Quote:
Originally Posted by JGFrisco
There is very little likelihood of Austin becoming a hub city, for numerous reasons.
1) The biggest is that there are two mega hubs very close by, at DFW and IAH.
2) Southwest already has two semi-hubs at Love Field (which will be open to the entire country, no Wright Amendment, in October), and at Hobby.
3) The Austin metro area develops only a medium level of passengers, and not a ton of tourists.
Hubs work on connecting traffic, and anyone connecting through this area would go AA or UA through DFW or Houston. A smaller airline can't remotely compete with those megahubs.
Smaller hubs are actually dying. From Memphis to St. Louis to Pittsburgh to Cleveland, they are closing up shop.
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Ever spend 15 or more minutes taxiing at DFW or waiting for 10 or more minutes for your turn to take off at Chicago? As these huge and other hubs get more congested, more fuel is spent on the ground and more delays are bound to happen. Here's why I think Austin will someday become a hub for more than one airline...
less fuel cost taxiing, less congestion, 3rd runway planned, runways that can accommodate any size airplane, master plan for expansion in place, centrally located in US, decent weather,
great layover city if necessary, ( hubs aren't necessarily destination airports so I don't think that's an absolute qualifier), room for large airplane maintenance hangers, to name a few. That being said, I have absolutely no idea how airlines choose their hubs, but it seems to me ABIA is probably at least on some airline's radar as a future hub. Never say never.
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