![]() In 1974, the governments of Bahrain, Oman, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates took control of Gulf Air from the British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC). Middle East Emirates aircraft at Dubai International Airport US majors top 24 airports, millions of departing seats, 2017 Airport After deregulation, many airlines quickly established hub-and-spoke route networks of their own. Delta Air Lines was the first to implement such a system, providing service to remote spoke cities from its Atlanta hub. At the same time, however, some airlines began to experiment with the hub-and-spoke system. The Civil Aeronautics Board dictated which routes an airline could fly. History United States īefore the US airline industry was deregulated in 1978, most airlines operated under the point-to-point system (with a notable exception being Pan Am). įor example, the hub of Qatar Airways in Doha Airport has 471 daily movements to 140 destinations by March 2020 with an average of 262 seats per movement in three main waves: 5h-9h (132 movements), 16h-21h (128) and 23h-3h (132), allowing around 30 million connecting passengers in 2019. It rebanked its hubs in 2015, however, feeling the gain in connecting passengers would outweigh the rise in costs. American Airlines was the first to depeak its hubs, trying to improve profitability following the September 11 attacks. While costs may decrease, connection times are longer at a rolling hub. This phenomenon is also known as "depeaking". Instead, some airlines have debanked their hubs, introducing a "rolling hub" in which flight arrivals and departures are spread throughout the day. In addition, banking could result in inefficient aircraft utilisation, with aircraft waiting at spoke cities for the next bank. ![]() However, an airline must assemble many resources to cater to the influx of flights during a bank, and having several aircraft on the ground at the same time can lead to congestion and delays. Banking allows for short connection times for passengers. The banks may be known as "peaks" of activity at the hubs and the non-banks as "valleys". Banking Īirlines may operate banks of flights at their hubs, in which several flights arrive and depart within short periods of time. The top 10 megahubs in the US are dominated by American Airlines, Delta Air Lines and United Airlines, the three largest United States-based airlines. High domestic connectivity in the United States is achieved through airport location and hub dominance. Additionally, airlines can come to monopolise their hubs (fortress hubs), allowing them to freely increase fares as passengers have no alternative. However, it requires having to regularly make connections en route to their final destination, which increases travel time. įor the passenger, the hub-and-spoke system offers one-stop air service to a wide array of destinations. ![]() In addition, airlines may experience capacity constraints as they expand at their hub airports. To serve spoke cities of varying populations and demand, an airline requires several aircraft types, and specific training and equipment are necessary for each type. ![]() Additional employees and facilities are needed to cater to connecting passengers. The system also increases passenger loads a flight from a hub to a spoke carries not just passengers originating at the hub, but also passengers originating at multiple spoke cities. The hub-and-spoke system allows an airline to serve fewer routes, so fewer aircraft are needed. Operations The primary hub of British Airways is Heathrow Airport in London Hub airports also serve origin and destination (O&D) traffic. This system contrasts with the point-to-point model, in which there are no hubs and nonstop flights are instead offered between spoke cities. This paradigm creates economies of scale that allow an airline to serve (via an intermediate connection) city-pairs that could otherwise not be economically served on a non-stop basis. An airline may operate flights from several non-hub (spoke) cities to the hub airport, and passengers traveling between spoke cities connect through the hub. Hubs serve as transfer (or stop-over) points to help get passengers to their final destination. Passengers flying on Lufthansa and its Star Alliance partners may connect through Frankfurt Airport, Lufthansa's main hubĪn airline hub or hub airport is an airport used by one or more airlines to concentrate passenger traffic and flight operations. ![]()
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