Originally Posted by
buckeyefanflyer
Previously lost STL and MKE. All other non hub destinations served have other airlines flying these routes and in some cases mumtiple airlines. LGA, DCA, MCO, RSW, FLL, CUN. I guess SJU service not coming back. If they wanted they can pull the plug on geese routes at any time. Last time UA closed the hub on 1986 they eventually dropped all routes even DEN. All we had was ORD and IAD.
The industry is sufficiently evolved 32 years later (and big data is so much bigger that I think routes that continue to justify themselves in terms of both loads and revenue will thrive while the low-yielding destinations will wither and we'll see more "pop up" routes for a few days or weeks at a time.
Although I would only fly UA, with B6 offering a premium experience (and DL coming into the picture with 2-cabin service) at the top end and NK on the low end I think UA saw whatever revenue they were realizing shrinking away. Plus it seems the EpressJet MX base in CLE is dwindling so not quite the need to rotate E145s in and out through other cities so the operational utility of keeping BOS isn't as present.
I think we'll virtually certainly keep IAD/EWR/ORD/DEN/SFO/LAX. LGA and DCA seem less certain (though I'd give LGA better odds over DCA at least for a high level of service) and anything else will be "pop up" on a hyper seasonal basis.