Originally Posted by
MAH4546
A few problems.
1) CLT's single biggest traffic flow is Northeast<->Florida. This is just as well served via Miami.
2) Nonetheless, CLT's "threat" isn't Miami. It is Chicago and Dallas. Connection flows that US largely forces through CLT right now (e.g. SDF-LAX, BHM-LAX, BOS-AUS) are no longer best served via Charlotte.
Charlotte will shrink by 20-30% easily. But that doesn't change the fact that it still will remain a very large hub operation after the capacity is trimmed.
20-30% is a lot. What, exactly, do you think goes away? There's a lot of connecting traffic from the Northeast through CLT to the Southeast. You can't just shift that up to PHL/DCA. I'm sure I'm not the only one that isn't going to fly through DFW for most destinations east of the Mississippi.
Shifting more traffic to ORD probably doesn't make sense, either for the 6 months of winter or because ORD is a far more competitive and costly airport than CLT.
Don't get me wrong, I can definitely see some shift from CLT to DFW, but I can also see some going the other way.