Airline Hub and Route Geography

[@jayayebee]

I think Lufthansa uses Frankfurt as its hub because of the Cold War. Berlin was deep in East Germany, split in half, and out of place to be a hub for West Germany. Even since reunification, the airport situation in Berlin hasn't been great, as it took them something like 20 years to build a single airport to replace the 3 or so smaller airports that used to serve the city.

[@bene4577]

@@johnchastain7890 Bonn was the capital actually :) but its true nonetheless

[@bene4577]

Yes! That's the real reason. Plus: Berlin itself is a big city, but the whole Brandenburg region around Berlin is actually very sparsely populated - as opposed to the area around Frankfurt. (Berlin is also quite "poor" and economically insignificant in comparison to the south-west of Germany.)

[@anishraja9655]

Furthermore, the East German government only allowed three flight paths from the West into West Berlin, and it would've been highly inconvenient to try to get an international hub in West Berlin with only three ways for planes to get in and out.

[@johnchastain7890]

@@bene4577 Oops, richtig bist! I apologize to the Boon Chamber of Commerce. ;-)

[@dazzaman434]

There is quite a saga about Berlin’s airports. It will only be when and if (big if) that ever gets fully sorted that Berlin will ever be a major airport hub.

[@MaxPower-11]

It’s important to recognize that some airlines’ hub layout are basically vestiges of mergers and acquisitions they’ve made over the years. For example: American (Dallas, Miami) & US Airways (Phoenix, Charlotte), and United (Chicago, Denver) & Continental (Houston, Newark).

[@badgermoon9229]

And when Delta bought out Northwest they acquired Minneapolis and Detroit hubs.

[@barbaracameron5610]

America West Airlines purchased US airways. US hub is Philadelphia, AWA ..now AA has same flight attendants who were proud America West Airlines! Study more! Awa and US airways and other airlines are under AA umbrella

[@lfd_eng9219]

@@barbaracameron5610 Actually I think it was US Airways that bought out America West...and then American bought out US Airways. AWA had hubs in Phoenix, Las Vegas, and Columbus, OH...CMH...which was used because the range of their aircraft. AWA was a great airline...the merger with US Fear (they put the fear back in flying, as the joke goes) was sad. Was frequent flyer on AWA and AA...switched to Delta for their much better customer service and far superior baggage handling.

[@texastuna]

@@lfd_eng9219 Wiki says US Airways was bankrupt and America West took them over, but it was a reverse merger and they kept the US Airways name. The same thing happened with American Airlines.

[@n7y8c7]

​@@texastuna Yup. Doug Parker the CEO purchased US Airways, and kept the US Airways name since it was the larger carrier, and much better known. He did the same thing with American Airlines and purchased it while in bankruptcy, but kept the better name.

[@aidanthompson9159]

Recently, I’ve dabbled into some other geography channels here on KZbin just to diversify a little. Without mentioning any names, watching these videos seemed very official, calculated, manufactured, and scripted, if that makes sense (those are the words I could think of lol). And I realized that that wasn’t very enjoyable so I keep coming back to you, Kyle, and your laid back, low-budget videos that are just superior, in my opinion. So basically, please don’t become like “them” and be all fancy with it. It’s enjoyable the way it is, for me at least.

[@billbishopboyiscool]

They’re doing hub and spoke, and Kyle is going Southwest style.

[@cameronlewis1218]

Hey Kyle. I’m a 30 year airline employee and an airline geek. You did a nice job! Keep up the good work…

[@RoseSolane]

Frankfurt was in the heart of (West-)Germany until 1989 and the major hub for that reason. Until very recently Berlin didn't have a big airport so couldn't take over the role of Frankfurt as the main hub in Germany. And as you mentioned Berlin is still very east for most Germans.

[@alquinn8576]

iirc Frankfurt also the most important financial center in Germany

[@jonathanbunemann8851]

As a German I cringed watching that part of the video. Unfortunately Kyle does not consider how incredibly central Frankfurt is for where most Germans actually live - along Rhein-Ruhr-Main-Neckar rivers. It‘s not by coincidence that it’s also the largest railway hub in Germany. And the reason it’s Germany‘s business capital is the same - it’s been an independent city well connected with rivers and valleys to everywhere for a long time

[@apod2020]

It makes a lot of sense looking at a population density map of Germany why Frankfurt is so important

[@bene4577]

@@jonathanbunemann8851 I cringed a bit too :D but I guess, it's quite difficult to understand without the german point of view

[@casmatori]

@@jonathanbunemann8851 I was about to say. In terms of Germany, Berlin is nothing - it's basically Poland. Frankfurt area is where most of the population is.

