new airline hub locations?
 

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I'm beginning research on an extra credit project, but i was curious, what would be the best place to hub a new airline, probably composed of emb 190's, st. louis, las vegas, phoenix, palm springs, or any recommendations on the west coast? The East Coast in my opinoin is already loaded with lcc's, and firm feeder carriers. From what I understand, the only big guys on the west coast are america west + horizon. The reason i choose vegas + phoenix is because they have been the 2 fasted growing suburbs in the past 15 years, and are expected to grow substantially in the next 20. I was thinking about st. louis because it is a surpisingly quiet airport (ive flown in numerous times), and many of the facilities are quite nice, and already exsisting. My airline target market would be to fly emb 190's in a low cost market place. However, if i was hubbed out of palm springs i would raise prices at a hub there. A flight into and out of palm springs is exactly where flying should be priced (think if regulation was around pricing), and I feel if i offered service at a slightly reduced price, i would sell. Any thoughts on this are much appreciated. Thanks!

I'd probably think Vegas would be an obvious one. But then you're competing with the big boys like Jet Blue, Southwest and America West.... unless you can cook up some sweet deal with the Casinos for travel packages and stuff.

I spent a while at flight operations for Japan Airlines at SFO, and we would usually have half a 744 going to Vegas off our arrival from Narita. If you could work out an interline deal with the Japanese carriers (alot of the Japanese flying into SFO went on to LAS... JAL and ANA) to provide exclusive service you might have something somewhat feasable.

... just a thought.

and if you ever become a billionaire off this idea, remember to buy me a nice shiny F-16 as a thank you :D

St Louis didnt end up working out to well for twa.

Harsh but food for thought.

Have you ever been to the Palm Springs airport?? I have flown in there multiple times. Mostly on EMB-120 Brasilias! There is a reason why there are many 30 seat turbo props and 50 seat RJ's on these routes. Palm Springs does not have that much demand. It is actually somewhat of a trick for flying standby on United. To get to vegas, fly SFO,LAX,DEN TO PSP, and then connect PSP-LAS. Worked for me last memorial day, when they were using denied boardings on my direct flight.

Pretty much you got United from SFO,LAX,DEN,LAS on 30 and 50 seat commuters. US Air from PHX, and like one flight from LAS. American from LAX, and Alaska from SFO on MD-80'S, and Delta from SLC on RJ's. And these flights are not full. Palm Springs is a relatively small town. I went there on vacation at least once a year for 5 or 6 years, and I love the town, but it is pretty darn small.


Now that I have shot down your PSP idea (it's for the better), I have two recommendations for your hubs.
San Diego
Sacramento

San Diego (SAN) is the second largest city in California, (one of the largest on the west coast), an amazing vacation town, and perfect for a low cost carrier. No carriers are currently hubbed there.

Sacramento is the capital of California, and the suburbs are growing rapidly. This city can definately support an airline hub, and no airlines are currently hubbed there. The nice thing about Sacramento (SMF) is you are centrally located on the west coast. For instance, you can have a plane originate in SEA, fly to SMF, and continue on to SAN. Passengers can stay on the same plane, and the flight time is only slightly longer than a nonstop. However, the flight time will be significantly less than going, say (SEA-SLC, (change planes) SLC-SAN).

Both of these airports are not terribly busy and weather delays do not seem to be much of a problem (occassional valley fog for SMF).
LAS and PHX are TERRIBLE ideas. First, you already have US Air hubbed there. Next, you are competing in Southwest's strong holds. Yes, these airports are busy, but literally every airline flies from everywhere to Vegas. And these fares are already pretty low. Plus, with all the MOA's around Vegas, it is not unusual to fly a long detour at low altitudes (FL 270 or so) to get to your destination. Not a lot of direct routing is allowed into Vegas. Also, the last few times I have flown there we have had busy related delays. I would not recommend these two airports.

SAN would be a difficult hub because of its location. It's just stuck there in the corner with nothing but the pacific to the other side. Unless your carrier were to fly into Mexico, I see little practicality in a SAN hub.

It seems like you're looking into more to the Southwest, but have you considered San Antonio (SAT) For the size of the city, there are very few direct flights other than southwst. United just added some routes into there using some RJs (gojets I think) direct to numerous cities. If you were to use 190s direct out of San Antonio it seems like they would match the demand.

ubermich, that's a good point. maybe if you served smaller outlying fields like ILA in the phoenix area or SAC in in the sacramento area you'd be better off. but then you'd miss all those major airline connections... hmm

it's lose/lose.... drop it before you declare bankruptcy

:rolleyes:

A good business plan should answer these questions, but at a minimum in your project you need to frame the following:

What is the market?
Who are your marketing/feed partners, if any?
What who is the competition?
What makes your brand more appealing (market traction)?
What are the costs to entry and the margins (can you endure a fare war?).

Finally, a hub is a by-product of legacy carriers need to consolidate feed through a much larger network. Unless you start with dozens of jets, why even consider a hub. Point-to-point seems like a logical solution for a smaller network.

Remember the SWA formula that work so well for them so long (with some exceptions recently)... Hit'em where they aint.

Dont go into SFO use OAK, BWI vs IAD/DCA.
Some of the Legacy/Network/Major (whatever the buzzword of today is) have left themselves open to attacks from the Low cost carriers, some have fared better than others.

Delta took Valuejet/Airtran lightly and how ATL is a dog fight that is probably hurting Delta more than labor cost. Yet Jetblue tried to move into ATL and got the tar kicked out of them. A similar thing happened in Denver with UAL vs Frontier, it will be interesting to how Denver evolves along with SWA in the picture.

If it were up to me I would actaully look (dont laugh) at Allegient Air in Vegas and Sanford Fla before any major. They have carved out a definite niche serving underserved airports and communites to LAS and Sanford/ Orlando. They have seen steady growth and profitability in a very tough market. They have done this by staying out of the hubs and siphoning off passengers that would have otherwise have to have driving a good distance or connected through a hub to get to sin city or wallyworld.

A hub city just for sake of having a hub is fool harty-- Look at MCI that airport has seen enough airlines come and go. Think of secondary airport that serve huge Metro areas, MKE vs ORD, Sanford vs MCO, LGB/BUR/ONT vs LAX.

A few Hubs that might be venerable are CVG, MSP, SLC, MEM... Delta and NWA seen to be focusing a little more on ATL/JFK and DTW respectively. BNA also seems to be underserved.

Hope this helps...

PS dont aim your airline after a bunch of Horny golfers a la Hooters Air!!