Sorry, that’s ridiculous. UA is still very much a hub-and-spoke airline, and if you don’t believe me, just take a look at the route map of a carrier like WN. I don’t deny the fact that you can now fly longer routes with smaller aircraft, but that logic really only serves to turn many two-transfer domestic flights into one-transfer flights. Not everyone either (a) lives in a major city or (b) wants to travel to a major city — and that’s even leaving out international flights. UA is probably never going to fly AUS-NRT, but I suspect I’m not the only AUS-based passenger who occasionally crosses the Pacific.

A southeast hub that focused on allowing efficient, one-stop transportation from the southeast and south-central US to South America and the Caribbean would be a real hub, not just a ‘focus city,’ and could potentially make sense in UA’s route map if they can find a place with enough O&D demand to make it worthwhile.

I agree that the days of airline hubs at STL and MCI are over, but ORD and IAH fulfill the traditional role of a hub just fine. It’s just, it can no longer only be about connecting passengers — you need to blend high O&D demand with efficient transfers for connecting passengers.