Originally Posted by
pkerr
LOL.. at least we have a real baseball team.
You don't go to wrigley to pay attention to the game , it is more for the drinking and comradery the game is secondary
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.
I am surprised DTW still works as well as it does, I suppose good for Asia and EU, but I thought O+D traffic is not all that great. STL is just too close to ORD I agree. It probably could sustain a flight to LHR, butAA just would rather route you through ORD.