[@newenglandgreenman]

Hi, I can explain why Frankfurt is Lufthansa's hub. It's partly for historical reasons and partly for economic reasons. The hub was established in Frankfurt decades ago because Frankfurt was located centrally in West Germany. West Germany's rail network connected really well with Frankfurt Airport, including high-speed trains by the late 1900s, so that it was quick and easy for people from many parts of West Germany to travel by rail to the Frankfurt Airport for flights out of the country. By contrast, when Germany was divided, so was Berlin. West Berlin was isolated and not terribly important economically, plus the airspace around it was controlled by East Germany, so it was not in the running as a hub for a western airline. After German unification, there was little reason to move the hub from Frankfurt to Berlin. First, moving would have been expensive. But more importantly, even in united Germany, Berlin remains somewhat isolated. The bulk of united Germany's population is in the west, centered near Frankfurt, and united Germany's economy is also centered in the west. There are no other big cities near Berlin, as there are near Frankfurt. Berlin is the center of government, but Germany's private sector is mostly based in western cities centered on Frankfurt, whose airport still has its good rail connections in several directions. Frankfurt also remains Germany's financial hub, so foreign businesspeople are much more likely to want to be in Frankfurt than in Berlin.

[@TheGecko213]

Berlin is only popular with those on Nostalgic Nazi tourism and landmarks 🤣🤣🤣

[@Chris_Taru]

This is a pretty accurate explanation for the Frankfurt airport situation. It's worth adding that there were plans for establishing BER as a hub of Air Berlin, Lufthansa's primary local rival between 2001 and 2017. But the airline was managed about as poorly as the airport construction and these plans died together with the endless delays of the aiport opening and the insolvency of Air Berlin. BER will stay a point-to-point connection aiport for a very long time now, because even now that BER has opened, the airport doesn't come close to today's passenger expectations. They would most likely need to build a brand-new terminal dedicated to a hub-and-spoke model similar to what Lufthansa did in Munich with Terminal 2.

[@I_Like_Remote_83]

i thought it would be munic as the main hub

[@pastorjerrykliner3162]

One thing that you kind of miss is the role of mergers in determining the "hub" system. Delta picked up MSP and DTW as hubs because they were the hubs for Northwest and when Delta merged with NW, they picked up those hubs while scrapping the traditional "Delta Hub" of Cincinnati (CVG). Likewise, American picked up PHX from America West and PHL and CLT from USAir...at the same time, American abandoned the earlier USAir hub at Pittsburgh and the old TWA hub at STL. United picked up the hubs at EWR and HOU from Continental while abandoning the old Continental hub at CLE and the old United hub at SEA. And this isn't really a "new" trend either... Delta got Salt Lake City when they bought Western Airlines in the 1980's and American bought the MIA hub from Eastern and the Latin American routes from Pan Am. So, as airlines merge and shuffle assets, hubs and their routes come-and-go.

[@jimgorycki4013]

The Charlotte hub goes back to the US Air days, when it acquired Piedmont, which major depot and hub was Winston-Salem. Because of its expansion from buying small regional carriers, Piedmont moved from Winston-Salem to Charlotte.

[@terranceramirez4816]

US Airways abandoned Pittsburgh as a hub long before the merger with American, and American abandoned StL shortly after taking over TWA. Also, Delta abandoning CVG in favor of DTW makes a lot of sense as Detroit is a bigger and better positioned metro geographically than Cincinnati and Detroit still has a lot of economic importance as the hub for the American auto industry even though it has shrank, while Cincy is dying as a business and banking hub as evidenced for example by Chiquita leaving it for Charlotte several years ago.

[@roygreen9890]

Pastor Kliner, good response, but with a CORRECTION: After the Continental/United merger, United took over the large international hub at Houston Itercontinental (IAH) -- NOT "HOU", as you state. "HOU" is Houston Hobby International -- the 2nd and smaller international airport in Houston. Southwest paid to expand and upgrade HOU (Hobby) to an international airport as their gateway to Latin America. United's hub is IAH and they don't even serve HOU.

[@jmlinden7]

IAH not HOU. HOU is Hobby Airport (Southwest Airlines hub)

[@ashgreene4914]

American got their MIA hub ONLY from Eastern. Pan Am's MIA hub was acquired by United who failed to capitalise on it and ended it just after 9/11

[@theevilmuppet]

Regarding the Denver to New Delhi distance thing, both Air India and Air Canada always fly east when connecting the North American west coast and New Delhi (or at least they did when I was flying that route regularly), as the prevailing tailwinds are more advantageous than reduced distance in terms of fuel usage.

[@adamjacquez9495]

Air travel + geography! Thanks for keeping us entertained Kyle!

[@greensoul8121]

Can you do one with cargo airports? Anchorage is an interesting hub for worldwide cargo and I’m curious to see how FedEx, ups, DHL etc. operates.

[@Chris_at_Home]

Many cargo planes just refuel and change crews and off they go. My neighbor works for UPS at the ANC facility. If you look at an air traffic app you can get an idea of where the planes are coming from and going to. I see many of these planes climbing out heading to eastern USA.

[@GeographyKing]

I'd like to look into that. I did a little preliminary research on agricultural flights and getting fresh fruits and vegetables to far off places quickly but it would've ended up being a video on its own. So I may have to do something with cargo and ag airports.

