What benefit does the hub system have?

Question

I'm reading an article about the airline deregulation 1978 but

I don't see some parts of it,

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Another of the more lasting changes was the greater use of airline "hubs,"—major airports where many of an airline's flights originate or terminate—by airline companies. The hub system emphasizes greater frequency of service by smaller aircraft and reduces the number of cities directly connected by any single carrier. This system virtually eliminates the need for wide-body aircraft in domestic air travel. Another effect of deregulation was the transfer of shorter routes from major carriers to smaller, regional airline companies. In the twenty years following the passage of the Act, regional and commuter passenger traffic grew at almost twice the rate of larger air carriers.

Why does this aricle say more lasting changes was the greater

use of ailine hubs" What do we get for this?

Answer 1

After Deregulation, airlines focused on moving more towards a hub-and-spoke operation rather than a point-to-point operation in regards to their route networks.  This made the operation more efficient in that an airline could offer service to many more markets from a particular city and with increased frequency.  This also benefits the passenger in that there are more flights to choose from throughout the day.  Airlines generally strive to offer multiple flights per day on a given route or market in order to offer passengers the flexibility of choosing what time of day they would like to travel.

Using the point-to-point system, which was much more prevalent prior to Deregulation, passengers are generally stuck with fewer flights to choose from to get from Point A to Point B.

As a basic example, there are only so many people that want to fly from Boston to New Orleans.  An airline may only be able to operate one flight per day on that route (any more than that and the planes would not be full enough to turn a profit).  The departure and arrival time for this one flight may be very inconvenient for potential customers.  Now, instead of flying point-to-point with only one flight per day on a given route, the airline uses a hub-and-spoke system.  Let's say that the airline has a hub in Atlanta.  The airline can then offer multiple flights per day from Boston to Atlanta, where the passengers wanting to go to New Orleans would connect to a flight from Atlanta to New Orleans.  But in addition to the New Orleans passengers, you have passengers going from Boston to Los Angeles, and Orlando, and Dallas, etc., etc.  This allows the airline to fill up several planes each day from Boston to Atlanta.  All of the passengers departing Boston, regardless of their final destination, are "funneled" into Atlanta where they disperse and catch flights from Atlanta to their final destinations.  At the same time, you not only have passengers from Boston continuing on to New Orleans, but you also have New Orleans-bound passengers being funneled into Atlanta from, say, New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles, Denver, etc.  So because passengers from several other cities are being funneled into Atlanta, it allows the airline to fill up multiple planes to a given destination.

Hopefully that made sense.  The hub-and-spoke system is simply a more efficient way for certain airlines to operate, which also generally allows passengers the freedom to fly when they want, morning, noon, or night.

On a side note, one thing I disagree about with that article is that regional airlines have not necessarily taken over operating on shorter routes in place of the majors.  It does not depend on the length of the flight.  It depends on the market and the number of passengers on it.