Originally Posted by
AADC10
It is a little more strategic than that. Look at DTW. No city is declining faster or further than Detroit, yet DL is maintaining its presence there, killing CVG instead. While Detroit is shrinking fast, it is still fairly large and it is well positioned geographically for some routes, particularly since DL is mostly shut out of Chicago.
Even Chicago is depopulating (although the suburbs are still growing) while UA, AA and WN duke it out. Las Vegas is falling on its face but it is still one of WN's largest stations.
AA was not especially interested in STL to begin with since it was inherited from TW. It is far more important for AA to keep its position at DFW and ORD, which serve similar hub functions. If AA did not have ORD, than STL might still be a hub.
Actually, AA was very interested in TW because of STL. It had outgrown the ORD hub which was a disaster in the summer of 2000. The thought was that AA could run hubs in both ORD and STL. It was great while it lasted. If the weather was bad in ORD, I'd reroute through STL and vice versa. When they built the new runway and de-peaked ORD, it was just extra expense.
And ... yes it is strange how empty the airport is -- particularly with all the tornado damage. But ... at least there is a great baseball team that is (a) objectively the best National League team in history and (b) objectively the best team in MLB history if one does any adjustment for inflated salaries paid by a certain American League team
