come on now you really think it’s that simple? Next to Emirates we are one of the largest global carriers in the world. Our reach is immense but we require connections to make it work. There is a reason why Lufthansa flys A380s to our hubs while we fly 787s. They have FRA and MUC. We have LAX/SFO/DEN/IAH/ORD/EWR/IAD. We fly the same amount of passengers as LH but from more places.

IAH has a robust INTL portfolio but it’s because those people are going to IAH. No one is going to go out of their way to go to IAH on United to fly somewhere. United’s network doesn’t require that….Continentals did.

 

Thats because Continental didn’t have hubs in LAX, SFO, ORD to funnel trans-pac traffic through…..

It was all EWR and IAH for Continental, that’s it….

Post-merger, it would been naive think United would continue to maintain Continental level of international flying through IAH abd prioritize connecting traffic for trans-pacific flights over SFO, LAX, and even ORD…

ANZ, ZIPAir, ANA, ITA all rely on Point of Sale from their hubs…

 

Bingo

IAH is geographically limited in the companies ability to funnel network traffic through for international connections. From just about anywhere in the Midwest and southern states there is a better hub, going in the correct direction to most intl destinations. Unless that destination is South America, which just flat out does not have the travel density to support large scale widebody flying on a EWR/SFO scale. The entire continent has less than 6% of the global population. It’s just the reality of the geography. Clearly the bean counters know exactly how much O&D traffic there is and have deemed it more profitable to route it through a coastal hub.

Draw a circle around those places like Japan, Korea or Singapore. Depending on carrier they may have access to 25-50% of the entire global population to feed their network.

From a numbers and geography standpoint, IAH will never win for intl travel it just will not. It will serve its purpose in the domestic market and the limited intl fly it does service, but it’s a cog in the machine of making money serving its purpose.

John Paxson may not have been the superstar MJ and Scotty Pippin were, but he was still an important part of the team and they wouldn’t have won as many championships as they did without him.

Otherwise, you’re free to bid/move some where the flying is more to your liking.

 

Yeah, all of the ex-CAL guys have heard these excuses for years (applied to all of the hubs as CEOs came and went) from actual airline managers, not the wannabe pilot “experts” around here, a lot of whom don’t even fly airplanes, from the look of it.

Yet when CAL had DEN and LAX bases IAH still thrived as an international airport, even when oil was the only economic driver in town. Oh well, Mama U has other plans and Kirby has done a good job running the place so it is what it is.

Anyway, I’m glad to have access to all of the management expertise here capable of explaining away the loss of market share!

 

sorry I didn’t know you were the expert…..my bad.

 

My only expertise is in institutional historical knowledge; almost forty years with the same company (give or take a merger or two) provides that.

 

Isn’t this the reason for the XLR coming online? Longer thinner routes could be served on the XLR from IAH.

 

Ok….

IAH thrived in those circumstances because DEN losing money hand over fist and the costs of moving over to DIA was too much for Continental to swallow coming out of Bankruptcy 2.0….

LAX hasn’t been a hub for Continental since the Robert F Six days…. Pretty sure none of us were in the industry during those days…..

After the DEN hub closure, It was all IAH, EWR for international or nothing. It’s easy to run more international flights if you have 2 hubs to feed passengers through….

 

there is no world where an XLR will
make it from IAH Europe. If the XLR makes it to IAH it will be for smaller markets in SOUTH AMERICA. Because that’s what IAH is good for

 

Dude if you need to calm down just reflect on how many years you got to enjoy that men’s bathroom (creepy blue chair excluded)