A commercial airline hub is not the same thing as an air traffic hub. It refers to an airport that serves as a major transfer point in a commercial air carrier?s route system. This practice of routing flights through a hub airport was adopted by most major air carriers following airline deregulation as a way to increase passenger loads to and from airports serving smaller markets. (http://www.bts.gov/publications/transportation_statistics_annual_report/2000/chapter4/enplanements_at_major_us_airports_box.html) Most of the 12 major U.S. passenger airlines in operation as of 2001 use a hub-and-spoke network to route their plane traffic. The words "hub" and "spoke" create a pretty vivid image of how this system works. A hub is a central airport that flights are routed through, and spokes are the routes that planes take out of the hub airport. Most major airlines have multiple hubs. They claim that hubs allow them to offer more flights for passengers... Not all airlines use the hub-and-spoke approach. For example, Southwest Airlines is one of the exceptions to the hub-and-spoke network system. It uses the old-fashioned point-to-point system, hauling people short distances with few connecting flights. However, Southwest offers very few non-stop flights on longer routes. At the end of 2000, Southwest served approximately 306 one-way, non-stop city pairs. It's point-to-point system provides a more direct route than a hub-and-spoke airline can offer. (http://travel.howstuffworks.com/airline3.htm) Southwest Airlines Co. ("Southwest") is a major domestic airline that provides predominantly shorthaul, high-frequency, point-to-point, low-fare service. Southwest was incorporated in Texas and commenced Customer Service on June 18, 1971 with three Boeing 737 aircraft serving three Texas cities - Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio. (WN annual report, available at Investors Relations on the WN web page) Hubs, in my opinion, suck. While it may be good for the airline, in many cases it makes no sense for the passenger. Come on - look at a map. The LA area is nearly due south of SEA. Yet, if you want to fly Delta, you need to go hundreds of miles out of the way and connect in SLC! Except for airline nuts like myself, that makes no sense whatsoever. David R > >A hub is defined as a bank of flights that arrives at approximately the > same time and departs at approximately the same >time. By this definition, > WN does not hub. They happen to have a lot of flights at a given airport > that gives the pax a >good connection opportunity. > > Sorry, > a hub is a hub because of people connecting through it. You set your hub > according to the geographical location and the people go through it becuase > of exponential number of increases in destinations served from a spoke > point. There are even mathmatical formulae that define the benefit of a hub. > > Southwest claims not to have hubs, but then again OAK, HOU, MDW, MDW, etc. > are all hubs. > > Some of the airlines that are claiming not to have hubs, they actually do. > > Hubs are good.. Skipping some of the hubs and providing some point to point > service like America West's JFK-LAX flights is better. Combining both is > priceless :) > > BAHA > Fan of hours spent transportation economics journal in college :)