I think Lufthansa uses Frankfurt as its hub because of the Cold War. Berlin was deep in East Germany, split in half, and out of place to be a hub for West Germany. Even since reunification, the airport situation in Berlin hasn't been great, as it took them something like 20 years to build a single airport to replace the 3 or so smaller airports that used to serve the city.

@bene4577

Жыл бұрын

@@johnchastain7890 Bonn was the capital actually :) but its true nonetheless

@bene4577

Жыл бұрын

Yes! That's the real reason. Plus: Berlin itself is a big city, but the whole Brandenburg region around Berlin is actually very sparsely populated - as opposed to the area around Frankfurt. (Berlin is also quite "poor" and economically insignificant in comparison to the south-west of Germany.)

@anishraja9655

Жыл бұрын

Furthermore, the East German government only allowed three flight paths from the West into West Berlin, and it would've been highly inconvenient to try to get an international hub in West Berlin with only three ways for planes to get in and out.

@johnchastain7890

Жыл бұрын

@@bene4577 Oops, richtig bist! I apologize to the Boon Chamber of Commerce. ;-)

@dazzaman434

Жыл бұрын

There is quite a saga about Berlin’s airports. It will only be when and if (big if) that ever gets fully sorted that Berlin will ever be a major airport hub.

It’s important to recognize that some airlines’ hub layout are basically vestiges of mergers and acquisitions they’ve made over the years. For example: American (Dallas, Miami) & US Airways (Phoenix, Charlotte), and United (Chicago, Denver) & Continental (Houston, Newark).

@badgermoon9229

Жыл бұрын

And when Delta bought out Northwest they acquired Minneapolis and Detroit hubs.

@barbaracameron5610

Жыл бұрын

America West Airlines purchased US airways. US hub is Philadelphia, AWA ..now AA has same flight attendants who were proud America West Airlines! Study more! Awa and US airways and other airlines are under AA umbrella

@lfd_eng9219

Жыл бұрын

@@barbaracameron5610 Actually I think it was US Airways that bought out America West...and then American bought out US Airways. AWA had hubs in Phoenix, Las Vegas, and Columbus, OH...CMH...which was used because the range of their aircraft. AWA was a great airline...the merger with US Fear (they put the fear back in flying, as the joke goes) was sad. Was frequent flyer on AWA and AA...switched to Delta for their much better customer service and far superior baggage handling.

@texastuna

Жыл бұрын

@@lfd_eng9219 Wiki says US Airways was bankrupt and America West took them over, but it was a reverse merger and they kept the US Airways name. The same thing happened with American Airlines.

@n7y8c7

Жыл бұрын

​@@texastuna Yup. Doug Parker the CEO purchased US Airways, and kept the US Airways name since it was the larger carrier, and much better known. He did the same thing with American Airlines and purchased it while in bankruptcy, but kept the better name.

Hey Kyle. I’m a 30 year airline employee and an airline geek. You did a nice job! Keep up the good work…

Recently, I’ve dabbled into some other geography channels here on KZread just to diversify a little. Without mentioning any names, watching these videos seemed very official, calculated, manufactured, and scripted, if that makes sense (those are the words I could think of lol). And I realized that that wasn’t very enjoyable so I keep coming back to you, Kyle, and your laid back, low-budget videos that are just superior, in my opinion. So basically, please don’t become like “them” and be all fancy with it. It’s enjoyable the way it is, for me at least.

@billbishopboyiscool

Жыл бұрын

They’re doing hub and spoke, and Kyle is going Southwest style.

Hi, I can explain why Frankfurt is Lufthansa's hub. It's partly for historical reasons and partly for economic reasons. The hub was established in Frankfurt decades ago because Frankfurt was located centrally in West Germany. West Germany's rail network connected really well with Frankfurt Airport, including high-speed trains by the late 1900s, so that it was quick and easy for people from many parts of West Germany to travel by rail to the Frankfurt Airport for flights out of the country. By contrast, when Germany was divided, so was Berlin. West Berlin was isolated and not terribly important economically, plus the airspace around it was controlled by East Germany, so it was not in the running as a hub for a western airline. After German unification, there was little reason to move the hub from Frankfurt to Berlin. First, moving would have been expensive. But more importantly, even in united Germany, Berlin remains somewhat isolated. The bulk of united Germany's population is in the west, centered near Frankfurt, and united Germany's economy is also centered in the west. There are no other big cities near Berlin, as there are near Frankfurt. Berlin is the center of government, but Germany's private sector is mostly based in western cities centered on Frankfurt, whose airport still has its good rail connections in several directions. Frankfurt also remains Germany's financial hub, so foreign businesspeople are much more likely to want to be in Frankfurt than in Berlin.

