Originally Posted by
SoFloFlyer
I remember being in DEN when Kirby came through. He was asked about FLL and the NK gates/FLL hub possibility. He mentioned that FLL doesn’t have the infrastructure to be a hub. Only 2 runways and the NK gates (which is next to B6) is limited. NK owns something like 12 gates and hubs require a lot more than 12 gates. UA also
parks on the north side. It would be very inconvenient for a UA pax to run over to the south side and clear security again just to fly out of there.
Anything can happen, but I doubt FLL ever becomes a hub to compete with MIA. It’s just not there and probably will never be.
Gates can be re-assigned or swapped, no? Given the new partnership with B6, UA having gates next to B6 isn't a bad thing.
The 2 runway thing is a good point, but EWR is a 2 runway airport most of the time and UA rarely uses the north runways in LAX ever since they figured out that assigning arrival and departure runways based on where you park to decongest the taxiways might actually be a good idea.
The real issue seems to be that FLL is a low-yield city like MCO. Good chance WN makes some moves in FLL before UA does, but if I was planning to build a hub in FLL, I definitely would be telling my competitors that I had no interest in building a hub in FLL.