[@Chris_at_Home]

@@GeographyKing I know COSTCO used to truck the west coast produce up here . The guy that had the contract had 3 trucks and each had 2 drivers so they could run long days. I’ve been though that airport hundreds of times.

[@erik_griswold]

Anchorage was also a big hub/stopover point during the Cold War when air traffic could not fly over the USSR and aircraft could not fly as far they do today.

[@swinde]

While Memphis, TN does not have a very large passenger service, it is either at #1 or #2 worldwide for cargo. Memphis was #1 in 2020, and held to #1 spot for ten or more years in the 90s, 2000s. Hong Kong is #1 currently and has been #1 for most of the last ten years.

[@Steveofthejungle8]

The fact that Ethiopian airlines is becoming a major hub is super interesting

[@jag92949]

Ethiopia has been heavily modernizing for the last 20 years. They’re now competing with Egypt with the Nile River.

[@trainrover]

but nation states aren't the ones doling business out, right; Corporateria have l o n g known how to cloak these stealthily creepy manœuvres of theirs..agreed? ;)

[@mlehky]

Ethiopian Airline actually has a long and honorable history. They date back to the 40’s being formed right after WW2. They have had long haul international service since the 50’s, and operated jets since the very early 60’s. They are certainly not the fly by night new comer that many make them out to be.

[@roverdover4449]

Yes, very interesting. Every thing I hear about Ethiopia is (relatively) positive. Hmmm, even craving some Ethiopian food.

[@David-bh7hs]

​@@roverdover4449 except for the crashed Boeing plane

[@Micg51]

Tracking hubs is interesting cause it gives insight to what cities are growing vs dying. Basically if you have an airline hub and lose it/close it, your city goes into decline (St Louis, Cleveland, Memphis)

[@lavalampluva55401]

Hubs are an interesting thing. You don't need to be a huge city to have a large hub. Many hubs rely on connecting traffic, not local. Also Delta's DTW hub is smaller than MSP, but DTW has by far more international (European/Asian) destinations whereas MSP has more international destinations in Mexico and Caribbean than DTW.

[@birbluv9595]

Very interesting, especially comparing pre- and post-pandemic.

[@hgman3920]

One of the main reasons American has it's east coast hub in Charlotte is that it was the home airport of Piedmont Air until 1989, and US Air until 2015, when that airline was purchased by American. Piedmont Air was headquartered in Winston-Salem, NC, and there was an internal debate within the company as to whether Winston-Salem or Charlotte should be the home airport for the airline. CLT won out, and now I'm pretty sure the W-S airport doesn't have any regularly scheduled flights anymore,since all of the local flights now operate out of Piedmont Triad International in Greensboro

[@Icelandair_B767]

thank you for such extremely detailed commentary accompanied with maps!

[@jeffreywonser3241]

As an aviation geek, I enjoyed this! Please update it every so often! Thanks!

[@cgimovieman]

I’ve been on that flight between Dallas and Melbourne on Qantas. By far the longest flights I’ve ever been on in my life. I really had to mentally prepare myself for those flights, and I’ve only gone over and back just once. You just have to accept that it’s that long, sleep as much as you can, get up and walk around every few hours, and bring things to do with you or watch movies or TV. If that flight was sprung on you last minute, it would be VERY hard. But if you know far enough in advance and can prepare for it, it’s not that bad. I’d never let the simple length of a flight stop me from visiting a place. Well worth it once you’re there.

[@stevewilson5292]

I suspect that in the future, people will regard some of us as being unbelievably hardy for sitting in cramped economy class for those 18-hour trips.

[@n7y8c7]

What did you do to prepare yourself? My knees ache just thinking about it.

[@cgimovieman]

@@n7y8c7 Like I was saying above, you just have to realize the length of the flight well in advance, treat it like sort of being in any other single place for a long time and plan things to keep yourself busy, and know that it’ll all be worth it to visit where you’re going. But I mean, nowadays you have a whole infotainment system in front of you with hundreds of things to choose from. And the lights are dim enough it’s not too difficult to sleep. Plus you’re served at least 3 meals on that flight. It’s a big plane too, so personally I like aisle seats so I can keep getting up to move around whenever I want. But ideally for a flight like that, I would LOVE to fly first class. If any s flight where that would feel great, it’s those. But unfortunately since that size plane has closed off sleeper “suites” for a lot of first class, and because of the distance, that class is prohibitively expensive for most people. I know I’ve never been able to fly anything but coach overseas.

[@n7y8c7]

@@cgimovieman Absolutely! I've taken Delta One to Stuttgart and compared to the trip I had in economy before that to Amsterdam, the difference was night and day. I barely slept, but I was definitely comfortable. I'd like to try the SkyCouch on Air New Zealand.

[@cgimovieman]

@@n7y8c7 Delta has long been my airline for decades as well. Although it was Northwest before Delta absorbed them years back now. New Zealand has been right at the top of my “to visit” list for a very long long time now. But despite travel being maybe my number one hobby, I just haven’t had the financial means to travel that far in quite a while. I used to get to travel for me work very frequently until about 2008/2009, but sadly my company downsized, I lost my job, and ever since then I’ve been on my own more or less for travel.