@TheGecko213

Жыл бұрын

Berlin is only popular with those on Nostalgic Nazi tourism and landmarks 🤣🤣🤣

@Chris_Taru

Жыл бұрын

This is a pretty accurate explanation for the Frankfurt airport situation. It's worth adding that there were plans for establishing BER as a hub of Air Berlin, Lufthansa's primary local rival between 2001 and 2017. But the airline was managed about as poorly as the airport construction and these plans died together with the endless delays of the aiport opening and the insolvency of Air Berlin. BER will stay a point-to-point connection aiport for a very long time now, because even now that BER has opened, the airport doesn't come close to today's passenger expectations. They would most likely need to build a brand-new terminal dedicated to a hub-and-spoke model similar to what Lufthansa did in Munich with Terminal 2.

@I_Like_Remote_83

8 ай бұрын

i thought it would be munic as the main hub

Regarding the Denver to New Delhi distance thing, both Air India and Air Canada always fly east when connecting the North American west coast and New Delhi (or at least they did when I was flying that route regularly), as the prevailing tailwinds are more advantageous than reduced distance in terms of fuel usage.

Frankfurt was in the heart of (West-)Germany until 1989 and the major hub for that reason. Until very recently Berlin didn't have a big airport so couldn't take over the role of Frankfurt as the main hub in Germany. And as you mentioned Berlin is still very east for most Germans.

@alquinn8576

Жыл бұрын

iirc Frankfurt also the most important financial center in Germany

@jonathanbunemann8851

Жыл бұрын

As a German I cringed watching that part of the video. Unfortunately Kyle does not consider how incredibly central Frankfurt is for where most Germans actually live - along Rhein-Ruhr-Main-Neckar rivers. It‘s not by coincidence that it’s also the largest railway hub in Germany. And the reason it’s Germany‘s business capital is the same - it’s been an independent city well connected with rivers and valleys to everywhere for a long time

@apod2020

Жыл бұрын

It makes a lot of sense looking at a population density map of Germany why Frankfurt is so important

@bene4577

Жыл бұрын

@@jonathanbunemann8851 I cringed a bit too :D but I guess, it's quite difficult to understand without the german point of view

@casmatori

Жыл бұрын

@@jonathanbunemann8851 I was about to say. In terms of Germany, Berlin is nothing - it's basically Poland. Frankfurt area is where most of the population is.

One thing that you kind of miss is the role of mergers in determining the "hub" system. Delta picked up MSP and DTW as hubs because they were the hubs for Northwest and when Delta merged with NW, they picked up those hubs while scrapping the traditional "Delta Hub" of Cincinnati (CVG). Likewise, American picked up PHX from America West and PHL and CLT from USAir...at the same time, American abandoned the earlier USAir hub at Pittsburgh and the old TWA hub at STL. United picked up the hubs at EWR and HOU from Continental while abandoning the old Continental hub at CLE and the old United hub at SEA. And this isn't really a "new" trend either... Delta got Salt Lake City when they bought Western Airlines in the 1980's and American bought the MIA hub from Eastern and the Latin American routes from Pan Am. So, as airlines merge and shuffle assets, hubs and their routes come-and-go.

@jimgorycki4013

Жыл бұрын

The Charlotte hub goes back to the US Air days, when it acquired Piedmont, which major depot and hub was Winston-Salem. Because of its expansion from buying small regional carriers, Piedmont moved from Winston-Salem to Charlotte.

@terranceramirez4816

Жыл бұрын

US Airways abandoned Pittsburgh as a hub long before the merger with American, and American abandoned StL shortly after taking over TWA. Also, Delta abandoning CVG in favor of DTW makes a lot of sense as Detroit is a bigger and better positioned metro geographically than Cincinnati and Detroit still has a lot of economic importance as the hub for the American auto industry even though it has shrank, while Cincy is dying as a business and banking hub as evidenced for example by Chiquita leaving it for Charlotte several years ago.

