Originally Posted by
spk307
Just take flight routes from China to US. As per Wikipedia,
In 2006, there were 10 non-stop flights between the two countries 2 million passenger trips per year.
As of 2013, there are 28 non-stop routes (not including Hong Kong), operated by three major US carriers, United, American and Delta, and four Chinese carriers, Air China, China Eastern, China Southern and Hainan Airlines. By 2014, there will be 35 non-stop routes.
Even Qingdao has a non stop flight to SFO. Earlier the same would have been through HKG. No wonder Cathay is in same situation as SQ. The China traffic has dried up for Cathay and to a smaller extent for SQ.
How many of these are non-stop routes without a hub at one end of the journey? Using the Qingdao-SFO service as an example, it is operated by MU. Wikipedia lists Qingdao as a secondary hub for MU, so definitely a hub at one end there. Earlier, most likely this trip would have been as likely, or more likely, to be via ICN or NRT as HKG.
It seems the trend is away from routings via mid-journey hubs to non-stop long hauls supported by an extensive short haul network at one end of the journey.