Originally Posted by
kjnangre
I don't know about all that! I think DL has 3 major Western hubs fairly close together (more than any other airline), 2 of which are currently undergoing massive expansions: SLC, LAX (I believe those are the #1 and #2 biggest airport projects in the country now) and the 3rd is undergoing a pretty major expansion as well: new IAF at SEA.
With all that infrastructure, DL simply doesn't need a focus city in SJC.
You are missing the point of a focus city -- it's first and foremost to serve O&D traffic, not for connecting people. But for destinations not served directly, you need to offer viable connecting options. SLC is in a good location for connecting SJC to eastern US, but the hub is just too small when you look at what competitors can offer (including driving to the UA hub up the road in SFO). SEA and LAX aren't really good for a lot of flows from SJC (particularly within California where you have WN/AS non-stops and UA SFO hub), and again, they really aren't that big. When you compare BOS/JFK/LGA/ATL/DTW/MSP (and RDU focus city) in east to SEA/SLC/LAX in west, there's no real contest in where DL's strength is. And with AA/AS joining forces, it further diminishes DL's position in the west. AUS is close enough to those strong eastern hubs where DL can provide a ton of options going east and decent coverage of the west via LAX/SLC/SEA hubs. Although intra-Texas traffic from AUS (like intra-California from SJC) is going to be a pretty glaring weak point for DL when compared to what competitors can offer.