BoeingBoy

It's certainly a cornerstone, but my impression (which could certainly be wrong) is that it isn't a true hub but similar to MIA - a convenient point for international connections (TPAC for LAX) but not the flights to enough domestic destinations to be a true domestic hub rellying instead on AS to fill the west coast part of that role. DFW/ORD and now PHX fll the domestic role where LAX doesn't have non-stop service.

Jim

FWAAA

I'm not sure I agree with the timeline. Low-wage, low-cost B6 made it clear that it was expanding in BOS. It was going to expand in BOS whether or not AA retreated. AA didn't run away in BOS and then B6 decided to expand. When a low-wage, low-fare airline moves to town, it's only a matter of time before the high-wage, high-cost airline retreats.

I agree. AA/US has the largest revenue share of any airline in BOS and new AA has almost as many passengers as B6. BOS-SFO would look like a natural to return, in addition to the ones you listed.

Agreed - and aren't there already a bunch of US Airways Express flights to BOS from New England, upstate NY and PA?

MAH4546

Yes - flights to Buffalo, Harrisburg, Pittsburgh, Richmond (VA), Rochester and Syracuse.

lhl12

Presumably new AA would look at all these routes (and perhaps some new ones) as part of a rationalization of their existing footprint. For example, some obvious possible additions would be Burlington (VT) and Albany (NY). There are others as well, but only if AA wants to grow BOS at the expense (to some degree) of PHL.

scnzzz

^
I've always wondered where the line is between hub and cornerstone; this is helpful

LAX has precious little international service anyway. GRU, LHR, PVG, NRT. Cabo. Anything else? QF and LAN add a few destinations not served by AA.

The majority of AA's LAX operations seem to be domestic. So perhaps that's the definition of a cornerstone. Lots of domestic and some international O/D (which LA has in spades anyway), plus a handful of domestic (Hawaii comes to mind) and international connections.

Suggests that BOS ought also then count as a cornerstone for NewAA; too far out of the way for most domestic connections but enough O/D - and who knows, perhaps a bit more international too in its future? Please?

The rest of this is probably repeating the obvious...

MIA to me counts as a true hub. Yes an international hub but a hub nonetheless to the Caribbean and Latin America. I don't think of a hub as having to have a ton of domestic "hub" activity - as long as it serves as a connection point from one region to another.

JFK is a wierd one; tons of O/D but also nontrivial hub activity from the West Coast to Europe and LatAam.

ORD, DFW, CLT, PHL, PHX are domestic hubs in the true sense of the word; they all have some international (if not intercontinental) service.

jsieds

US had service to ALB and a few places in ME until this year. There probably were other northeast cities served in the not too distant past as well.

cbn42

I don't think there is any difference. From the AA website:

Therefore, we have focused our domestic network around five cornerstone markets. New York, Chicago, Dallas/Fort Worth, and Los Angeles are the four largest U.S. population centers, and we have a strong network into those cities from many parts of the country. We've also focused operations in Miami, which is uniquely the gateway from North America to Central and South America.

They seem to simply be using "cornerstone" as a synonym for "hub".

dtremit

Other than ALB, those were mostly EAS routes and went to Penair and Cape Air when Colgan shut down. Cape Air is also flying BOS-ALB now.

nall

I think you might be thinking of "focus city" rather than "cornerstone"?

Toronto, CX to HKG, and several other non-alliance codeshares (e.g., Air Tahiti Nui).

O&D aside, a lot of LAX's traffic supposedly serves as connections for international flights, and not just on AA/OW partners, but on a few other miscellaneous airlines, too. Supposedly this can be lucrative.

WRCSolberg

You can argue the definition of what a hub is all day long. Given its location and space constraints, it's certainly not a domestic hub, although it certainly is an international hub as well as a Oneworld hub.

AA officially considers it a hub, so that's what I'm going to go with.

usaw1

I'm wondering about revised service at BUF. pmAA has 4 145's to ORD and pmUS has rj's to PHL, DCA, BOS and 4 mainlines to CLT. now that they're out of STAR, wouldn't a non-stop to DFW or PHX make sense? This might recapture the traffic UA was lifting via mainline aircraft via DEN and ORD.

CMK10

I can't see PHX-BUF making much sense, especially as US has been consistently uninterested in any expansion at PHX. DFW I could see maybe using an E75/E90 or A-319.

usaw1

Thanks, I was also wondering if retasking a CLT mainline to PHX might work rather than a new flight. As was mentioned by others on here, PHX is an O/D market on its own and the western connections are a plus. WN also flies non-stop once a day.

BoeingBoy

You're right in a sense - the DOT defines a hub as an airport that enplanes at least 10,000 passengers per year, not by one airline but by all airlines. By that measure places like Bozeman MT and Boise ID are hubs since it takes less than an average of 37 enplanements/day to meet the definition. DOT does say not to confuse their definition with what an airline calls a hub, a word with no true definition. In short, an airport can be a hub to the DOT but not an airline, but an airport considered a hub by an airline almost always fits the DOT definition of a hub because of the number of enplanements by all the carriers operating there.

For airlines that have international, and especially intercontinental operations as well as domestic, I consider a true hub as having domestic and international connections and for U.S. carriers more than 50% domestic connections given that all of them have much larger domestic operations than international.

By contrast, I call an airport used by a carrier for mostly international to domestic connections as a gateway. That's what I'd call MIA for AA - a gateway to the U.S. for those coming to or leaving this country.

At the other end, there are airports where an airline has almost 100% domestic connections either by choice or because they don't have international operations. I'd call those domestic hubs although WN uses the "focus city" terminology instead of "hub".

Then we have "cornerstone", apparently partly PR to mean the anchor of the network from the original meaning of the first stone laid in a foundation with the remaining stones laid in reference to the cornerstone. Hence MIA and DFW, each unique in several ways, are both cornerstones. It'll be interesting to see what happens with the "cornerstone" terminology under Parker now that the network has 9 instead of 5 "cornerstones".

Jim

FWAAA

Here's what new AA says about its operations in the recent 10-K:

All nine have varying amounts of domestic connections and international service.

For the most part, I agree with BoeingBoy's characterization of the various hubs; some are fairly comprehensive and serve as both domestic connecting hubs and international gateways (ORD, DFW, CLT and PHL) and others are more focused on their role as international gateway (LAX, JFK and MIA).

In my book, a station is an AA "hub" if it features nonstop flights to places that aren't simply other AA hubs. In short, if it's not a "spoke," it looks like a hub.

Whether new AA says it or not, it's clear that BOS is a "focus city." I believe that it's the largest station for new AA that isn't on the list of hubs above, and features some nonstop flights beyond just to other AA hubs.