Here at Charlotte (CLT) we continuously lack multiple airlines connecting us with major cities. Case in point: NK announced a huge expansion at MIA, but left us out. So we STILL have only ONE airline connecting CLT and MIA. Many cities have 2 to 4 airlines connecting them with MIA, yet the fifth busiest airport east of the Mississippi River only has ONE? The result? Absurd fares. Also, still no CDG service? I frequent Europe so that stinks; CLT remains the busiest hub in the country lacking CDG. RDU has a daily CDG and they’re a fraction of our size. Geez...

Speaking to your Europe frustration, I've always viewed CLT as a redundant hub for US/AA with PHL and JFK right up the I-95 corridor. In the airline's view, they can shuttle people north and connect them through the other two airports to send them off to Europe. RDU-CDG is on DL, so that isn't as much affected by AA's route map.
Adding new carriers on routes like MIA-CLT is tough because both are AA hubs and neither is a hub for another major airline. PHL-MIA has F9 on the route, but PHL is a bit of an F9 focus city, as is MIA. If WN begins to grow out MIA or even CLT, that's when you start to see the new carrier on the route. Or perhaps you could benefit from an F9 MIA expansion as well.
All that being said, I'm sure it's very frustrating for you as a consumer. Hopefully the soaring leisure travel as of late will cater itself to more options on such routes.

The reason CLT is the fifth-busiest airport east of the Mississippi is the same reason you lack multiple carriers on many routes : it's an AA fortress hub, and the vast majority of traffic at CLT is connections.

Without that hub, you'd be in the same boat as similar-sized cities by population like STL, PDX, SMF, and SAT. Would you trade your flight options for what you get out of those places? For example, how many European destinations does CLT have? Well, 5 - I think - with two carriers to Munich. How many do St. Louis and Baltimore, which each have an MSA population exceeding Charlotte's by more than 100,000 people, have?

DL or NK adding CLT-LAX nonstop service might be a possibility with CLT-LAX being one of the top routes (by O&D PDEW) in the entire U.S. that doesn't have any nonstop competition. Over 25% of the passengers traveling between CLT and Greater Los Angeles were connecting on airlines other than AA in 2019.

The PDEW of CLT-LAX/BUR/LGB/SNA/ONT was 525 passengers/day in 2019, with an average of 135 passengers/day in each direction connecting between CLT and Greater Los Angeles on airlines other than AA in 2019.

CLT-ATL/CVG/DTW/MSP/SLC had lower PDEW's than CLT-LAX in 2019, but were served nonstop out of CLT on both AA and DL in 2019.

DL might possibly be able to make CLT-LAX nonstop service work with CLT-LAX having stronger O&D demand than CLT-ATL/CVG/DTW/MSP/SLC (at least prior to the COVID-19 pandemic). Both DL and AA also already serve AA's DFW, JFK, PHX, and DCA hubs nonstop from LAX.

I had also mentioned the possibility of UA adding CLT-SFO nonstop service with (a) CLT being a business destination for some companies in the San Francisco Bay Area such as Wells Fargo and (b) UA having some FF's in the San Francisco Bay Area who would avoid other airlines such as AA, AS, or WN whenever possible.

Pre-pandemic AA operated CLT-Europe seasonally during the summer with a 1x daily A332 to many cities (BCN, CDG, DUB, FRA, MUC). Anecdotal evidence, but when I flew CLT-CDG-CLT back in 2019 the loads were decent but not completely full. RDU-CDG isn't surprising since there's a good amount of French business in the Triangle.

We'll see what happens as things get back to normal. 787s should be operating the former A332 routes in the coming years. Can those routes be upgraded to year-round? If they're mainly for leisure there may not be a business case.

The DL flight is not operating daily from RDU-CDG. France has not re-opened as has the majority of Europe so unlikely service will resume from RDU or CLT until late summer if at all. US and AA have served CLT-CDG for years until 2020 even if seasonally.
Many airlines are not going to enter a major hub city and compete with the huge hub airline. A token flight a day would have been a likely F9 or NK flight to MIA had they considered CLT. Obviously it being the large AA hub, they feel better passenger traffic exists to/from other cities that doesn't face a behemoth airline like AA in CLT or DL in ATL. F9, NK and WN will test their new service markets from MIA and add and delete cities as traffic warrants.
CLT-MIA currently has 8 nonstops a day on AA. Cheaper to fly CLT-ATL-MIA on DL? I doubt it. WN does not fly nonstop RDU-MIA. Price compare CLT-FLL v/s CLT-MIA. FLL can be cheaper by a few bucks and has at least 7 nonstops per day.

IADCA wrote:

The reason CLT is the fifth-busiest airport east of the Mississippi is the same reason you lack multiple carriers on many routes : it's an AA fortress hub, and the vast majority of traffic at CLT is connections.

Without that hub, you'd be in the same boat as similar-sized cities by population like STL, PDX, SMF, and SAT. Would you trade your flight options for what you get out of those places? For example, how many European destinations does CLT have? Well, 5 - I think - with two carriers to Munich. How many do St. Louis and Baltimore, which each have an MSA population exceeding Charlotte's by more than 100,000 people, have?