@roygreen9890

Жыл бұрын

Pastor Kliner, good response, but with a CORRECTION: After the Continental/United merger, United took over the large international hub at Houston Itercontinental (IAH) -- NOT "HOU", as you state. "HOU" is Houston Hobby International -- the 2nd and smaller international airport in Houston. Southwest paid to expand and upgrade HOU (Hobby) to an international airport as their gateway to Latin America. United's hub is IAH and they don't even serve HOU.

@jmlinden7

Жыл бұрын

IAH not HOU. HOU is Hobby Airport (Southwest Airlines hub)

@ashgreene4914

Жыл бұрын

American got their MIA hub ONLY from Eastern. Pan Am's MIA hub was acquired by United who failed to capitalise on it and ended it just after 9/11

Air travel + geography! Thanks for keeping us entertained Kyle!

The fact that Ethiopian airlines is becoming a major hub is super interesting

@jag92949

Жыл бұрын

Ethiopia has been heavily modernizing for the last 20 years. They’re now competing with Egypt with the Nile River.

@trainrover

Жыл бұрын

but nation states aren't the ones doling business out, right; Corporateria have l o n g known how to cloak these stealthily creepy manœuvres of theirs..agreed? ;)

@mlehky

Жыл бұрын

Ethiopian Airline actually has a long and honorable history. They date back to the 40’s being formed right after WW2. They have had long haul international service since the 50’s, and operated jets since the very early 60’s. They are certainly not the fly by night new comer that many make them out to be.

@roverdover4449

Жыл бұрын

Yes, very interesting. Every thing I hear about Ethiopia is (relatively) positive. Hmmm, even craving some Ethiopian food.

@David-bh7hs

Жыл бұрын

​@@roverdover4449 except for the crashed Boeing plane

One of the main reasons American has it's east coast hub in Charlotte is that it was the home airport of Piedmont Air until 1989, and US Air until 2015, when that airline was purchased by American. Piedmont Air was headquartered in Winston-Salem, NC, and there was an internal debate within the company as to whether Winston-Salem or Charlotte should be the home airport for the airline. CLT won out, and now I'm pretty sure the W-S airport doesn't have any regularly scheduled flights anymore,since all of the local flights now operate out of Piedmont Triad International in Greensboro

Can you do one with cargo airports? Anchorage is an interesting hub for worldwide cargo and I’m curious to see how FedEx, ups, DHL etc. operates.

@Chris_at_Home

Жыл бұрын

Many cargo planes just refuel and change crews and off they go. My neighbor works for UPS at the ANC facility. If you look at an air traffic app you can get an idea of where the planes are coming from and going to. I see many of these planes climbing out heading to eastern USA.

@GeographyKing

Жыл бұрын

I'd like to look into that. I did a little preliminary research on agricultural flights and getting fresh fruits and vegetables to far off places quickly but it would've ended up being a video on its own. So I may have to do something with cargo and ag airports.

@Chris_at_Home

Жыл бұрын

@@GeographyKing I know COSTCO used to truck the west coast produce up here . The guy that had the contract had 3 trucks and each had 2 drivers so they could run long days. I’ve been though that airport hundreds of times.

@erik_griswold

Жыл бұрын

Anchorage was also a big hub/stopover point during the Cold War when air traffic could not fly over the USSR and aircraft could not fly as far they do today.

@swinde

Жыл бұрын

While Memphis, TN does not have a very large passenger service, it is either at #1 or #2 worldwide for cargo. Memphis was #1 in 2020, and held to #1 spot for ten or more years in the 90s, 2000s. Hong Kong is #1 currently and has been #1 for most of the last ten years.

Tracking hubs is interesting cause it gives insight to what cities are growing vs dying. Basically if you have an airline hub and lose it/close it, your city goes into decline (St Louis, Cleveland, Memphis)

@lavalampluva55401

Жыл бұрын

Hubs are an interesting thing. You don't need to be a huge city to have a large hub. Many hubs rely on connecting traffic, not local. Also Delta's DTW hub is smaller than MSP, but DTW has by far more international (European/Asian) destinations whereas MSP has more international destinations in Mexico and Caribbean than DTW.

Very interesting, especially comparing pre- and post-pandemic.

