I said from either SFO or LAX or DEN
Choose one of those 3 cities
Then fly from that city to PSP, and then on to LAS.

Flying stand-by is never great, but I have saved tens of thousands of dollars doing it, and have received lots of first class seats and free meals in the process.

 

Lol why didn't you just say that the first time...

 

I have been to both, and spent some time in each. I lived near Nashville for a while.
I think that Nashville might be a better bet because it is a newer city and its people are more cosmopolitan (and thats a stretch).
STL is NOT a good idea. St. Louis is a run down dying city, and its VERY conservative. By that I mean that they are just like Memphis, over a million people, but no one travels. Its just churches and gas stations. Talk about seeing the world and experience life, and they hit ya over the head with a bible and try to "save you". There is not enough originating traffic in STL, just like Memphis. Yes, NWA has a mini hub there but it is strictly to move people from one place to another through there. If there was enough traffic, AA would not have left STL to begin with. And STL sucks! Gates are run down, JUST LIKE THE CITY.
I think BNA, but alternately, I really think that culturally, environmentally, population-wise, and economically (weather related costs, labor costs) I'd hedge my bets for San Antonio!

1- Over a million people. WHO travel and appreciate something "different"
2- Revitalized town - along with a revitalized culture and attitude.
3- Weather related costs would be low - no snow, or fog. Watch out for thunderstorms.
4- Major military installations = lots of traveling soldiers.
5- Ethnic diversity = people who want to visit their origins, their families come visit.
6- Facilities. I've been there, the terminal is really nice, new, and BIG!
7- Resources - San Antonio Aerospace is there and could be contracted to provide maintenance so you dont have to be held captive by your own workforce or spread the work between both (remember SWA has its own MX, but it contracts out its very heavy MX C and D checks to the lowest bidder)
8- Labor costs. It is the South after all, and they are pretty much anti union; save for the pilots of course. But if youre looking at using EMB-190's youre already looking at lower-time entry level pilots anyway.

My $.02

 

I grew up in STL and I can say that yes, even Christians there like to travel when they have the time and the money to do so. I don't know how much time you've spent there, but it seems as if your reasons for not being in favor of STL only come from overgeneralizations and stereotypes. Every major city in America has its older and/or less desirable areas. Can't judge the whole city from only what you see off of I-70.

But anyway...

SAT is an interesting choice. I've never been there but I've heard mostly good things about it. Don't know anything about the airport.

 

No doubt, Kansas City.

You would only have YX and WN, both of them have interests elsewhere right now. The airport has major potential with prior hub occupents being TWA, Eastern, Braniff, and a short lived U.S. Airways jont ,not foregetting Vanguard. Vanguard was a failure from the beginning due to the fact that they were trying to target the LCC market with inefficiant aircraft from a city where the market was controlled by a dieing and desperate Legacy carrier that had a history of fighting wars with the largest carriers on the planet, and not losing. TWA wasn't afraid to throw weight around like water, and they sure did. That's why they ended up in the financial situation that they were in.

If you want to talk about city population (which dosn't play that much anyways,

San Antonio is a city full of young, poor citizens. Which cannot afford extensive air travel.

San Antonio 1,256,509
Median resident age: 31.7 years
Median household income: $36,214 (year 2000)
Median house value: $68,800

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Antonio

Kansas City 1,947,694
Median resident age: 34.0 years
Median household income: $37,198 (year 2000)
Median house value: $84,000 (year 2000)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kansas_...ropolitan_Area

LOTS of companies are allready HQ'd in Kansas City

The following companies and organizations are headquarted in the area:

American Century Companies, an investment firm
AMC Theatres, a movie theater chain
Andrews McMeel Universal, a syndication and publication company which represents features such as Dear Abby, Garfield, Calvin and Hobbes and Doonesbury
Applebee's restaurant chain
Aquila, Inc., a major energy company
Black & Veatch, Major engineering firm
Burns & McDonnell, an architectural firm
Cerner, leading supplier of healthcare information technology solutions.
Church of the Nazarene church
Commerce Bancshares, bank serving Kansas, Missouri, and Illinois
Community of Christ church (Mormon RLDS)
DST Systems, Inc., global provider of sophisticated information processing and computer software services and products
Ferrellgas, the nation's largest retailer and distributor of natural gas
Garmin, makers of GPS-based electronics
Hallmark Cards
HOK Sport + Venue + Event, world leader in sports architecture
H&R Block, financial corporation and former parent company of CompuServe
Inergy, LP, one of the nation's largest retailers and distributors of natural gas
Interstate Bakeries Corporation, makers of Twinkies and Wonder Bread
J.E. Dunn Construction Group, major construction contractor.
Kansas City Power & Light Company, a leading regulated provider of electricity and energy-related products and services
Kansas City Southern Industries, operators of a Class I railroad
Lockton Companies, the largest privately held insurance brokerage in the nation
Premium Standard Farms, provider of pork products, producing pork products for the retail, wholesale, foodservice, further processor and export markets
Russell Stover Candies
Sprint Nextel Corporation, one of the world's largest telecommunication companies.
The Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States of America
Wolferman's bakery
YRC Worldwide Inc., one of the largest transportation service providers in the world.
Kansas City has a Federal Reserve Bank.

Other major employers are AT&T, BNSF Railway, Hallmark Cards, Harley-Davidson, General Motors, Honeywell, and Ford Motor Company.

Kansas City is the 27th largest metropolitan area in the U.S. at 2million, San Antonio is ranked 30th with 1.5 million

Furthermore Kansas City and St. Louis are far from "bible belt" cities, they have some of the highest crime rates in the country and are popular with the mafia. Kansas City proves to be 4x as dangerous as San Antonio, with St. Louis being 6x.

As far as Commercial operations go, Kansas City currently has 3 Airports avalible, I also know of some quiet talks on a fourth, which I could see becoming a reality in the future.

KMCI : two runways 9,500ft a piece, and a third just south of 11,000 then again if Airport X dosn't happen they will build a fourth at 15,100ft.

KMKC : right up on the city, dedicated terminal and little delays subject to traffic

KIXD : Building up slowly but surely, In Johnson County which is one of the wealthiest counties in the country, also in Olathe which is the county seat.

Now SAT, I only see 24 gates? A new airline would have to build it's own terminal which would be expensive for a start-up, as oposed to KMCI's 90 gates. Which are largly avalible.

Kansas City would be a clear winner, SAT might look good from a distance but close up their is no competition.

Oh and the clear point that it is in the center of the country, litterally!

my first post and $.04 (took awile the write)

 

BTW, a hub works by connecting people from one city to another, through a single city to minumise ops costs, so local population dosn't play in as a huge factor, You could make a hub at ICT or DSM work with the right people involved.

 

BNA is an interesting choice, as the city has grown by leaps and bounds in the last few years. With all of the automobile assembly plants and associated businesses that have popped up in Middle Tennessee in the last 15 years or so, I would have to say that business travel there is doing well. Of course, a start up there would be toe to toe with Southwest.

I dont remember all of the facts, but it seems to me that AA killed the former TWA operation in St. Louis because it didnt make sense to their ORD and DFW operations.

 

Cut cargo doors in them and build hubs in YIP and ELP.

 

Ok YIP makes sense because I know that a fair share of cargo ops are based out of there, but ELP, what are you smoking dude?

 

ELP is like the southwestern equivalent of YIP. A lot of cargo moves between their and Mexico. Also, a lot of cago originates in southern Texas and Mexico with destinations bound for the north. A lot of smaller freight outfits base aircraft and crews there.

There is a lot of north-south traffic in the cargo business, specifically with auto parts.