dmurphynj

Nope. Closest would be the Marriott lounge so if I want a quick breakfast I can grab one and make that 12-minute trek a 15-minute trek. :-)

Really, it's so super simple. Best kept secret.

I can do a 15-minute room-to-United Club at SNA from the Irvine Marriott... including dropping off the rental car. To your point - it's not that difficult at less-busy airports.



It's all a matter of timing, I suppose. I've had a 40+ minute wait in the CLEAR lane at MCO. It's just not laid out well IMO... and yes, we get caught up in the Disney traffic. My wife's a bit of a Disney nut and so we tend to take long weekends there. Right in the thick of the families-with-small-children-under-the-age-of-2. Which means strollers, diaper bags and all the other accoutrements. I do NOT miss those days!

joejones

I spent the summer after college working in Tampa. My dad was working for AA at MIA at the time. I would often non-rev home for the weekend, ride with the old man to MIA first thing Monday morning and take the early flight to TPA. I could get from the airplane door to my desk in the city in about 15 minutes, including the time it took to get my car out of the garage. That was one hell of a convenient airport.

m.y

The geography of Florida means it would be a hub similar to BOS/LAX with few domestic connecting passengers, catering to O/D business traffic unless UA is looking to invest in Caribbean and South America operations but I'm not sure how much business demand there is from MCO/FLL.

SS255

Wherever UA decides to build a new hub, they need to make sure they can service a ton of cities which are more than 800 miles away and fewer than 900 miles away, so they can save on F meals.

ContinentalFan

It would have to be a location with a lot of O/D traffic, which suggests southern Florida. I can see MCO making sense with the proviso that it may attract a lot of low yield traffic.

m.y

I compare MCO to LAS, both have a significant amount of conference and tourism inbound traffic, but I dont think one can build a hub at the destination end as you wouldn't be able to capture large corporate contracts. MCO would need to be the origin of business travelers to sustain the hub, and I think this is why LAS is also not a hub for any full service airline.

lotemblizej

MCO would seem the most likely to me. Flew there 3 weeks ago and UA had an impressive schedule that day with 10 lie flats (3x777, 1x767, 6x757), and lots of 737s. I suppose they could add flights from MCO to non-hubs (other FL cities. Caribbean?) to make it a real focus city, but it felt like they are already halfway there especially with the UA Club.

jsloan

The hub in a hub-and-spoke model has strong O&D but also facilitates connections. UA puts a lot of lift to Florida in the winter because it beats sitting the planes idle, but it doesn't mean they're making a ton of money on those flights. And almost nobody is connecting through MCO on UA right now. To call it a hub, you'd need South American or Caribbean destinations. And you'd also want O&D on those routes, and how much of that are you going to get?

MCO is a busy airport but I don't see how it's a profitable hub for anybody.

Adelphos

Southwest often gets left out of these discussions. The large presence of Southwest Airlines (not a network carrier, but not an ULCC either) at both LAS and MCO suggests that a network carrier probably could make it work if
1) Southwest didn't exist
2) They really wanted to go to war with Southwest at either airline

I think "hub" may be being misused here - a big focus city in Florida, with some random connections, may be what they are thinking about.

itripreport

Southwest IS downsizing at FLL, to the point they are consolidating carriers, which in return is set to give United all of Concourse C at T1... so there's that!

They did also recently re-aligned one of the gates there to be 777/787 capable

jsloan

Not really. WN is perfect for LAS and MCO because they don't offer F seats.

tarheelnj

How about GSO? Don’t laugh, CO had a mini-hub there a long while back. It’s smack dab in the center of the East Coast population, has plenty of room, and the longest (or nearly so) runways between DC and ATL. Plus, the Airport Authority would probably give the space away just to get more flights in. Lots of people east of Charlotte and west of Raleigh that might head there for the likely lower fares. Good experienced ATC staff with the rapid-turn overnight FedEx traffic.

Florida Man

The original twitter thread from xJonNYC that started this discussion mentioned capturing Caribbean flow as a key motivator, so an investment in the Caribbean would be a part of any plan.

In terms of South America, a FLL hub could effectively slice off Broward and Palm Beach Counties from MIA in the same way that EWR slices off a part of the NYC metro. Both Broward and Palm Beach Counties have large Puerto Rican and South American populations. MCO has big populations of Puerto Ricans and Brazilians (especially if you include Brevard in its catchment area, which it would be for international purposes). The Brazilian business and VFR travel through MCO is enough that LAN flies a non-stop to GRU.

RJNYC

If the purpose is to capture connecting traffic on say Pittsburgh to Palm Beach or Albany to New Orleans, why wouldn't they just add a couple of banks to IAD and call it a day? Seems like it could be done easily with less additional CapEx than developing a new hub.

Unitedloyalflyer

there is a demand for premium seats to LAS and MCO. Not everyone goes there looking for the ultra cheap experience. Disney has been rolling out plenty of premium products to meet the demands of the premium leisure traveler. Plus, big gamblers and pro poker players aren't likely traveling Y to LAS