That AA map really does a good job of showing why Alaska airlines exists 😂

@andrewhurricane

Жыл бұрын

The relative lack of western mega hubs is not a new phenomenon. Perhaps things would have been different if carriers like Reno Air and America West had stayed independent in the years after 9/11.

@mrtodd3620

Жыл бұрын

One of these days AA and Alaska will merge, and they will then compete with Delta, which has built up Seattle since United left.

@jwil4286

8 күн бұрын

@@mrtodd3620Seattle is still Delta’s worst performing hub, behind both JFK and LAX (the other two hubs where they have serious competition), to say nothing of Delta’s fortress hubs (ATL, MSP, DTW, SLC). Also, with Alaska acquiring Hawaiian, there’s no way the DOJ would ever approve an AA/AS merger, so the two would likely simply concentrate in the east and west respectively, while United and Delta have to manage networks across the entire country (fwiw, they have Air Canada and Aeromexico to help a bit, but that’s not much).

Flying into the Salt Lake airport is drop dead gorgeous.

this is one of my favorite geography topics. love to look at those route maps. whenever I’m on a plane, that’s the first thing I go to in the back of the magazines (mot sure if they still have them though post-covid, haven’t flown yet).

7:40 Istanbul also has a brand new huge airport, that probably is a reason why the city made a huge jump in the rankings. 9:45 Historically, another airline (AirBerlin) used to mainly fly out of Berlin, but those guys went defunct. Despite Berlin also having a big 'new' airport Lufthansa hasn't jumped onto it, and the carrier remains strong in the West German heartland where it started out. Germany also has a good internal rail network so there is less reason for Lufthansa to expand their hubs to more cities.

As an aviation geek, I enjoyed this! Please update it every so often! Thanks!

Yet another fascinating topic I had no idea I was interested in! Thanks Kyle!

The New York and Singapore city pairs also has the same distance east and west. Now that Russian airspace is closed, Singapore actually runs all the routes going east to catch the winds, so if you take the flights back to back you got around the globe.

Delta’s hub used to be in Cincinnati but after they declared bankruptcy, they left. They basically built CVG but now it’s a hub for Amazon and is the fastest growing cargo airport in North America

@dustinmuir8991

Жыл бұрын

I didn’t know CVG was the fastest growing cargo airport in the US, but being Cincinnati residents, we enjoy (and recommend, especially for families) the CVG Viewing Area , and have noticed large cargo planes frequently landing at CVG from places like Anchorage and Japan.

@n7y8c7

Жыл бұрын

The merger with Northwest gifted Delta with much stronger assets in Detroit and Minneapolis, so they no longer needed Cincinnati and Memphis. Detroit is now Delta's #2 hub.

@fixpacifica

Жыл бұрын

I used to love flying through the Cincinnati airport and would try to schedule my cross country flights to go through there. They had some great restaurants at the airport.

@n7y8c7

Жыл бұрын

@@fixpacifica I hope you had the chili spaghetti 🍝

@BabyBang17datruth

Жыл бұрын

The airport is located in Kentucky

great video kyle. nice to see you back after a well deserved vacay

I’ve been on that flight between Dallas and Melbourne on Qantas. By far the longest flights I’ve ever been on in my life. I really had to mentally prepare myself for those flights, and I’ve only gone over and back just once. You just have to accept that it’s that long, sleep as much as you can, get up and walk around every few hours, and bring things to do with you or watch movies or TV. If that flight was sprung on you last minute, it would be VERY hard. But if you know far enough in advance and can prepare for it, it’s not that bad. I’d never let the simple length of a flight stop me from visiting a place. Well worth it once you’re there.

@stevewilson5292

Жыл бұрын

I suspect that in the future, people will regard some of us as being unbelievably hardy for sitting in cramped economy class for those 18-hour trips.

@n7y8c7

Жыл бұрын

What did you do to prepare yourself? My knees ache just thinking about it.

@cgimovieman

Жыл бұрын

@@n7y8c7 Like I was saying above, you just have to realize the length of the flight well in advance, treat it like sort of being in any other single place for a long time and plan things to keep yourself busy, and know that it’ll all be worth it to visit where you’re going. But I mean, nowadays you have a whole infotainment system in front of you with hundreds of things to choose from. And the lights are dim enough it’s not too difficult to sleep. Plus you’re served at least 3 meals on that flight. It’s a big plane too, so personally I like aisle seats so I can keep getting up to move around whenever I want. But ideally for a flight like that, I would LOVE to fly first class. If any s flight where that would feel great, it’s those. But unfortunately since that size plane has closed off sleeper “suites” for a lot of first class, and because of the distance, that class is prohibitively expensive for most people. I know I’ve never been able to fly anything but coach overseas.

