Hubs

What do you class as a hub for an airline? Obivously Gatwick, Heathrow for VS, and some see Manchester as a mini hub, but, would mco count as although its in the US it flies (in the summer atleast) to three destinations, LGW,MAN,GLA and handles 5 747-400's so its quite a big opeartion, and although JFK normally handles more than that, only goes to LHR. You probably think im talking rubbish and lost the plot but was just curious?[?][y]

I believe that most would say that a hub has to be in the carriers home country.

But there are a number of airlines claiming to have hubs at airports outside of there home country, for example Jet Airways are using BRU as a "hub" and quite often Auckland can look more like Dubai due to the large number of Emirates jets around.

Of course the best example would be the likes of Easyjet and Ryanair- Ryanairs largest hub is in the UK not in Ireland.

I think, whilst MCO and JFK, are both large stations for VS the reason they are not hubs is because you can only fly to the UK from both. If for example VS operated Orlando to Rio or Orlando to Fiji then you could call it a hub as you could transit from one VS flight to another.

Regardless of routes some would say that the airlines services at each airport makes it a hub. So if there is a CC base there, a large office operation etc.

I would likewise class Manchester as a focus city rather than a hub.

I thought the designation 'hub' was often to do with the ground facilities owned and delivered by the airline rather than whether they fly there ... i.e. is it a fully serviced port or just somewhere the planes stop and turn around. Fully serviced mean for example having VS's own engineers in place to provide mechanical servicing ... ???

Originally posted by GrinningJackanapes
I'm with willd. Much to his delight, I'm sure.

GJ

Made my day

I would class a hub as a destination which has multiple flights to multiple destinations as well as dedicated offices/ground facilties and crew based in the city.

Easyjet has a hub in Geneva; FR in STN; DL used to have a base in FRA IIRC...

45.

Thankyou for your replys, i think that if and when VS were to put in a hub outside the UK MCO would be the best choice (although not supported by v-port) as the airport is really efficant and nice! Again thanks for replys[y]

Manchester now is a permanent base for crew so does that not make it a hub?

Forgot to add permanent a/c based at the city.

45.

I'm slightly confused by the difference between a hub and a focus city (a term banded around on airliners.net whenever the topic comes up).

I'd have thought UA have a hub in LHR but it is listed on Wikipedia as a focus city. With service to LAX, SFO, ORD, IAD, soon to be DEN and formerly JFK...