[@abard124]

That AA map really does a good job of showing why Alaska airlines exists 😂

[@andrewhurricane]

The relative lack of western mega hubs is not a new phenomenon. Perhaps things would have been different if carriers like Reno Air and America West had stayed independent in the years after 9/11.

[@mrtodd3620]

One of these days AA and Alaska will merge, and they will then compete with Delta, which has built up Seattle since United left.

[@jwil4286]

@@mrtodd3620Seattle is still Delta’s worst performing hub, behind both JFK and LAX (the other two hubs where they have serious competition), to say nothing of Delta’s fortress hubs (ATL, MSP, DTW, SLC). Also, with Alaska acquiring Hawaiian, there’s no way the DOJ would ever approve an AA/AS merger, so the two would likely simply concentrate in the east and west respectively, while United and Delta have to manage networks across the entire country (fwiw, they have Air Canada and Aeromexico to help a bit, but that’s not much).

[@bink023]

Beauty video and excellent graphics! Air Canada has lost a lot of pax due to a few new airlines in Canada - Flair, Swoop (Westjet), Lynx, Canada Airlines and expansion of Porter Airlines.

[@jonconstant3914]

this is one of my favorite geography topics. love to look at those route maps. whenever I’m on a plane, that’s the first thing I go to in the back of the magazines (mot sure if they still have them though post-covid, haven’t flown yet).

[@ThirdBrainLives]

Flying into the Salt Lake airport is drop dead gorgeous.

[@aidanpeairs1967]

The New York and Singapore city pairs also has the same distance east and west. Now that Russian airspace is closed, Singapore actually runs all the routes going east to catch the winds, so if you take the flights back to back you got around the globe.

[@chadnga8]

Great video! I'm an aviation geek and a geography nerd... this video was right up my ally! Keep up the great work!

[@drewdebenham4728]

Yet another fascinating topic I had no idea I was interested in! Thanks Kyle!

[@ToastyNova]

Delta’s hub used to be in Cincinnati but after they declared bankruptcy, they left. They basically built CVG but now it’s a hub for Amazon and is the fastest growing cargo airport in North America

[@dustinmuir8991]

I didn’t know CVG was the fastest growing cargo airport in the US, but being Cincinnati residents, we enjoy (and recommend, especially for families) the CVG Viewing Area , and have noticed large cargo planes frequently landing at CVG from places like Anchorage and Japan.

[@n7y8c7]

The merger with Northwest gifted Delta with much stronger assets in Detroit and Minneapolis, so they no longer needed Cincinnati and Memphis. Detroit is now Delta's #2 hub.

[@fixpacifica]

I used to love flying through the Cincinnati airport and would try to schedule my cross country flights to go through there. They had some great restaurants at the airport.

[@n7y8c7]

@@fixpacifica I hope you had the chili spaghetti 🍝

[@BabyBang17datruth]

The airport is located in Kentucky

[@nizam5568]

7:40 Istanbul also has a brand new huge airport, that probably is a reason why the city made a huge jump in the rankings. 9:45 Historically, another airline (AirBerlin) used to mainly fly out of Berlin, but those guys went defunct. Despite Berlin also having a big 'new' airport Lufthansa hasn't jumped onto it, and the carrier remains strong in the West German heartland where it started out. Germany also has a good internal rail network so there is less reason for Lufthansa to expand their hubs to more cities.

[@nicocorbo4153]

great video kyle. nice to see you back after a well deserved vacay

[@robbiestarke]

Kyle does it again, you dropped this, king 👑

[@ccubsfan94]

As an airline pilot (That big orange S, the hometown airline for Minneapolis) this was an amazing video!

[@carnakthemagnificent336]

Very helpful, Mr. Kyle, gracias. I'll save this video to help me select airlines and more direct routes. However, I prefer to drive so I can see the places I used to fly over. Much more interesting.

[@mityace]

Many of these hubs are ones inherited from Airlines they took over American got Philly, Phoenix and Charlotte when they bought out US Airways who in turn got Phoenix from America West and Charlotte from Piedmont. SImilarly, Delta got Detroit and Minneapolis-St. Paul from Northwest.

[@matthewyoung2519]

Geography + aviation = nerd heaven. Great video! Thanks man

[@RTPTechGuy]

I appreciated the little Steve Miller Band nod at the end of the video.

[@johnmcafee9741]

Another fascinating presentation. Thanks, Kyle. Keep up the great work.

[@GeographyKing]

Thank you!

[@SupaEMT134]

I love that you have the _correct_ South Carolina license plate behind you

[@johnlundkeller]

The newest startup Avelo is breaking trends, utilizing small airports as their bases and doing flights out and back (meaning the pilots and flight attendants get to go back home every night). They seem to be growing fast. I hope their trend-defying operations hold and they continue to grow!

[@Speedster___]

It would be really concerning if a startup wasn’t growing. The thing if the connect smaller airports they can’t crack larger cities. Like Denver is a big city with one airport.