@n7y8c7

Жыл бұрын

@@cgimovieman Absolutely! I've taken Delta One to Stuttgart and compared to the trip I had in economy before that to Amsterdam, the difference was night and day. I barely slept, but I was definitely comfortable. I'd like to try the SkyCouch on Air New Zealand.

@cgimovieman

Жыл бұрын

@@n7y8c7 Delta has long been my airline for decades as well. Although it was Northwest before Delta absorbed them years back now. New Zealand has been right at the top of my “to visit” list for a very long long time now. But despite travel being maybe my number one hobby, I just haven’t had the financial means to travel that far in quite a while. I used to get to travel for me work very frequently until about 2008/2009, but sadly my company downsized, I lost my job, and ever since then I’ve been on my own more or less for travel.

thank you for such extremely detailed commentary accompanied with maps!

Always a good day when a new Geography King video is posted! Hope you had fun on your recent trip 👍

Thanks for this video! Well formatted with good information.

I love that you have the _correct_ South Carolina license plate behind you

I love this channel! Very interesting stuff

Kyle, every video you make is amazing. Thanks for the information!

@GeographyKing

Жыл бұрын

Thank you!

Great video! I'm an aviation geek and a geography nerd... this video was right up my ally! Keep up the great work!

I appreciated the little Steve Miller Band nod at the end of the video.

Many of these hubs are ones inherited from Airlines they took over American got Philly, Phoenix and Charlotte when they bought out US Airways who in turn got Phoenix from America West and Charlotte from Piedmont. SImilarly, Delta got Detroit and Minneapolis-St. Paul from Northwest.

Fascinating video! Thank you so much!

As an airline pilot (That big orange S, the hometown airline for Minneapolis) this was an amazing video!

Good Morning, Great weather here to get great video!! Thanks!

Great video!! Enjoyed the information 👍🏼

Kyle, another excellent video, ty!👍🏼

Very helpful, Mr. Kyle, gracias. I'll save this video to help me select airlines and more direct routes. However, I prefer to drive so I can see the places I used to fly over. Much more interesting.

8:08 Delhi’s new international Terminal 3, as part of its expansion of the original airport in 2010, has allowed it to ramp up, so to speak, from being outside the 25 airports over the last dozen years to number 7 in the most recent poll.

Good to see a new video! Good job.

Oh this is a really good one! I love travel maps. :) Great post!

Great work Kyle, thanks.

Thank you for sharing.

I was reluctant to click on this link, but I should rely on your judgement... these maps are fabulous! Very nice. Thank you.

Interesting video, Kyle. Istanbul airport is gigantic!!! Pretty cool stuff.

The newest startup Avelo is breaking trends, utilizing small airports as their bases and doing flights out and back (meaning the pilots and flight attendants get to go back home every night). They seem to be growing fast. I hope their trend-defying operations hold and they continue to grow!

@Speedster___

Жыл бұрын

It would be really concerning if a startup wasn’t growing. The thing if the connect smaller airports they can’t crack larger cities. Like Denver is a big city with one airport.

@johnlundkeller

Жыл бұрын

@@Speedster___ Fair point! They do fly to bigger airports Baltimore Washington International (BWI), Orlando (MCO), and Chicago Midway (MDW) but it would be nice if they would use those as connecting points instead of just flying out there and back to their small "base" airports (their hubs).

@Speedster___

Жыл бұрын

@@johnlundkeller the thing is they can become like a mid 2000s Southwest but Becuase of operational model they just can not fly into bigger airports. Like midway is big but it’s very clearly the secondary airport. BWI is kinda like that too with DC near. Imo Avelo best expansion path is to find mid sized cities and then connect them to non regional big cities secondary airports. One random example would be Midway to Tucson

@F4URGranted

Жыл бұрын

So is breeze airlines, which is also doing very well right now. So many budget airlines are using this chance to improve hard and it's great to see. Always fun to walk through a small airport in a couple of minutes

@texastuna

Жыл бұрын

@@Speedster___ JSX uses Rocky Mountain Metro. Way closer to Denver than DEN

Love to see this for trains as well. (Freight or Passenger)

You are awesome . Good luck with your channel !

