Hub Airports – Everything You Need to Know

An airport hub is another terminology that is widely used in air travel by the aviation industry. Many major airline carriers have hubs that allow them to operate flights to and from several destinations. These can also include layovers and stopovers, where passengers are routed to before taking them to their final destinations.

In this blog, we will take an in-depth look at what are hub airports. Also, we are going to include a couple of major hub airports and their airline carriers from around the world.

What is a Hub Airport?

In air travel, a hub airport or ‘airline hub’ is basically a central airport or city, where an airline carrier operates its flights for departure and arrival routes from and to other cities within a country and/or around the world.

In addition, these hubs also serve as layover and stopover points in order to transfer passengers to their final destinations. This includes both domestic and international travel.

Hub airports are generally part of a hub-and-spoke system. In a hub-and-spoke system flight routes are organised in a series of spokes or routes of a hub (the central part). For example, Denver in the US serves as a hub city for several connected cities or spokes, such as Kansas City, Phoenix, Salt Lake City, Las Vegas, Dallas/Ft Worth, Chicago and more. These cities can also have stopovers.

An airline can have multiple hubs. For instance, American Airlines is currently one of the largest airline carriers in the world, and it alone has about ten airline hubs in the United States. It is followed by another US-based carrier, Delta Air Lines, which has nine airline hubs in the United States.

Types of Airline Hubs

There are different types of airline hubs or hub airports.

Primary and Secondary Hubs: These hubs allow airline carriers to expand their operations geographically.

Focus City: Airlines transfer passengers directly to their destination airport, instead of arriving at a central hub or stopover.

Fortress Hub: These are airports that are controlled by the airline carrier. For example, Atlanta in Georgia, USA, is a fortress hub for Delta Air Lines.

Reliever Hub: It acts as a temporary hub to shift traffic for airline carriers that have exhausted their main hub’s capacity, especially during peak days.

Moonlight Hub: This type of airline hub generally caters to airline carriers that has most flight operations during a specific time of the day, particularly in the night time.

Cargo Hubs and Scissor Hubs: Cargo airlines, such as FedEx, UPS, DHL, etc. operate cargo hubs that uses the hub-and-spoke system.

List of Hub Airports in the United States of America (USA)

Below are some domestic and international airports that serve as major hubs for popular airline carriers in North and Central America.

• Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport (IATA: BWI) is a major airline hub for Southwest Airlines.

• Boston Logan International Airport (IATA: BOS) is a major airline hub for Delta Air Lines and JetBlue Airways.

• Charlotte Douglas International Airport (IATA: CLT) is a major airline hub for American Airlines.

• Chicago-O’Hare International Airport (IATA: ORD) is a major airline hub for American Airlines and United Airlines.

• Chicago Midway International Airport (IATA: MDW) is a major airline hub for Southwest Airlines.

• Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport (IATA: DFW) is a major airline hub for American Airlines.

• Dallas Love Field (IATA: DAL) is a major airline hub for Southwest Airlines.

• Denver International Airport (IATA: DEN) is a major airline hub for Frontier Airlines, United Airlines and Southwest Airlines.

• Detroit Metropolitan Airport (IATA: DTW) is a major airline hub for Delta Airlines.

• Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (IATA: ATL) is a major airline hub for Delta Air Lines and Southwest Airlines.

• Houston-Intercontinental Airport (IATA: IAH) is a major airline hub for United Airlines.

• Los Angeles International Airport (IATA: LAX) is a major airline hub for Alaska Airlines, American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Southwest Airlines and United Airlines.

• McCarran International Airport Las Vegas (IATA: LAS) is a major airline hub for Southwest Airlines.

• Miami International Airport (IATA: MIA) is a major airline hub for American Airlines.

• Minneapolis–Saint Paul International Airport (IATA: MSP) is a major airline hub for Delta Air Lines.

• Newark Liberty International Airport (IATA: EWR) is a major airline hub for United Airlines.

• New York-JFK International Airport (IATA: JFK) is a major airline hub for American Airlines, Delta Air Lines and JetBlue Airways.

• New York-LaGuardia International Airport (IATA: LGA) is a major airline hub for American Airlines and Delta Air Lines.

• Oakland International Airport (IATA: OAK) is a major airline hub for Southwest Airlines.

• Orlando International Airport (IATA: MCO) is a major airline hub for Southwest Airlines.

• Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport (IATA: PHX) is a major airline hub for American Airlines and Southwest Airlines.

• Philadelphia International Airport (IATA: PHL) is a major airline hub for American Airlines.

• Portland International Airport (IATA: PDX) is a major airline hub for Alaska Airlines.

• Salt Lake City International Airport (IATA: SLC) is a major airline hub for Delta Air Lines.

• San Francisco International Airport (IATA: SFO) is a major airline hub for Alaska Airlines and United Airlines.

• Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (IATA: SEA) is a major airline hub for Alaska Airlines and Delta Air Lines.

• Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport (IATA: ANC) is a major airline hub for Alaska Airlines.

