefore RDU became unprofitable and was closed as well.
London services
American Airlines got the airport authority in 1994 to lengthen the main runway at BNA to allow American Airlines to do London non-stop.
The service to London-Gatwick were both started out of BNA and RDU on 26 May 1994.
The BNA flight was dropped with the hub operations, however the RDU-LGW flight was kept.
Recent rumors state AA could transfer the RDU-LGW to DFW in order to get third daily flight."
Tom in NO From United States of America, joined Nov 1999, 7194 posts, RR: 40 Reply 13, posted (12 years 12 months 3 days 9 hours ago) and read 1000 times:
Midway Airlines replaced AA at RDU. They run a mediu-sized hub from RDU with CRJ Regional jets, A-320's, and I believe some new 737's.
Tom in NO (at MSY)
"The criminal ineptitude makes you furious"-Bruce Springsteen, after seeing firsthand the damage from Hurricane Katrina
AirT85 From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 14, posted (12 years 12 months 3 days 7 hours ago) and read 1000 times:
Eastwind shutdown in 1999, three years after the VJ crash. The former Midway hub in Philly was the former hub operations of Eastern who closed down PHl when facing bankruptcy and sold it to MW. Eastern and Delta were both very large in Atlanta and Delta didnt reach its peak there until after Eastern went under, it took over Eastern's gates and tons of planes, its fleet shot from about 300 to 500 very very quickly after Eastern and PanAm folded. Other former hubs include AirTran in Orlando which was shut-down after the merger.
-Tony
AirT85 From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 15, posted (12 years 12 months 3 days 6 hours ago) and read 984 times:
Hehe! Another correction. Midway flies CRJ's, F-100's amd B-737-700's out of RDU. Not A-320's. Midway returned there lone A-320 i think in 1998 to Airbus. Near the end of its time with MW it only flew one round trip a day between RDU and BOS.
-Tony
N202PA From United States of America, joined Jun 2000, 1550 posts, RR: 4 Reply 16, posted (12 years 12 months 3 days 5 hours ago) and read 972 times:
Pan Am had hubs in San Francisco and Berlin; the San Francisco one was sold to United with the transfer of the Pacific route structure in 1985. The Berlin one was shut down in 1989/1990 with the fall of the Berlin Wall--the exclusive American air service between the East German city and West Germany wasn't needed any more because there was one Germany. Apparently, Berlin was one of, if not *the*, wildest airline hub in the world.
Pan Am's Miami hub came from the merger with National in 1982, which would later (after years of development and redevelopment) move on to American, after Pan Am went down in December, 1991.
There was talk of moving the corporate headquarters of Pan Am from New York to Washington's new Dulles Airport in the early 1970s, but this was dismissed as crazy talk, despite the tax advantages. If they'd been smart and done this, they still might be around today...look at the success United has had with IAD...
AWA320 From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 17, posted (12 years 12 months 3 days 5 hours ago) and read 967 times:
A long time ago (early-mid 80's I think) Continental was starting a hub in ELP, TX. They had flights to some cities along the west coast and some to the east also. I'm not too sure how long it lasted, but I'm guessing not very long. Back when they had a hub in El Paso, they used gates B5 through B11. I've got some pictures around here somewhere of several Continental jets lined up at the gates in ELP.
AFa340-300E From France, joined May 1999, 2084 posts, RR: 27 Reply 18, posted (12 years 12 months 3 days 2 hours ago) and read 959 times:
Hello,
Could anyone tell me about the FRA hub of Pan Am?
From what I know: Delta Air Lines bought all but the European but London routes, and then kept the hub for a short time (until the early 1990's) when they shut it down in favor of code-share partnerships with SR, OS and SN.
Is that it?
Cody From United States of America, joined May 1999, 1918 posts, RR: 9 Reply 19, posted (12 years 12 months 3 days ago) and read 959 times:
Yes, Pan Am's Frankfurt was probably their biggest operation. I personally think it was larger than the JFK station. Here are some other former hubs.
ValuJet-IAD, ATL: Air Florida-TPA/MIA: TWA-CDG: Republic-PHX: Florida Express-MCO: Braniff 2-MCO, MCI, DFW: Air Cal-Orange County: PSA-LAX, SFO, SAN: Presidential-IAD: Pride Air-MSY: Northeastern International-MSY, ISP: Texas International-DFW: World Airways-OAK: Kiwi-EWR: Air Atlanta-Atlanta: Air One-STL: Ozark-STL: Key Air-IAD and then SAV: Eastern-Charlotte (later sold to Piedmont): United-MCO (anyone remember this one? It was opened in the early 90's and was part of the reason for the original IAD scaleback. Briefly they connected flights all over the US to cities in Florida using 757's within Florida!)
RyeFly From United States of America, joined Jun 2000, 1383 posts, RR: 0 Reply 20, posted (12 years 12 months 2 days 23 hours ago) and read 951 times:
Those of you who are interested in knowing how RDU is doing since American dropped its hub I can give you some information I looked up.