So interesting, as always!

Thank you so for this informative video. Doing research for transportation hub matrix, and your video helpful and educational.

Geography + aviation = nerd heaven. Great video! Thanks man

Love this video and channel! Great shirt btw!

@GeographyKing

Жыл бұрын

Thank you!

Love your channel very interesting

Following airlines, hubs, routes has always been a hobby of mine since I've been a kid. This video is very interesting. I'm not sure if it's a geography thing, but it is also interesting how each of these airlines acquired the hubs and focus cities they did. As well as some of the cities that used to be hubs but are not any longer. St. Louis for TWA/American. Memphis for Northwest/Delta. Cincinatti for Delta.

As an avgeek I absolutely love this one. Great vid as per usual.

That was really interesting!!

Interesting, earned a lot of new things I'd not really thought about.

Awesome video!

Beauty video and excellent graphics! Air Canada has lost a lot of pax due to a few new airlines in Canada - Flair, Swoop (Westjet), Lynx, Canada Airlines and expansion of Porter Airlines.

Great work sir, very informative and insightful.

Very cool to see the different flight maps next to eachnotbet

Thanks for the video. I'd like to see more videos about geography in the aviation context. I know it's a stretch, but if you can I'd like to see it.

great video! thanks!

Nice South Carolina license plate. Looks a lot better than the ones we are stuck with now. Great job on all the videos. Appreciate the info. Keep up the good work.

Currently in flight training. This is my dream fuel. Nice channel!

Thank you so much for your video. Back in 1989 I worked for an air freight company and I would fly from San Francisco to Tokyo and then to Hong Kong and spend a day in Hong Kong and back to Tokyo and then back to San Francisco twice a week. It was so fun for a while but I got burnt out and had to give it up. Well I’ll be looking for your next video 👍🌎

Great video. Living in Denver I can attest to the very busy airport.

fantastic information

Great information!

I am an airline worked and I loved this video!

I’m very familiar with DFW and American. DFW is perfect for east/west trips, and is AA’s primary Mexico gateway. It has a decent volume of flights to other latin and south american cities, but Miami primarily takes in those duties

I have watched and enjoyed a lot of your videos, including this very interesting one. Thank you Kyle! The airline industry was hugely impacted by the recent pandemic. And now for some older history about a former airline that was the world’s leading airline from the late 40’s through the 70s: Pan American World Airways. In 1947, Pan Am began the first regularly scheduled around-the-world passenger service using using Lockheed Constellations (a propeller-driven, four-engine pressurized-cabin civil airliner built from 1943 to 1958). Pan American Flight 001 originated in San Francisco and flew westward to Honolulu, on across the Pacific to Hong Kong, and continued around the world to Bangkok (Thailand), Delhi (India), Beirut (Lebanon), Istanbul (Turkey), Frankfurt (Germany), London (England) and finally to New York. The entire flight took about 48 hours. Its counterpart, Pan Am Flight 002, originated in New York and flew eastward around the world to the same cities. [Information from WIRED and Wikipedia articles.] In the summer of 1972, my wife and flew on Pan Am Flight 002 halfway around its global route, flying on a Boeing 747 from JFK in New York to London, Frankfurt, Istanbul, Karachi (Pakistan) and New Delhi. We returned a month later on Pan Am Flight 001 from New Delhi, to Beirut, Frankfort, London, to New York with breakfast served after each stop (as I recall). We got in very late to JFK and slept in the airport. We were both 20 then. It was overall, an amazing adventure!

Another fascinating presentation. Thanks, Kyle. Keep up the great work.

@GeographyKing

Жыл бұрын

Thank you!

Great Video. Do more on Airports and airlines

Airport hub history: Seattle: Was a large base for Northwest (merged with Delta). They used to work with Alaska for the local stuff but DL and AS had a falling out after the merger. SLC: Originally a hub for Western Airlines (merged with Delta) PHX: Hub for America West who later bought USAirways but kept the latter name. USAirways then bought American and again kept the latter name. MSP: Northwest hub before merger with Delta DTW: North Central hub before they merged with Southern to form Republic which later merged with Northwest IAH: Continental hub due in part to their history with Texas International. Became a United hub when CO and UA merged. Newark: Was the hub of PeoplExpress before Continental bought them in 1987. Before PE, Newark was a fairly quiet and empty place. CO grew the place using a new terminal (C) PE had designed and started construction on. United got it in the merger with CO and this is why they don’t find JFK worth serving despite trying again to do so recently. Both AA and UA have hubs in Texas and O’Hare. Southwest is a Texas airline that grew to have a major operation at Chicago-Midway, and even helped getting the new, much larger, terminal built there. I don’t see how any decline in Chicago or Illinois has any relevance to the fates of those three airlines.

