Originally Posted by
irishguy28
They are attempting to curry favour with the Spanish government
This is a very curious way to look at it. Every single network carrier is organised on a hub and spoke model and, if this is the way you are organised, strategically it makes a lot of sense for that hub to be a major one capable of competing with other major hubs in the region. This is not so much currying favour with the Spanish government as making sound, strategic business sense for IAG to develop Madrid as a major hub.
As to whether a dual hub strategy would be sensible, most countries in Europe are single-hub. The nearest parallel I can think of is Italy. And here too, Alitalia moved away from a dual hub to a single hub strategy notwithstanding the fact that the government at the time, which was instrumental in putting together the investors to prop up Alitalia, was a Forza Italia-Lega Nord, which you would have expected to be keen on protecting MXP.
I can fully understand that Catalans might not be too impressed but, ultimately, IAG is a private company run for the benefit of its shareholders, not a public service run by the Generalitat de Catalunya and accountable to Catalan voters.