I know United Airlines’ hub is in Chicago and Delta’s is Atlanta, but where is American’s? Or other airlines for that matter (TWA, USAir, etc.)? I checked American’s website and several other sites and can’t find anything that points to a specific city as a hub for their operations. My friend says that Dallas used to be (still is?) a hub for some airline, possibly Continental, although it seems to me they got bought out by another airline. Any help?
American’s main hub is still at DFW airport, but there are more than just one for several of the larger airlines.
I know USAirways has hubs in Pittsburgh, PA and Charlotte, NC. THeir web site also lists Philadelphia and BWI airports as hub cities, but Pittsburgh and Charlotte are the two biggest.
–Amy
Much thanks. So IS Continental still around? I remember them merging with someone, maybe Northwest, who then merged with someone, maybe Delta? So much for deregulation, we’re heading back to 2 or 3 major airlines running the whole show.
Continental has a code-sharing agreement with Northwest. They are still technically two separate airlines, but you may find out at the airport that your Continental flight is actually a Northwest flight or vice versa.
I believe Continental uses Newark as its hub as well as Houston.
Continental’s main hub is in Houston at IAH, but they do have a big presence in Newark as well.
TWA’s hub is Lambert-St. Louis.
From one of the classes I present to newly hired travel agents:
Following are ten major US airlines and their hub cities:
Northwest - Minneapolis, Detroit, Memphis
American - Dallas, Chicago, Miami, Nashville
Delta - New York, Los Angeles, Salt Lake City, Dallas, Cincinnati, Atlanta
America West - Las Vegas, Phoenix, Columbus
Continental - Denver, Newark, Houston, Cleveland
United - Chicago, Denver, San Francisco, Washington D.C.
USAirways - Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Charlotte, Baltimore
Alaska Air - Portland, Seattle
TWA - St. Louis
Rysdad -
Good list. But you need to update it some.
First, I think (but I could be wrong) that Continental no longer operates a hub in Denver. When the new airport opened there, Continental was emerging from bankruptcy and trying to cut costs. The new airport would have increased their costs significantly, so they cut back their operations there and no longer utilize it as a hub. If you look at their route map on their website, you see blobs of blue route lines eminating from Houston, Cleveland and Newark, but not Denver.
I also think that American has done the same with their Nashville hub. And Delta has cut back it’s presence at DFW, although it still serves as a “mini-hub”, if you will, and the buzz is that they are growing here again.
Second, and most importantly to this Fort Worth boy, when you say “Dallas airport”, technically you are referring to Love Field (which serves as a hub for Southwest Airlines, BTW). If you are referring instead to the huge airport that sits between Dallas and Fort Worth, you should really refer to it as the “Dallas/Fort Worth airport”. Afterall, that is its name. And it would only be fair since we helped pay for it too! 
And you only listed nine major airlines. The 10th would be Southwest, which doesn’t really use hubs - at least not in the way the other airlines do. If you wanted to identify “hubs” for them, I would say they are as follows:
Dallas Love
Houston Hobby
Phoenix
Las Vegas
Chicago Midway
St. Louis
Baltimore-Washington
Los Angeles (LAX)
Oakland
But these aren’t really hubs as much as they are airports where Southwest offers a lot of service.
It was always my understanding that Southwest doesn’t actually have hubs since they operate on a point-to-point route system with no ‘spoke’ or ‘feeder’ routes like you see with the other major carriers. I know they started in Texas flying out of the ‘Dallas Airport’ (i.e. Love Field) because those fuckers at Braniff (who aren’t even around any more) tried to screw them out of getting space at the terminals at DFW and Houston (which is why they still use Houston-Hobby).
Kepi, you are correct. Continental’s three hubs are in Houston, Newark, and Cleveland.
You’re correct re: CO at DEN. I should’ve updated that already.
And, yes, I know that DFW is AA’s hub, not DAL. I used city names rather than airport codes.
You’re further correct about Southwest using a route system rather than the hub-and-spoke used by the other carriers. I believe they’re the only major carrier that has ever made a go of that kind system for any length of time.
As far as Southwest (code: WN) being a major carrier… Of course they are, but the other major carriers refuse to acknowledge them as such. Take, for example, on-time statistics. Northwest was recently named THE MOST ON TIME CARRIER AMONG THE MAJOR AIRLINES (Their emphasis, not mine), but when compared to Southwest, they’d lose. WN is historically the most on-time carrier.
Besides, how can WN be a major carrier if they don’t even fly into MSP?
That might explain why the St. Louis Rams play in the TWA Dome.
I’m not too well-versed on airline lingo, what’s the difference between a route system and a hub-and-spoke system? Does that mean Southwest just flies straight shot nonstops everywhere rather than using connecting flights in hub cities? Wouldn’t it be more efficient to have hubs?
Not that I’m against nonstops… I flew Delta from Chicago to Tampa via Atlanta last week and got stuck in Georgia for the night because storms delayed our Chicago departure, thus causing us to miss our connecting flight. I don’t know how many of you have been to Hartsfield Airport in Atlanta, but you need a week’s vacation just to rest after walking through that place.