Originally Posted by
uastarflyer
AA has a lot of company at LAX and JFK. And they aren’t running service from LGA or DCA to the ME, Europe, India, like UA gets at EWR and/or IAD, the former being in New Jersey notwithstanding.
Yes UA has the best hubs - AA and DL would trade in a heartbeat. You want Miami, Charlotte, Detroit.... v SFO? Please.
Now if your metric is who has the best lift to LIT or BOI then maybe the order changes. But real flights to places that matter it isn’t a debate at all.
It isn't that simple, not every American needs to fly to TLV, NAP, e.t.c. Don't get me wrong, UA's international presence is a very very strong asset, but having hubs in DCA and LGA is a unique aadvantage(sorry couldn't help myself) that should not be overlooked either.
AA wouldn't trade MIA for SFO, and DL wouldn't trade DTW for SFO for a whole host of reasons. If DL still had a hub in MEM I could see the argument for why DL would trade hubs, but in today's age each of the US3s hubs are in strategically important areas that serve a robust O&D market.
"real flights to places that matter"......1. This is an entirely subjective statement 2. I have no idea what you mean by that
Originally Posted by
Boofer
I think there's room for more than one airline to have a strong focus city/mini-hub at some airports, as there is at LAX. BOS comes to mind, as do SEA and SAN. And it might make sense to beef up share at airports close to their existing hubs - like AA does at RDU relative to the CLT hub. With that logic, UA might consider gearing up at SAT and AUS relative to the IAH hub, and doing the same at SJC and OAK relative to SFO.
And as for your list of potential focus city airports, what about TPA, IND, PIT, CVG, or even HNL?
UA already has a focus operation in HNL, they serve NRT, MAJ, and GUM plus a few others with the island hopper route. I don't think TPA would work given the nature of the market and the previous attempts to build hubs/focus cities in central florida.
CVG is DL country, UA isn't touching that. To a lesser extent IND would be hard as well, given IND is a heavy DL station with a few p2p flights and a CDG flight.
Out of that bunch, I think PIT would be the easiest to make work.