Originally Posted by
gemac
The Bay Area is not an international hub for AA because they have an international hub 340 miles away. AA has decided that it is a better strategy to have, for example, more flights LAX-NRT rather than split its west coast-Japan business and have fewer flights LAX-NRT and some SFO-NRT flights.
You could argue, I suppose, that AA's west coast international hub should be SFO instead of LAX, but AA has decided on LAX. Depends in part on competition and the corporate contracts AA has. Does AA have contracts with Google, Cisco, Apple, et. al.?
I'm not sure of the current situation, but about 8 years ago, I heard from a colleague of mine at another airline that UA was supporting its SFO hub by negotiating contracts that discounted its intl. business class as much as 50% (his airline was not willing to go that low). If that has continued, UA's willingness to discount may have helped push AA to LAX.