Baha's right, you can't walk away, and it's not a black and white issue. Hubs with improved asset productivity and resulting lower unit costs are what AA is after; reducing unit costs to within a range of achievable unit revenue. At least they have the guts to try to fix the factory. Others in the industry have been dodging that bullet for twenty years. And Southwest just keeps firing away. - Bob Mann -- R.W. Mann & Company, Inc. >> Airline Industry Analysis and Consulting Port Washington, NY 11050 >> tel 516-944-0900, fax 516-944-7280 mailto:info@RWMann.com >> URL http://www.RWMann.com/ Bahadir Acuner wrote: > > 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