Originally Posted by GoCats67

It ain't the size of the city that tells the story, it is the traffic!!

The DOT stats for the 2016 domestic Chicago market (all airports) had 2,360,000 origin/destination tickets. Houston (all airports) had 1,109,000. Dallas (all airports, for a TX comparison) had 1,735,000.

https://www.transtats.bts.gov/Oneway...d=&sort_order=

other hubs:
New York = 3,391,000
Wash DC = 2,116,000
Cle = 418,000
Denver = 1,563,000
LA = 3,168,000
SFO = 2,483,000

Houston, Cleveland, Chicago, and Denver have the benefit of being in the middle for connecting traffic, but strong origin/destination traffic is still vital for a hub

I am hopeful that Houston will continue to improve economically and get more demand for air travel, but in the near term it can't support its' size, which sucks for those based there.