Originally Posted by
robthree
Have you been asleep for the last 30 years? Houston used to be just an oil town. But that hasn't been the case for a long, long time. That does not mean oil isn't still the most important part of the city's economy. But it isn't everything. Population size matters. Not land area.
Once upon a time, when Greg Brenneman was Bethune's #2, he was asked "Why do we hub in Newark? The weather is terrible, the facility is terrible, the delays are terrible, its just a mess! His answer was "Because that's where the money is".
United isn't leaving Houston. Because there is money to be made there. United isn't leaving EWR, ORD, LAX, SFO, DEN, or IAD because there is still lots of money to be made there, too.
Oil/Energy industry is what holds everything else up, it's the long pole in the tent.
No one is saying there isn't money to be made, but it's also not this economic power house, tax haven utopia the locals think it is either.