[@johnlundkeller]

@@Speedster___ Fair point! They do fly to bigger airports Baltimore Washington International (BWI), Orlando (MCO), and Chicago Midway (MDW) but it would be nice if they would use those as connecting points instead of just flying out there and back to their small "base" airports (their hubs).

[@Speedster___]

@@johnlundkeller the thing is they can become like a mid 2000s Southwest but Becuase of operational model they just can not fly into bigger airports. Like midway is big but it’s very clearly the secondary airport. BWI is kinda like that too with DC near. Imo Avelo best expansion path is to find mid sized cities and then connect them to non regional big cities secondary airports. One random example would be Midway to Tucson

[@F4URGranted]

So is breeze airlines, which is also doing very well right now. So many budget airlines are using this chance to improve hard and it's great to see. Always fun to walk through a small airport in a couple of minutes

[@texastuna]

@@Speedster___ JSX uses Rocky Mountain Metro. Way closer to Denver than DEN

[@julianlineham]

Great video. Living in Denver I can attest to the very busy airport.

[@TomMarvan]

8:08 Delhi’s new international Terminal 3, as part of its expansion of the original airport in 2010, has allowed it to ramp up, so to speak, from being outside the 25 airports over the last dozen years to number 7 in the most recent poll.

[@ulfthegoon]

Interesting video, Kyle. Istanbul airport is gigantic!!! Pretty cool stuff.

[@robertpagano5739]

Good Morning, Great weather here to get great video!! Thanks!

[@katereilly445]

I spy a Primus album. 😊 I like to check out the albums, flags and little things behind you. Love your channel. Nerds rule!

[@CosmicFishbowl]

Air Canada’s decline was a self imposed shot to the foot by Canada’s government. I did quite a bit of international travel in 2022, and while it was mostly back to business as usual in every other country, Canada was still acting like it was April of 2020 when it comes to Covid. They had huge staffing and security shortages at Toronto’s Pearson Airport, which lead to terrible delays, canceled flights and just general chaos there that lasted much of the year. Flying through YYZ on Air Canada last year was a genuinely terrible experience.

[@theinternational397]

The countries in Asia made Canada’s Covid response look like Florida’s. While Canada was moving on most of Asia were still hiding under the table from the Covid virus.

[@marklittle8805]

We Canadians have always hated Air Canada on and off. And now the Federal Government with their mismanagement had made YYZ a horrible place to fly from. The airport is expensive and there is a ton of walking at the main terminal as their redesign just was a bad idea. The old terminal one needed replacement but what we got was awful. Couple that with all the short staffing, usual Air Canada bungling and voila, the perfect storm.

[@jonathantitus2629]

I have to concur. By last year ALL the US airports we traversed were working, but only Frankfurt was anywhere as bad as Toronto and only Lufthansa was anywhere close to as abysmal as Air Canada. As I have planned our two upcoming trips my wife gave me very clear guidance to avoid certain airlines and airports--glad to say I have done so. Next trip is a direct flight from CVG to London and back.

[@marklittle8805]

@@jonathantitus2629 the sad part is this: our government is always telling us how they have all this under control and the issues at Pearson were the fault of travellers

[@CosmicFishbowl]

@@marklittle8805 Wow, that’s funny. The fault of the travelers?

[@jkshitz28]

Kyle, every video you make is amazing. Thanks for the information!

[@GeographyKing]

Thank you!

[@Blackburnian737]

Love to see this for trains as well. (Freight or Passenger)

[@anwalborn]

Many people are (correctly) pointing out that Lufthansa’s biggest hub is in Frankfurt because it was centrally located in West Germany, but everyone is forgetting one crucial detail. East Germany forbade any and all West German registered aircraft from flying over its airspace, effectively banning them from flying to Berlin; only aircraft registered in the United States, UK, and France were allowed to fly over their airspace. Hence why Pan Am and British Airways had vast networks of flying flights within Germany during the Cold War. Meanwhile West German airlines, including Lufthansa, did not even fly to Berlin until AFTER German reunification in 1990. Air Berlin, an airline based in Berlin we remember as German, was actually an American airline when it was founded and flew American registered aircraft until German reunification, when it ‘relocated’ to Germany.

[@nonnywinner5039]

Thank you so for this informative video. Doing research for transportation hub matrix, and your video helpful and educational.

[@DrewTubeDrew]

Very cool to see the different flight maps next to eachnotbet

[@JackieBaisa]

Oh this is a really good one! I love travel maps. :) Great post!

[@chadalca17]

Following airlines, hubs, routes has always been a hobby of mine since I've been a kid. This video is very interesting. I'm not sure if it's a geography thing, but it is also interesting how each of these airlines acquired the hubs and focus cities they did. As well as some of the cities that used to be hubs but are not any longer. St. Louis for TWA/American. Memphis for Northwest/Delta. Cincinatti for Delta.

[@partydemon2849]

Honorable mention of Allegiant

[@caseycrookham3647]

The American legacy carriers (AA, DL, UA) are now a product of many mergers and acquisitions of airlines like Contential, Northwest, Eastern, America West, Western, TWA, and US Air. You can see those roots in the locations off some of their hubs. The hub locations are more a product of history than spacial practicality.

