Do you hate it?

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Paul McDonald

"More and more" using hub and spoke? That business model has been around for decades. American, United, USAir, NOrthwest, Continental, Midwest, Delta... yeah, all of these airlines use the "hub and spoke" model and have for many, many years.

Sure, it's lousy. But it's the least lousy of all the other methods out there--so that's what we use.

Personally, I don't mind it because I'm one connection away from pretty much anyplace in the 48 states and have non-stop flights to 66 cities from my hometown.

Dave R

How can airlines function without a hub and spoke system? Do you want airlines to just run non-stop flights? That would be nice but unless you want tickets to go up 10x that's just not going to happen.

To illustrate the point get out a sheet of paper.

Draw five circles on the left side of the paper, five circles on the right and one circle in the middle.

Do the same on a second piece of paper.

Now, on the first piece of paper draw lines from each of the side circles to the center circle. The circles represent airports and the lines represent flights. The center circle is the hub.

On the second piece of paper draw a line from every circle to every other circle. Hmmm. Not really practical, is it?

soccerknocker199

no i dont hate it because if you live in that hub city you can go anywhere in the world andf well it is good for me. but it dosnt make much since to fly a plane from a small airport in the us where nobody really is going to fly from to some big international airport across the ocean because they wouldnt earn any money becaquse the plane wouldnt be full.

dcgirl

All the airlines operate on a hub-and-spoke system. It's the only practical way to service an entire country or the entire world. Some folks who live in big cities and only travel to big cities can go years without ever going through a connecting flight but the rest of the people would either have to drive 5 hours to get to the airport, or not travel at all, if there were no hub-and-spoke system. I think it's great--- it lets me fly anywhere I want, even if I want to go to the middle of nowhere.

Brieanne C

Hub and spoke systems are good because they allow airports to exist in smaller areas where they wouldn't otherwise.

For example there's not too much need to fly directly from Topeka, KS to Paris, France. If they didn't use the hub system there may never be a flight to get you there. By allowing a connection in JFK, ATL, or CVG you are able to get there in a matter of a day.

I'd say most US airlines use this system.

TRUE STORY: Back in the day I worked at a reservations office for an airline. One day a lady called and chewed me up one side and down the other because to get from Cedar City, UT to Kalamazoo, MI she was going to have to make a connection. Come on people, use a little common sense.

flightpillow

You can't fly direct everywhere so it's not the airlines ..........its just the flying route ability.......

=)

joe s

I have no problem with it. You must live in a backwoods local. If you live by a hub you can fly anywhere non stop.

A Ward

It depends where you are and where you are going. Hub and spoke is great for international travel and big-city/high-traffic domestic routes, which is the huge bulk of flight revenue for the airlines. If you're going from Des Moines to Tuscon, yeah, it doesn't work so well for you because you have to make many stops in order to transfer to regional flights that serve smaller markets.

If an airline could consistently fill a flight to secondary cities, they would abandon the hub-and-spoke system. Now, it would be a lot more convenient if the hubs weren't in lame places like Memphis, Minneapolis, and Detroit, but at the same time the larger airports charge the airlines higher fees to use their space, so thus our airfares would go way up.

Most US airlines use hub and spoke, like Delta, Northwest, and Continental. BTW flying is still by far the safest way to travel, even safer than walking. To avoid flying out of fear of danger is absurd, unless you never get in a car, ride a bike, or take a bus anywhere as well.

i walk with Jesus

um...wuts the hub-and-spoke system first... u can email me

canman

i hate flying, period! who wants to risk a terrorism attack on a plane? fear of terrorism is reason i will not fly! who the hall cares about the spoke and hub system? just what the hell is that anyway?

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