BR715-A1-30 From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Posted (10 years 10 months 2 weeks 4 days 2 hours ago) and read 1253 times:
I have seen so many hubs in my life... But What exactly would you consider a hub. I consider a hub an airport that has an airline there that goes to many different destinations in one day even if it is only one plane at a time, and one flight a day. I know ATL is a hub. But I would have called GPT a Mini-Hub for AirTran at one time. We had flights to 6 different destinations. Now it is only 3 different destinations. What do YOU consider a hub or mini-hub?
Godbless From Sweden, joined Apr 2000, 2751 posts, RR: 18 Reply 1, posted (10 years 10 months 2 weeks 4 days 2 hours ago) and read 1235 times:
I would consider every airport a hub if an airline offers flights to many destinations and the planes are not filled with only O&D traffic but rather have passengers that fly in to fly out again on another flight to another destination.
But on the other hand an airport could also be a technical hub for example.
Donder10 From Canada, joined Oct 2001, 6659 posts, RR: 23 Reply 2, posted (10 years 10 months 2 weeks 4 days 2 hours ago) and read 1229 times:
I would call what you say is a 'hub' a base or focus cities.For example Ryanair at Stansted.They have many flights from there yet they don't allow transfers so its all point2point.On the other hand a hub takes people via A-B via C. eg BRS-AMS-YYZ on KLM for example.I would regard hubs as big airports,with lots of connecting flights often operating in banks.
B747-437B From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 3, posted (10 years 10 months 2 weeks 4 days 2 hours ago) and read 1214 times:
Two key requirements for a hub are :
a) Banked flight schedules
b) Connectivity of city pairs
Something like AirTran's operation at GPT met neither one of these criteria. It is another reason why Southwest or Ryanair will never have a major *HUB* per se. They all have OPERATIONAL BASES, but those arent hubs in the strict sense of the word.
Blink182 From Azerbaijan, joined Oct 1999, 5430 posts, RR: 19 Reply 4, posted (10 years 10 months 2 weeks 4 days 1 hour ago) and read 1206 times:
As far as flights go, that normally helps, but could mean nothing too.
Let's look at the AA system.
American is #2 at DEN(behind UA/UA Express), and they have a fair number of flights. However, where do those flights go? DFW,MIA,ORD,LAX,STL and other AA hubs/focus cities. So basically, DEN is not a place to make an AA connection.
Now, take SJC(or RDU if you want). Good AA focus city. In the eyes of some, it is a mini-hub, but I consider it a focus city. There are a lot of flights to secondary markets and they even have an NRT flight. At one time, they had TPE and CDG complementing NRT. But those flights are history. Now, there are still a fair number of AA flights that are not to hubs or focus cities and the fact that you have Eagle operating there(?) brings connecting pax. Still, it doesn't have the amount of flights that I would consider to be a true hub.
Now, bring BOS, and JFK. Those are midsized hubs. Too many flights to too many destinations to warrant them as focus cities, but for whatever reason, AA does not consider those airports as major hubs.
Now, the true hubs. DFW,MIA,SJU, and ORD. AA has many banks and in most cases has a monopoly, or a healthy share of the percentage of flights(as is at MIA and DFW). ORD is special because you have United competing side by side with American, but at the same time, both have large operations to many cities and in Chicago's case, it is AA's European gateway. Now, DFW. AA is well known for having a monopoly at DFW. They have 11 banks with around 54 flights each and have a wide variety of destinations. MIA, AA's Latin American gateway with many flights to Latin America which bring lots of connecting pax continuing onto other US points and possibly Canada or Europe. With San Juan, SJU serves as AA's Caribbean/Bahamas/US Virgin Island gateway which brings a bit American Eagle operation in. Pretty much at true hubs for a major airline, you will see flights going all over the world. A great example of this is United's Chicago hub or American's DFW hub. Also, airlines tend to make their terminals at hub airports a little bit nicer.
blink
Give me a break, I created this username when I was a kid...
EGGD From United Kingdom, joined Feb 2001, 12426 posts, RR: 40 Reply 5, posted (10 years 10 months 2 weeks 4 days ago) and read 1178 times:
A hub, somewhere where an airline operates at least one aircraft out of (ie. not an airport where the only flights are flights operated A-airport-A, but airport-A-airport).
Jfwjxn From United States of America, joined Jun 2002, 85 posts, RR: 0 Reply 6, posted (10 years 10 months 2 weeks 2 days 16 hours ago) and read 1095 times:
I wouldn't consider GPT a hub....it just had those flights because of the O&D traffic to GPT...it's the same thing with AirTran at TPA.
DIA77 From United States of America, joined Jan 2000, 700 posts, RR: 7 Reply 7, posted (10 years 10 months 2 weeks 2 days 16 hours ago) and read 1085 times:
Penguinflies From United States of America, joined Apr 2000, 975 posts, RR: 0 Reply 10, posted (10 years 10 months 2 weeks 2 days 11 hours ago) and read 1002 times:
IMO, a hub is an management decision to focus many resources in a central location to maximize both passenger traffic and cities served. It does not matter the amount of aircraft or cities served. Western Pacific operated COS as a hub when they had 2 planes or 15. Aloha operates a hub at HNL and they have something like 22 aircraft. Air Midwest operates a hub at MCI with 30+ aircraft. These small airlines focused their resources at one point just like the majors.
I agree with most the people (like B747) who notes the difference between an operational base and a hub.
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