[@andyjay729]

Yeah, Delta's hubs in Detroit and Minneapolis were originally Northwest hubs, as was their minor hub in Seattle.

[@erik_griswold]

Airport hub history: Seattle: Was a large base for Northwest (merged with Delta). They used to work with Alaska for the local stuff but DL and AS had a falling out after the merger. SLC: Originally a hub for Western Airlines (merged with Delta) PHX: Hub for America West who later bought USAirways but kept the latter name. USAirways then bought American and again kept the latter name. MSP: Northwest hub before merger with Delta DTW: North Central hub before they merged with Southern to form Republic which later merged with Northwest IAH: Continental hub due in part to their history with Texas International. Became a United hub when CO and UA merged. Newark: Was the hub of PeoplExpress before Continental bought them in 1987. Before PE, Newark was a fairly quiet and empty place. CO grew the place using a new terminal (C) PE had designed and started construction on. United got it in the merger with CO and this is why they don’t find JFK worth serving despite trying again to do so recently. Both AA and UA have hubs in Texas and O’Hare. Southwest is a Texas airline that grew to have a major operation at Chicago-Midway, and even helped getting the new, much larger, terminal built there. I don’t see how any decline in Chicago or Illinois has any relevance to the fates of those three airlines.

[@KhAnubis]

For the Germany thing, it's worth considering that up until a couple years ago Berlin was served by two very small airports, Tegel and Schönefeld. Having gone through both multiple times, there is absolutely no way those airports had the space to accommodate the kind of air traffic you see in Frankfurt or Amsterdam. Also, Frankfurt is a major financial hub and not comparatively far from the mean population center of Germany (or from Bonn, which was the capital of West Germany) Are these the reasons Lufthansa and Condor prefer Frankfurt over Berlin? No idea, I'm just putting some extra info out there for people's enjoyment

[@claas901]

I was just about to write the exact same thing with the population distribution being much more favorable for Frankfurt. Also the connection of the airport to the high speed rail network with a dedicated train station might play a role.

[@GeographyKing]

There were no airports in ancient Egypt so you know nothing. Nothing! But yeah I missed the bus for the reasons Frankfurt is the main hub.

[@MarsJenkar]

Guessing the Cold War may have been a factor as to the lack of a large airport in Berlin until recently.

[@LoboLakerGaming]

I’m very familiar with DFW and American. DFW is perfect for east/west trips, and is AA’s primary Mexico gateway. It has a decent volume of flights to other latin and south american cities, but Miami primarily takes in those duties

[@seven_hundred-seven_hundred]

I was reluctant to click on this link, but I should rely on your judgement... these maps are fabulous! Very nice. Thank you.

[@sirbanjorochambeaux]

Denver to Frankfurt... Lufthansa 774/775 and only on Saturday... made the trip a few times for work.

[@StepsToFollow]

Thanks for the video. I'd like to see more videos about geography in the aviation context. I know it's a stretch, but if you can I'd like to see it.

[@nathanhansen1250]

I love this channel! Very interesting stuff

[@robfreedman6496]

Awesome video and it's awesome living in a city that is an airline hub, Phoenix!

[@PC-kd7dj]

I have watched and enjoyed a lot of your videos, including this very interesting one. Thank you Kyle! The airline industry was hugely impacted by the recent pandemic. And now for some older history about a former airline that was the world’s leading airline from the late 40’s through the 70s: Pan American World Airways. In 1947, Pan Am began the first regularly scheduled around-the-world passenger service using using Lockheed Constellations (a propeller-driven, four-engine pressurized-cabin civil airliner built from 1943 to 1958). Pan American Flight 001 originated in San Francisco and flew westward to Honolulu, on across the Pacific to Hong Kong, and continued around the world to Bangkok (Thailand), Delhi (India), Beirut (Lebanon), Istanbul (Turkey), Frankfurt (Germany), London (England) and finally to New York. The entire flight took about 48 hours. Its counterpart, Pan Am Flight 002, originated in New York and flew eastward around the world to the same cities. [Information from WIRED and Wikipedia articles.] In the summer of 1972, my wife and flew on Pan Am Flight 002 halfway around its global route, flying on a Boeing 747 from JFK in New York to London, Frankfurt, Istanbul, Karachi (Pakistan) and New Delhi. We returned a month later on Pan Am Flight 001 from New Delhi, to Beirut, Frankfort, London, to New York with breakfast served after each stop (as I recall). We got in very late to JFK and slept in the airport. We were both 20 then. It was overall, an amazing adventure!

[@bobbiechristensen5716]

Interesting, earned a lot of new things I'd not really thought about.

[@davidgrech4574]

Thank you so much for your video. Back in 1989 I worked for an air freight company and I would fly from San Francisco to Tokyo and then to Hong Kong and spend a day in Hong Kong and back to Tokyo and then back to San Francisco twice a week. It was so fun for a while but I got burnt out and had to give it up. Well I’ll be looking for your next video 👍🌎

[@MegaGo68]

Love this topic. Would have liked to hear any comments about how Alaska Airlines fits into the schemes you describe, given that it is also a top 5 carrier.