This really hits the nail on the head, I think. I'd say daily nonstops to London and Frankfurt (and let's not forget the scads of Caribbean service that CLT has that peer cities uniformly lack) are better than 5 airlines to MIA.

The fixation on CDG also ignores that, other than Michelin, the Carolinas don't have many business ties with France. Germany is, obviously, a much different story.

Sdmccray1984 wrote:

Here at Charlotte (CLT) we continuously lack multiple airlines connecting us with major cities. Case in point: NK announced a huge expansion at MIA, but left us out. So we STILL have only ONE airline connecting CLT and MIA. Many cities have 2 to 4 airlines connecting them with MIA, yet the fifth busiest airport east of the Mississippi River only has ONE? The result? Absurd fares. Also, still no CDG service? I frequent Europe so that stinks; CLT remains the busiest hub in the country lacking CDG. RDU has a daily CDG and they’re a fraction of our size. Geez...

Compared to more than a decade ago, CLT has more competition than it has since 1986 when it was a two airline hub. Delta has a decent size spoke operation and is adding BOS soon. When additional A concourses are opened, I believe Delta is getting even more additional gates since A North opened a few years ago. A month or so ago I was within a mile or so of an approach zone and four Delta jets (2 717s, one 738, and one regional jet) landed in a row! I know it doesn't mean much but I would have never guessed I was in an AA hub if I didn't know better. The new expansion also calls for a Delta Sky lounge.

afcjets wrote:

Compared to more than a decade ago, CLT has more competition than it has since 1986 when it was a two airline hub. Delta has a decent size spoke operation and is adding BOS soon. When additional A concourses are opened, I believe Delta is getting even more additional gates since A North opened a few years ago. A month or so ago I was within a mile or so of an approach zone and four Delta jets (2 717s, one 738, and one regional jet) landed in a row! I know it doesn't mean much but I would have never guessed I was in an AA hub if I didn't know better. The new expansion also calls for a Delta Sky lounge.

It was recently mentioned in The Rest of Ohio thread that DL is planning on resuming the nonstop routes out of CVG that it dropped during the COVID-19 pandemic, and that discussion can be found at viewtopic.php?f=3&t=1455993&start=350#p22822235.

I agree that DL re-adding CLT-CVG nonstop service is a possibility with the longstanding nonstop competition that was there on CLT-CVG with both DL and US/AA serving CVG nonstop from CLT until DL dropped CLT-CVG nonstop service during the COVID-19 pandemic last year.

I had also mentioned the possibility of DL adding CLT-LAX nonstop service with CLT-LAX being one of the top routes in the entire U.S. by O&D PDEW's that doesn't currently have any nonstop competition along with LAX having stronger O&D demand (higher O&D PDEW's) from CLT than ATL, DTW, CVG, MSP, or SLC. There would also be some connecting opportunities to the San Francisco Bay Area, Hawaii, and Australia through LAX on DL if DL adds CLT-LAX nonstop service.

DL adding CLT-SEA nonstop service might also be a possibility as
(a) DL has added some other nonstop routes out of its SEA hub (including to AA's ORD/PHX hubs) in order to better compete against AS/AA in the SEA market,
(b) DL would be offering 1-stop connecting service through SEA to some Alaskan and Chinese destinations not served nonstop from ATL, DTW, MSP, or SLC, and
(c) CLT is a business destination for some Seattle-based companies such as Microsoft (who has offices in Charlotte) and Boeing Commercial Airplanes (whose vendor Collins Aerospace is headquartered in Charlotte).

afcjets wrote:

Sdmccray1984 wrote:

Here at Charlotte (CLT) we continuously lack multiple airlines connecting us with major cities. Case in point: NK announced a huge expansion at MIA, but left us out. So we STILL have only ONE airline connecting CLT and MIA. Many cities have 2 to 4 airlines connecting them with MIA, yet the fifth busiest airport east of the Mississippi River only has ONE? The result? Absurd fares. Also, still no CDG service? I frequent Europe so that stinks; CLT remains the busiest hub in the country lacking CDG. RDU has a daily CDG and they’re a fraction of our size. Geez...

Compared to more than a decade ago, CLT has more competition than it has since 1986 when it was a two airline hub. Delta has a decent size spoke operation and is adding BOS soon. When additional A concourses are opened, I believe Delta is getting even more additional gates since A North opened a few years ago. A month or so ago I was within a mile or so of an approach zone and four Delta jets (2 717s, one 738, and one regional jet) landed in a row! I know it doesn't mean much but I would have never guessed I was in an AA hub if I didn't know better. The new expansion also calls for a Delta Sky lounge.

You’re right about legacies, but let’s not ignore LFCs either. I don’t believe there was any period in the 2000s when CLT had more than two LFCs and most of those flew to just a city or two. WN’s CLT operation today, while by no means large, probably alone has twice the number of seats offered across all LFCs throughout the 2000s. (I cannot recall if there was a brief period of overlap between TZ and DH but that’s the only possible exception; TZ and DH were gone by the time B6 and FL came.)