"Hard to accept?" I don't really give a ******* where United flies their airplanes as long as they make money doing it- I haven't flown an airplane in or out of IAH in over ten years. The DEN economy pales in comparison to Houston, when the bubble popped in Silicon Valley no one abandoned SFO. Same deal in Houston, no different. The energy sector isn't going anywhere anytime soon. Completely agree about CLE but IAD is also headed for some change, the revamping of the airport fees only prolonged it for a little bit.

You want to just use population as a criteria when you need to look at the economy of that community. NY, ORD, DC, LA, SFO and DEN have an economy that supports that flying. Take away oil and the per capita income falls quickly. This in and of itself causes United to force passengers through IAH to support the base/hub. This flying can easily be flown out of LAX,ORD,EWR and IAD.

I agree IAD is in for change and most of it will come from EWR. EWR can't expand and absorb any IAD flying. Irregardless of cost we'll need a solid gateway to Europe and that is IAD. Would also make a good location for Central and South American flying. With EWR staying about the same as a NY location.

EWR will expand at the expense of IAD, IAD is a horrible gateway to anywhere because it's such a PITA to get to- not to mention one of the worst terminal systems in the US. EWR has plenty of room to expand by removing RJ's and turboprops.

Houston is the fifth largest economy in the US by GDP, it's not gloing anywhere. The NY economy is almost four times that of DC.

Well, Houston is considered to be both a betta and a gamma city. 1Q FY 15 it pulled 52.4 Billion in Customs traffic. This year down, to 38.4 Billion. Yes, I do know we have a large ship port here. When you combine, land/truck, shipping, rail, and air traffic through here not many cities in the USA can rival this sort of traffic. New Orleans has the mighty Mississippi, but it doesn't have the combined synergies of Houston.

There are some short term contractions that are going on due to low oil prices, but those effects are being felt around the globe.

One nice thing about Houston is that folks can afford to live here. If your spouse also works, then he/she likely has a decent job. The growth is crazy, even in the middle of the contractions. I see four new major hospitals being built and those only get built when they see people coming here. The city planners try to stay ahead of the population surge for safety's sake. But, it's big money to keep building.

I wasn't big on Houston until I moved here. That being said, I can now understand this place a little better. It has robust and redundant trade due to overlapping economies and sectors. It is an economy of scale and when one portion lags, other portions pick up. From Petroleum, to chemicals, to shipping, to manufacturing, to sci/tech, to engineering, to construction, to medical, to research this city attracts allot of internal and external investment and accompanying growth.

I would like it to slow down a bit. Traffic keeps getting worse on the roads.

Houston...

#58 in median family income, #68 in per capita.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/High..._United_States

Well that certainly explains why yields collapsed (source) when the oil companies cut back on travel.

By that measure, we should open a hub in Anchorage. Look, I've got no dog in the fight, but Houston isn't Cleveland, Denver, or even Dulles in our system. It's our southern gateway and the fifth largest city in the country by both population and economic measures. It's also, unlike LAX and ORD, a place where we don't face competition from AA or DAL.

I do think Houston has tremendous upside. I would love to see more international lift capacity in IAH. With both DAL and AA in the neighborhood we could use it. I notice Korean, ANA, Lufthansa, Volaris, Air New Zealand, Air China,Copa,Avianca, Ethiad, JAL, Qantas, Ibreria, Aero Mexico, Emirates,West Jet, Hawaiian expanding into the DFW and IAH markets. I guess these other airlines won't concede the market place to AA/DAL/UAL. Must be money there somewhere.

And the day we pull back in IAH, others will happily fill our place. Please stick to being a flamer Staller. Your boy Oscar already has enough numb nuts in marketing and network planning.