Are there any advantages to living near an airline hub?
- By
- Aparna Patel
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- 23 Jul, 2023
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As with most things there are things that are good and things that are bad about a hub.
- Hub airports offer more non-stops but they also tend to be significantly more expensive. In fact, a non-stop alone is often much pricier than the exact same flight as part of a connecting itinerary. Google “Hidden City Ticketing” for details. The difference can be substantial: For example I’ve seen AMS->BOS for about $1000 whereas DUS->AMS->BOS for about half of that, using the exact same flight for the AMS->BOS leg.
- You can focus on one airline and gain more status and frequent flyer benefits
- Hub airports tend to be bigger and have good infrastructure. However, that also means they can be slower and more clogged up with flight delays and security lines
- Hub airports tend to get priority when the airline has to deal with IROPS (irregular operations). Flights from/to very small airports are the first to be cancelled if there aren’t enough starting or landing slots, gates, or crews.
The waits are generally shorter in smaller airports, but when you want to go somewhere where flights only go from the larger airports you get an extra leg on your journey. Then it comes down to a matter of personal preference, will you rather spend more time in queues at the airport or more time in a plane (and waiting in an airport).
There are multiple factors and the answer might no be constant, one example:
I know several people here in Denmark who have told about being rather annoyed going back from Asia because the plane flew over Denmark to LHR and then back, I don’t think any of them ever complained about doing the same on the way out.
I live in South London (UK), less than an hour from London Gatwick, and within easy reach of London Heathrow, but far enough away from both that aircraft noise is not an issue.
Needless to say, from here I have access to competitively-priced flights to anywhere in the world. Very convenient!
It depends on what you consider ‘advantageous’.
If you travel a lot on business, then living near a hub is is good because you’re more likely to get a direct flight or at least fewer connections.
It’s also easier to concentrate your flying to a single program to enhance your status and benefits.
O&D (Origin & Destination) at a hub really don’t take much longer. Sure, the terminal might be more crowded but you learn to deal with that quickly enough.
An advantage of using a large, but non-hub, airport is you more free to choose the best routing, service and price from multiple carriers.
Credit:stackoverflow.com‘
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