Originally Posted by
MIDWESTERNFLYER
Yes, but that is quite heavily offset by the proximity of those airports to the core business districts of NYC and DC
And, just because a city that a hub is in is superior economically, doesn't mean an airline would trade one of their hubs to be in that location.
Umm, I don't think anyone was talking about the economics of the city or MSA, but rather the economics of the hub itself.
Specifically, SFO generates more, higher yielding O&D traffic. Therefore, it is economically superior as a hub to other hubs that have less O&D traffic or lower yields, e.g. DTW. Therefore, an airline would be stupid to not "trade" a hub in DTW for a hub in SFO. Of course, this is a dumb argument (that is becoming circular) because we're past a point where airlines would trade hubs.