Expressing one's schadenfreude on this matter is poor form. I don't recall anyone expressing those feelings when DEN lost the 756. We've all been in this business long enough to know a regional economic downturn could happen to any of our bases. And when we have a national downturn, this will happen at all of our bases, except the bottom of the list will probably end up on the streets.

That's not it at all... Rather the fact that we had multiple Houston bubbas informing us that there would never be any bumps that any and all surplus problems would be naturally accounted for through attrition. And it was true because management told them it was.

We tried to tell them that what they were hearing was BS but they knew better. Besides the fact that is was okay they said when it happened to DEN, you know nothing personal it was just business. Apparently it has a different meaning when it happenes in IAH.

Why is the traffic at HOU up and at IAH it is down?

Facts don't agree. Houston "city" is 2.2M. Chicago "city" is 2.7M. Very small delta between the two. Dallas "city" is 1.3M for comparison sake. Houston "city" is a very large population center and growing.

Source 2014 census

Because HOU got a customs facility and upgraded terminals which coincided with SWA starting flights to the Caribbean/Mexico for the first time in their history. Plus the feed in and out to US cities beyond. They're KILLING it!! I tell you what.

True on all accounts.

Bumps always make sense when it's the other guy's base. I believe that, long term, IAH will continue to be a large hub, particularly for South America operations. Short term reallocations always su*& when they affect YOU. It's just part of the career.

You all got to let it go. What is happening to IAH is the result of multiple things ranging from Jeff's antics, Fred's gone, to marketing figuring out where the best hubs are for maximizing international feed.

Yes it stinks if one owns a nice place in IAH and was hoping on retiring from the wide body there. In my day DEN went from having DC10s to now nothing but a promise of returning 767/757 flying to the base.

Sure would be cool if ALPA could force Management to put flying where I wanted it rather than where it might make the most money. It's always been all about me.

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.

I'm not disputing that. My response was into his statement that Houston is just suburbs. It's far from it.