Well, it's not that simple.. Southwest's ability to make profit doesn't depend on not having hubs. Besides , Southwest DOES have hubs. American's inability to make money is not because of the hubs either. If hubs were money losing things then no airline would have hubs. There are so many airlines with hubs that are profitable. Look at Airtran; look at JetBlue they both make money and they both have hubs. (You can call them "focus cities" or "cheddar cheese" but they are hubs) The fact of the matter is, American is losing money because of different factors. Having hubs is not one of them.. So the saying "Hubs, bad, point to point good" is not a valid argument. BAHA Fan of profitable airlines, hubs or not -----Original Message----- From: The Airline List [mailto:AIRLINE@LISTSERV.CUNY.EDU]On Behalf Of David Ross Sent: Friday, August 09, 2002 2:12 PM To: AIRLINE@LISTSERV.CUNY.EDU Subject: Re: American Airlines to try rolling hubs Let's see: Southwest - no hubs (in the usual sense of the word) - makes money Other airlines - hubs (you can't get there without going there) - makes no money Hubs, while increasing the number of points reachable by a single flight, are also an inefficient use of aircraft. The aircraft spend too much time on the ground at hubs and not in the air making money David ----- Original Message ----- From: "John Kurtzke" <kurtzke@up.edu> To: <AIRLINE@LISTSERV.CUNY.EDU> Sent: Friday, August 09, 2002 10:41 Subject: Re: [AIRLINE] American Airlines to try rolling hubs > American still doesn't get it -- it is a big enough airline to offer more > point-to-point service. You have the same work force at origin & > destination ends, but you would need much less at the hubs. Yes, there > will always be a need for hubs, and many passengers will still need to > transfer at some airport (not necessarily a hub) but more point-to-point > service spreads out traffic and lessens congestion at the hubs. Piedmont > (of very happy memory) started hubs as a way of competing with much > larger airlines like American. > > john > > -- > John F. Kurtzke, C.S.C. > Department of Mathematics > 278 Buckley Center > University of Portland > Portland, OR 97203 > 503-943-7377 > kurtzke@up.edu