[@crabring]

Yeah, I was hoping to learn more about southwest. Now I'm even more confused why you can't go to some cities via southwest if they don't rely on the "spoke" method like most.:-p

[@IdliAmin_TheLastKingofSambar]

@@crabring I could be completely wrong, but I think it has to do, in part, with the expense of getting slots at large airports where legacy carriers have significant footprints. I’m pretty sure that was the case in the NYC metro area (where I grew up): for a long time, if you wanted to fly Southwest, you had to go to Philly or (I think) Islip, because the legacy carriers all had big presences at JFK, EWR, and LGA, though I think they now fly out of LGA, at least. I now live near BWI, which isn’t a hub for anyone, and where Southwest has something like an 85-90% market share.

[@GeographyKing]

I think Alaska has a good footing in the up-and-down the coast market. Seattle and Portland are pretty far out of the way with no major population centers anywhere near, so the larger airlines tend to not fly those routes. But for Alaska they basically have cornered a market left relatively untapped. We flew with them from Fresno to Cabo San Lucas in Baja California.

[@georgeford6439]

A little flying humor here from a OKC comedian (not me). Oklahoma City's airports are Wiley Post for their regional airport and the late great humorist Will Rodgers for their internationalairport. Wiley Post was Will Rodgers personal pilot and they perished in the same plane crash.....

[@TheAidanodian]

As an avgeek I absolutely love this one. Great vid as per usual.

[@leslovesliberty1776]

That was really interesting!!

[@andrepoiy1199]

Air Canada's hubs are also pretty simple - Vancouver for west coast and pacific, Toronto for east coast and atlantic. Also WestJet is based in Calgary and basically is its only hub. It's also no longer a budget airline - it transitioned to becoming full service in like 2018.

[@wankertanker1813]

The very first flight of my life was Chicago to Narita, Tokyo, Japan when I was like 22yrs old. It was over 12 hrs non-stop. Or 14. Don't remember, it was a long time ago. Or 13. Was a little nervous during the climb, but was ok after that. Airports are like little mini-cities. I wish air travel didn't take so much fuel.

[@crabring]

I just wish it wasn't so expensive

[@boogitybear2283]

I used to fly to St. Louis from Little Rock a lot on Southwest in 2005 because Busch Stadium 2 was being demolished once the season ended. I loved it. Soon as I got off the plane, I would take the MetroLink directly into Downtown and get off at the Stadium exit. Great times!

[@mtbphoto]

I am an airline worked and I loved this video!

[@SPR8364-0]

The SW Airlines map at 5:47 has an odd way of naming a few cities. Specifically Lilac City instead of Spokane, Mile High City instead of Denver, and Big Apple and New Ark.

[@kjhuang]

I don't think it's an official SWA map.

[@lavalampluva55401]

Spokane has the nickname of "Lilac City"

[@theeclecticlifewithsam]

Always a good day when a new Geography King video is posted! Hope you had fun on your recent trip 👍

[@aarwin09]

Thanks for this video! Well formatted with good information.

[@catsnchords]

Delta's map has changed the most. They used to have CVG and DFW, now they're stronger across the northern tier (DTW, MSP, SEA, BOS). American have the best combination of hubs across the sun belt now. United have the best set up for international travel and premium-paying business travelers.

[@stevencipriano3962]

It you count Chicago Ohare and Chicago Midway together it would be larger than cities with one airport like Atlanta, Denver and Dallas

[@n7y8c7]

Dallas has two! DFW and DAL Love Field.

[@CS-np2oo]

United hubs cover every region of the US and pretty much EVERY major business center in the country. Easily the BEST in the US. UA can get you ANYWHERE in the world from their hubs non-stop or one stop at the least. 20+ year veteran of the industry.

[@ConanTheLibrarian-n5q]

Growing up in Pittsburgh, USAirways/USAir used in Greater Pittsburgh Airport as its hub. You could get a non-stop flight to almost anywhere in the US from Pittsburgh

[@Red_Ryan_Red]

Awesome video. I love air travel facts and figures. (Even though train travel is number 1)

[@flyingdutchman2065]

Currently in flight training. This is my dream fuel. Nice channel!

[@4321grp]

You were incorrect, American Airlines home is not Dallas, Its' corporate home is Fort Worth; Southwest's home is Dallas.

[@michaelchidester4441]

Nice South Carolina license plate. Looks a lot better than the ones we are stuck with now. Great job on all the videos. Appreciate the info. Keep up the good work.

[@zekharye1]

MSP as a Delta hub is at least in part a legacy of it having been the base and headquarters for Northwest Airlines, which was swallowed up by Delta. Before the hub-and-spoke era, MSP was a small-ish airport and not a major transfer point.