Once American left, RDU has been thriving." top 5 fastest growing airports in the United States in 1999." What was once an airport dominated by one airline has since developed into a highly competitive market. RDU currently offers 13 different carriers to choose from and added 100 new new flights and served 8.9 million passengers in 1999. Competition between Midway, Delta Express, Southwest, Air Tran, and Merto Jet caused ticket prices to plunge to an all time low. Metro Jet just recently backed out of RDU in June due to competition and lack of planes needed in other markets such as LGA.
Most of American Airlines old gates in Terminal C were bought by Midway Airlines, and now serve as the airlines hub. Midway is the largest at RDU taking 26.3% of the market share followed by US Airways with 13.9%. Currently Midway offers 244 daily non-stops out of RDU to 26 destinatioins in 15 states. Midway's fleet is comprised of 32 aircraft including 22 CRJ's 8 F-100's and 2 of an order for 17 737-700's. A third 737-700 will be added later in the year as well as a CRJ. F-100's will be replaced with a mix of CRJ's and 737's once they become available.
As for American Airlines daily flight to London... The Raleigh News and Observer stated recently that American Airlines was extreamly happy with the flight, and it has consistantly proven to be one of their most profitable international flights. Due to overwhelming demand, American Airlines switched from 767-200 aircraft to 767-300's on this route. The News and Observer also stated that the 767 could be replaced with 777 by next year during peak seasons.
Due to the increaed service at RDU, it's quickly approaching the ammount of passengers RDU had when American was at its peek at RDU in 1992.(9.9 mil pax in '92) Plans for a temporary extention to Terminal A have started and will add an extra 5 gates by next year. This is until a new terminal can be built. Airlines such as Southwest are interested in increasing its service to RDU dramatically, but due to lack of gate space they are unable to at the moment. Currently Southwest has 2 gates and is interested in two more next year when they become available. Airlines like Jet Blue are interested as well in RDU, but at the moment there is no gates available. A third runway is the latest project in the works. No work has started yet, however a road next to 5L/23R has recently been closed for preperation. The most common complaint at RDU is no parking. A new parking deck offering 2,160 new spots across from Terminal A was finished this year and a 5,000 copacity deck will be completed in 2 or 3 years. In total RDU offers 15,600 spots and hopes to incease that to 30,000 as soon as possible.
I hope that informs you better on how RDU is doing since AA backed out. if you are interested in researching more information, I used www.rdu.com and www.newsandobserver.com. Have fun!
USAirwys4Lyfe From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 21, posted (12 years 12 months 2 days 21 hours ago) and read 945 times:
I do have to agree that RDU is a busy airport. A unique tidbit is that Terminal C (where AA used to hub and now it shares with JI) is somewhat different from Terminal A. I recently flew on Midway through RDU and you could tell it used to be an AA hub at the ticket counter with the giant American displays still there. Terminal A is different than C because the 'full-rate' airlines check-ins are located on one end while Air Tran and Southwest are on the other end. Also, Terminal A has alot more traffic than C (at least when I was there).
I have a question about the new rwy, I thought they couldn't build it due to the fact that Alltel constructed a cell-phone tower in the planned flight path. Are they still going through with the rwy construction? Please let me know. Thanks!!
RyeFly From United States of America, joined Jun 2000, 1383 posts, RR: 0 Reply 24, posted (12 years 12 months 1 day 21 hours ago) and read 913 times:
I will look up that information very soon and get back to ya
25 Laxflyer: They started closing down the hub when Frankie bought us. Around 1982. At our peak we also flew to Mexico out of there.
26 ORD: Pan Am never had a hub at SFO. They never even had anything more than a few domestic and international flights. Heck, that's one reason they sold the
27 ORD: When Delta bought Pan Am's European routes, their hub at Frankfurt included nonstops to the following US cities (most of which have since been dropped
28 N202PA: ORD: PA had more than just a "few" international flights out of SFO--flights to Tokyo, Hong Kong, London, Beijing, Shanghai, etc. etc. Plus, I have PA
29 Imkeww: Correction, AA's hub at MIA came from the demise of EA's operations (and also the transfer of a plethora of LatAm service from EA to AA).
30 ORD: A few points... 1. Your booklets promote SFO as an international gateway, not a hub. Any city with one international flight is an international gatewa
31 RyeFly: I found the information you were interested in... American started service to Paris from RDU during 1988. Discontinues daily service in September of 1
32 RyeFly: I have been researching archives looking for information regarding the cancelation of the new runway at RDU. Currently I have found no information sta
33 AFa340-300E: Hello, Are you sure for the London service please? abc American Airlines and www.rdu.com display "May 26, 1994 - American Airlines begins RDU-London G
34 USAirwys4Lyfe: Yeah, the article I found was in the Wilmington Morning Star back in the fall, I believe. Thanks for checking! usairwys4lyfe@hotmail.com
35 Cody: Pan Am used Pacific Express, a BAC 111 operator based at Chico, to feed them at SFO. I guess it didn't work very well since Pan Am and Pacific Express
36 RyeFly: Sorry about that, you are right, I went back and looked and it is May 26, 1994, NOT 1993. Either I need glasses, or I was typing to fast again. I pref
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