Originally Posted by
mosburger
Hubwise, it's interesting to see what plans AB and OW have for Germany. Double hubs at DUS and TXL/BBI to compete with the FRA and MUC offerings of LH and partners?
DUS is far stronger regarding business passengers than the Berlin airports and could cover Western Europe from the Benelux down through France and Switzerland to northern Italy as a hub for TATL flights.
On the other hand, DUS has a vast catchment area of it's own to send passengers to other OW hubs at LHR and HEL for example to continue on longhauls.
Obviously OW needs to improve lounge offerings at DUS. The BA Terraces currently open there would be hopelessly overrun by transit passengers to NA and Caribbean destinations.
TXL and later BBI would seem natural as a hub to a wide range of East European, Russian and Central Asian destinations (think S7) in direct competition with LH/OS at FRA/MUC/VIE and Air Baltic at RIX. Gather those passengers at Berlin and send them onwards to LHR, TATL and all over Western Europe.
TXL has no room and considering the current timeframe, no need for new lounges. It's ok as present with the compact boarding arrangements. But then something spectacular to be expected at BBI?
Where would OW likely aim to serve African destinations from Europe and NA? LHR, DUS, TXL/BBI or all three? That continent is getting ever more important for both business and leisure travel and has been clearly underrepresented in the OW network.
This speaks in many ways to the challenges of getting value out of the combined networks operated by the members of the three global alliances. If it isn't easy to navigate from one hub to another, then the value of the partnerships are diminished. Isn't that why access to airports like LHR and NRT and the airlines with effective positions has been such a fight? Enough airlines come in and out of these hubs to enable the network to network connections to actually work.
If OW can find a way to pass people between LHR, MAD, HEL, BUD, and either DUS or BBI - then the European network becomes substantially more attractive in getting people from outside of Europe to the smaller cities that might not be as easily served, and actually fulfill the promises of both the hub and spoke system and the mega-alliances.