Awesome video and it's awesome living in a city that is an airline hub, Phoenix!

Air Canada’s decline was a self imposed shot to the foot by Canada’s government. I did quite a bit of international travel in 2022, and while it was mostly back to business as usual in every other country, Canada was still acting like it was April of 2020 when it comes to Covid. They had huge staffing and security shortages at Toronto’s Pearson Airport, which lead to terrible delays, canceled flights and just general chaos there that lasted much of the year. Flying through YYZ on Air Canada last year was a genuinely terrible experience.

@theinternational397

Жыл бұрын

The countries in Asia made Canada’s Covid response look like Florida’s. While Canada was moving on most of Asia were still hiding under the table from the Covid virus.

@marklittle8805

Жыл бұрын

We Canadians have always hated Air Canada on and off. And now the Federal Government with their mismanagement had made YYZ a horrible place to fly from. The airport is expensive and there is a ton of walking at the main terminal as their redesign just was a bad idea. The old terminal one needed replacement but what we got was awful. Couple that with all the short staffing, usual Air Canada bungling and voila, the perfect storm.

@jonathantitus2629

Жыл бұрын

I have to concur. By last year ALL the US airports we traversed were working, but only Frankfurt was anywhere as bad as Toronto and only Lufthansa was anywhere close to as abysmal as Air Canada. As I have planned our two upcoming trips my wife gave me very clear guidance to avoid certain airlines and airports--glad to say I have done so. Next trip is a direct flight from CVG to London and back.

@marklittle8805

Жыл бұрын

@@jonathantitus2629 the sad part is this: our government is always telling us how they have all this under control and the issues at Pearson were the fault of travellers

@CosmicFishbowl

Жыл бұрын

@@marklittle8805 Wow, that’s funny. The fault of the travelers?

I approve and I am interested in learning more about geography from a nerdy perspective

Kyle does it again, you dropped this, king 👑

Kyle out here dropping another banger 🔥🔥🔥

great topic, very interesting factoids

Awesome video. I love air travel facts and figures. (Even though train travel is number 1)

Awesome video

Love this topic. Would have liked to hear any comments about how Alaska Airlines fits into the schemes you describe, given that it is also a top 5 carrier.

@crabring

Жыл бұрын

Yeah, I was hoping to learn more about southwest. Now I'm even more confused why you can't go to some cities via southwest if they don't rely on the "spoke" method like most.:-p

@IdliAmin_TheLastKingofSambar

Жыл бұрын

@@crabring I could be completely wrong, but I think it has to do, in part, with the expense of getting slots at large airports where legacy carriers have significant footprints. I’m pretty sure that was the case in the NYC metro area (where I grew up): for a long time, if you wanted to fly Southwest, you had to go to Philly or (I think) Islip, because the legacy carriers all had big presences at JFK, EWR, and LGA, though I think they now fly out of LGA, at least. I now live near BWI, which isn’t a hub for anyone, and where Southwest has something like an 85-90% market share.

@GeographyKing

Жыл бұрын

I think Alaska has a good footing in the up-and-down the coast market. Seattle and Portland are pretty far out of the way with no major population centers anywhere near, so the larger airlines tend to not fly those routes. But for Alaska they basically have cornered a market left relatively untapped. We flew with them from Fresno to Cabo San Lucas in Baja California.

The very first flight of my life was Chicago to Narita, Tokyo, Japan when I was like 22yrs old. It was over 12 hrs non-stop. Or 14. Don't remember, it was a long time ago. Or 13. Was a little nervous during the climb, but was ok after that. Airports are like little mini-cities. I wish air travel didn't take so much fuel.

@crabring

Жыл бұрын

I just wish it wasn't so expensive

Thanks King!

