What is the hub-and-spoke system?
Some airports serve as transfer hubs for air carriers, facilitating efficient routing of passengers and cargo to certain destinations, or spokes. Small communities, in particular, benefit from this hub-and-spoke configuration because airlines can provide local service that might not be possible otherwise; hub-and-spoke operations connect small communities to most airlines’ global networks. The well-known airlines, sometimes called legacy carriers or network carriers, use the hub-and-spoke system. Many low-fare carriers, such as Southwest Airlines, either fly direct, non-stop flights, dubbed point-to-point, or use a modified hub system with fewer flights into the hub location. Other low-fare carriers, such as AirTran Airways, employ the hub and spoke system.
