Originally Posted by
FlyingKat
Has nothing to do with routes being unprofitable. Memphis was developed by NWA as a counter to Deltas hub in Atlanta, Continental in Houston, and American in DFW. Now that NWA and Delta have merged, there is no need for Memphis, as all those passengers that were routed on NWA through Memphis are now routed to Atlanta. The only service left in Memphis will be what is supported by local Memphis traffic, just like CVG. Everybody with a clue knew that the day the NWA/DL merger was announced CVG and MEM would lose flights and be de hubbed. Well, everybody except the politicians who believed the Delta execs when they said the merger would not affect any of the hubs. Too bad they didn't get that in writing.
And yet the politocos in MEM as well as CVG will sell their souls for a "LCC" to come in there in a lame attempt to revive the superhub status and/or the nonexistant "Southwest effect." All that will do is cause the legacies with far superior networks to further cull capacity, routes and frequency. Enjoy your hand full of flights a day to a LCC hub or two. Hope it was worth losing another couple dozen non stop destinations, smaller planes and lower frequency.
Eventually though they will get subsidized foreign 777/380 service to a big fancy international market, simply because those ponzi scheme airlines will have no other place to put their vastly overpurchased metal, and the bellys of those beasts will be full of ultra cheap cargo capacity, further hammering FedEx and DHL respectively in addition to the mean old legacies.