For the Germany thing, it's worth considering that up until a couple years ago Berlin was served by two very small airports, Tegel and Schönefeld. Having gone through both multiple times, there is absolutely no way those airports had the space to accommodate the kind of air traffic you see in Frankfurt or Amsterdam. Also, Frankfurt is a major financial hub and not comparatively far from the mean population center of Germany (or from Bonn, which was the capital of West Germany) Are these the reasons Lufthansa and Condor prefer Frankfurt over Berlin? No idea, I'm just putting some extra info out there for people's enjoyment

@claas901

Жыл бұрын

I was just about to write the exact same thing with the population distribution being much more favorable for Frankfurt. Also the connection of the airport to the high speed rail network with a dedicated train station might play a role.

@GeographyKing

Жыл бұрын

There were no airports in ancient Egypt so you know nothing. Nothing! But yeah I missed the bus for the reasons Frankfurt is the main hub.

@MarsJenkar

Жыл бұрын

Guessing the Cold War may have been a factor as to the lack of a large airport in Berlin until recently.

I spy a Primus album. 😊 I like to check out the albums, flags and little things behind you. Love your channel. Nerds rule!

Super Geeky! Thanks Kyle!!!

Awesome content, next up busiest shipping ports?

Atlanta is the busiest hub in the world because of its location. It can reach 2/3 of the US population within a two hour flight. That’s something NY, LA, Chicago and Dallas can’t do.

@n7y8c7

Жыл бұрын

"When I die, whether I'm going to heaven or hell, I've gotta change planes in Atlanta!"

Many people are (correctly) pointing out that Lufthansa’s biggest hub is in Frankfurt because it was centrally located in West Germany, but everyone is forgetting one crucial detail. East Germany forbade any and all West German registered aircraft from flying over its airspace, effectively banning them from flying to Berlin; only aircraft registered in the United States, UK, and France were allowed to fly over their airspace. Hence why Pan Am and British Airways had vast networks of flying flights within Germany during the Cold War. Meanwhile West German airlines, including Lufthansa, did not even fly to Berlin until AFTER German reunification in 1990. Air Berlin, an airline based in Berlin we remember as German, was actually an American airline when it was founded and flew American registered aircraft until German reunification, when it ‘relocated’ to Germany.

I used to fly to St. Louis from Little Rock a lot on Southwest in 2005 because Busch Stadium 2 was being demolished once the season ended. I loved it. Soon as I got off the plane, I would take the MetroLink directly into Downtown and get off at the Stadium exit. Great times!

Well done!

Superb video, thank you! If I recall, AA acquired U S Airways, which I believe had hubs in Phoenix and Charlotte, and before that US Airways had acquired America West (whose hub may have been in Phoenix originally?). I am just into the first 2 minutes of the video, and it may be covered in the video that I am about to see, but airline acquisition plays a big role in how and why hubs are where they are in the US.

@TheLewistownTrainspotter8102

Жыл бұрын

Pretty much. United inherited Continental's hubs at IAH and EWR, to add to their existing hubs of LAX, SFO, DEN, ORD, and IAD. Delta inherited MSP and DTW in the merger with Northwest Airlines. American inherited PHX, CLT and PHL through the merger with US Airways.

Fascinating video, interesting to see how things are evolving. There is less SIN in the world? I'm surprised that the best airport in the world Singapore is now less used, not even on the list. I've been flying LHR-MEL annually for almost 20 years and have tried doing so via Thailand, HK and the Middle East but have found LHR-SIN-MEL to be the best route (go for a swim in the roof top pool of Terminal 1 and I feel the most refreshed). It was becoming harder prepandemic as BA stopped flying SIN-MEL and only QANTAS would service route. Also I've never seen that being on a plane for 18 hours as a sensible option, LHR-PER-MEL would mean a very long flight followed by an (inferior) domestic flight.

The SW Airlines map at 5:47 has an odd way of naming a few cities. Specifically Lilac City instead of Spokane, Mile High City instead of Denver, and Big Apple and New Ark.

@kjhuang

Жыл бұрын

I don't think it's an official SWA map.

@lavalampluva55401

Жыл бұрын

Spokane has the nickname of "Lilac City"

this is so cool!!!

MSP as a Delta hub is at least in part a legacy of it having been the base and headquarters for Northwest Airlines, which was swallowed up by Delta. Before the hub-and-spoke era, MSP was a small-ish airport and not a major transfer point.