[@tatakai1286]

Correction for Lufthansa, it’s more simple than you think, the airport in Berlin is smaller than Frankfurt and it took them so long to replace it after the Cold War and reunification of Germany. So Frankfurt airport has always been the hub for Lufthansa, also nowadays Munich has become a hub for Lufthansa as well and it’s the main hub for Lufthansa’s both the airbus a350 and soon a380 flights, meanwhile Frankfurt is the main hub for the Airbus a340, Boeing 787 and 747 flights

[@jevinday]

There is a country band who made a song called "United Breaks Guitars" after the singer's expensive guitar was broken by baggage handlers

[@dvdbluraydude3038]

Atlanta is the busiest hub in the world because of its location. It can reach 2/3 of the US population within a two hour flight. That’s something NY, LA, Chicago and Dallas can’t do.

[@n7y8c7]

"When I die, whether I'm going to heaven or hell, I've gotta change planes in Atlanta!"

[@bensmith2487]

Gking, we don't want to get caught up with this funky "kicks" going down in the city!

[@GIOMAN160]

I got that Steve Miller band reference in the end🤘

[@timokho20]

As for frankfurt, Im quite certain the 2 biggest reasons are 1. Located in west germany, 2. Economic capital of germany, a much more financial and business oriented city so just a lot more business traffic, as well as being closer situated to the Ruhr with fast train connections.

[@HollywoodF1]

Flights between LAX and Dubai always travel east. If you do a round trip between these cities, you’ll fly through every major time zone.

[@warrengday]

Fascinating video, interesting to see how things are evolving. There is less SIN in the world? I'm surprised that the best airport in the world Singapore is now less used, not even on the list. I've been flying LHR-MEL annually for almost 20 years and have tried doing so via Thailand, HK and the Middle East but have found LHR-SIN-MEL to be the best route (go for a swim in the roof top pool of Terminal 1 and I feel the most refreshed). It was becoming harder prepandemic as BA stopped flying SIN-MEL and only QANTAS would service route. Also I've never seen that being on a plane for 18 hours as a sensible option, LHR-PER-MEL would mean a very long flight followed by an (inferior) domestic flight.

[@whitewalls4409]

Awesome content, next up busiest shipping ports?

[@deserteagle72005]

Awesome video!

[@TomMarvan]

Superb video, thank you! If I recall, AA acquired U S Airways, which I believe had hubs in Phoenix and Charlotte, and before that US Airways had acquired America West (whose hub may have been in Phoenix originally?). I am just into the first 2 minutes of the video, and it may be covered in the video that I am about to see, but airline acquisition plays a big role in how and why hubs are where they are in the US.

[@TheLewistownTrainspotter8102]

Pretty much. United inherited Continental's hubs at IAH and EWR, to add to their existing hubs of LAX, SFO, DEN, ORD, and IAD. Delta inherited MSP and DTW in the merger with Northwest Airlines. American inherited PHX, CLT and PHL through the merger with US Airways.

[@slemire]

Southwest is a perfect airline for airports like where I live in in Albany NY. Smaller airport, smaller city, but with tons of people interested in traveling to bigger cities without having to go all the way to NYC first

[@yudap]

Nice song reference there at the end.

[@augustusx82]

Good video. American is the largest airline in the world because of a merger they had with Northwest, nothing really to do with their hub locations. Side note: Once I heard “North America “, I knew he was Canadian because Americans never say “North America”..idk why that is. For instance, if there is a building that’s the tallest in all of North America but it’s located in Chicago Americans will just say it’s the “tallest building in the U.S.” without any mention of North America whatsoever, however, say the tallest building in North America was hypothetically placed in Montreal, Canadians would then say it’s the “tallest building in North America.”

[@chiantiar]

The recent growth of Turkish Air is probably been helped by the massive new Istanbul Airport opened in 2018 designed to handle being a top Europe-Asia hub.

[@sharp3552]

American Airlines headquarters is located in Ft. Worth, not Dallas!

[@nickmartinez3393]

Exactly ! And Fort Worth is not a Dallas suburb, it's a major city with almost a million people. How does someone who calls himself a "geography king" not know that ?

[@sharp3552]

@@nickmartinez3393…I was thinking the same thing, he should know that!

[@skymuffn]

@@nickmartinez3393 …true their HQ is located in Fort Worth but it’s operations is at DFW (Dallas/Ft. Worth) plus AA has always used the connotation of The Dallas Based Airline. Yes it maybe that Fort Worth is not a suburb of Dallas for it’s a major city itself. But lately the cities of Dallas-Ft. Worth-Arlington now is being referred as The Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex.

[@nickmartinez3393]

@skymuffn "connections of the Dallas based airline"? You make no sense at all. And bringing up Arlington ? Non of your points justified saying AA is in Dallas ? All of my points justify AA is in Fort Worth.And has to be said it is in Fort Worth. Period.

[@maxpowr90]

No affiliation; but one of the oddest routes in terms of destinations; is Tailwind Air. They do a seaplane route from Boston's Seaport District to Manhattan; which lands at East 23rd St.

[@benparrish9547]

Lol Spokane being labeled Lilac City made me smile