eponymous_coward

Probably as much as considering flights to ORD and BNA "transcons", or US MSAs ranked 36th or 43rd "major". I mean, really, do you expect AS to run 5x daily to TPA, RDU & BNA from all their hubs and focus cities?

But hey... let's look at BNA-West Coast.

UA: 2x SFO
AA; 1x LAX
WN: 3x LAX
DL: 1x LAX
AS: 1x SEA, 1x SFO

AS is the smallest airline of all five of these airlines, and they're up there with UA and WN with multiple daily frequencies, and the only airline serving from multiple hubs.

Let's try BWI as an example of a larger MSA

UA: 2x SFO
AA: nada
WN: 4x SAN, 4x LAX, 1x OAK
DL: nada
AS: 1x SFO, 1x SEA, 1x SAN, 1x LAX
NK: 1x LAX

Again, AS is up there with the airline that actually de facto hubs at BWI (WN) in serving from multiple West Coast destinations.

Let's try TPA:

UA: 1x UA
AA: nada
WN: 1x LAX
DL: 1x LAX
AS: 1x SEA

Looks like folks serving them from their strong West Coast hubs reasonably well...

I get it, AS has run away from places where the legacies and heavy competition will murder them: BOS, ORD, DEN, NYC premium. And they obviously don't punch well at covering second-tier midcon and East Coast destinations, because the demand for LAX/SFO/SEA-PNS nonstops isn't likely to show up and there is no real logical place for a midcon hub anytime soon (they could spend 10 years accreting market share in SFO/LAX/SJC/SAN and still be in a solid second place in all of those cities). The loss of AA/DL hurts (though the DL side of that was baked in the cake when DL decided they wanted a SEA hub). But WN spent decades doing this kind of strategy (incremental market share over time, finding niches to exploit) with ZERO international feed. It seems to work OK for them.