• Washington-Dulles International Airport (IATA: IAD) is a major airline hub for United Airlines.

• Washington-Reagan International Airport (IATA: DCA) is a major airline hub for American Airlines.

• William P. Hobby Airport Houston (IATA: HOU) is a major airline hub for Southwest Airlines.

List of Hub Airports in South America

Below are some domestic and international airports that serve as major hubs for popular airline carriers in South America.

• Bogotá-El Dorado International Airport (IATA: BOG) is a major airline hub for Avianca, Copa Airlines Colombia and LAN Colombia.

• Brasília International Airport (IATA: BSB) is a major airline hub for Avianca Brazil, TAM and Gol Airlines.

• Buenos Aires Ezeiza International Airport (IATA: EZE) is a major airline hub for Aerolíneas Argentinas and LATAM Argentina.

• Lima-Jorge Chávez International Airport (IATA: LIM) is a major airline hub for LATAM Peru.

• Rio de Janeiro-Galeão International Airport (IATA: GIG) is a major airline hub for Gol Airlines.

• Santiago-Comodoro Arturo Merino Benítez International Airport (IATA: SCL) is a major airline hub for LATAM.

• São Paulo-Guarulhos International Airport (IATA: GRU) is a major airline hub for LATAM, Avianca Brazil and Gol Airlines.

List of Hub Airports in Africa

Below are some domestic and international airports that serve as major hubs for popular airline carriers in various countries in the African continent.

• Addis Ababa-Bole International Airport (IATA: ADD) is a major airline hub for Ethiopian Airlines.

• Algiers-Houari Boumediene Airport (IATA: ALG) is a major airline hub for Air Algérie.

• Cairo International Airport (IATA: CAI) is a major airline hub for Air Cairo and Egypt Air.

• Cape Town International Airport (IATA: CPT) is a major airline hub for South African Express and Mango Airlines.

• Casablanca-Mohammed V International Airport (IATA: CMN) is a major airline hub for Air Arabia and Royal Air Maroc Airlines.

• Johannesburg-OR Tambo International Airport (IATA: JNB) is a major airline hub for South African Airways, Comair, Kulula and Mango Airlines.

List of Hub Airports in Oceania

Below are some domestic and international airports that serve as major hubs for popular airline carriers in the Oceanic countries of Australia and New Zealand.

• Auckland Airport (IATA: AKL) in New Zealand is a major airline hub for Air New Zealand and Virgin Australia Airlines.

• Brisbane Airport (IATA: BNE) in Australia is a major airline hub for Jetstar Airways, Qantas and Virgin Australia Airlines.

• Melbourne Airport (IATA: AKL) in Australia is a major airline hub for Jetstar Airways, Qantas and Virgin Australia Airlines.

• Sydney Airport (IATA: AKL) in Australia is a major airline hub for Jetstar Airways, Qantas and Virgin Australia Airlines.

List of Hub Airports in Europe

Below are some domestic and international airports that serve as major hubs for popular airline carriers in the European continent.

• Adolfo Suárez Madrid-Barajas Airport (IATA: MAD) in Spain is a major airline hub for Iberia, Ryanair and Easyjet Airlines.

• Amsterdam Airport Schiphol (IATA: AMS) in the Netherlands is a major airline hub for KLM Royal Dutch Airlines.

• Barcelona El Prat Airport (IATA: BCN) in Spain is a major airline hub for Iberia, Vueling and Ryanair.

• Dublin Airport (IATA: DUB) in Ireland is a major airline hub for Aer Lingus and Ryanair.

• Frankfurt Airport (IATA: FRA) in Germany is a major airline hub for Lufthansa.

• Istanbul Airport (IATA: IST) in Turkey is a major airline hub for Turkish Airlines.

• Leonardo da Vinci-Fiumicino Airport (IATA: FCO) in Italy is a major airline hub for Alitalia and Vueling.

• London-Gatwick Airport (IATA: LGW) in England is a major airline hub for Aer Lingus, British Airways and Virgin Atlantic Airways.

• London-Heathrow Airport (IATA: LHR) in England is a major airline hub for British Airways and Virgin Atlantic Airways.

• Moscow-Sheremetyevo International Airport (IATA: SVO) in Russia is a major airline hub for Aeroflot.

• Munich Airport (IATA: MUC) in Germany is a major airline hub for Lufthansa.

• Paris-Charles de Gaulle Airport (IATA: CDG) in France is a major airline hub for Air France.

List of Hub Airports in Asia

Below are some domestic and international airports that serve as major hubs for popular airline carriers in various regions throughout Asia.

• Abu Dhabi International Airport (IATA: AUH) is a major airline hub for Etihad Airways.

• Bangkok-Suvarnabhumni Airport (IATA: BKK) is a major airline hub for Thai Airways.

• Beijing Capital International Airport (IATA: PEK) is a major airline hub for Air China, China Eastern Airlines and China Southern Airlines.

• Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport Mumbai (IATA: BOM) is a major airline hub for Air India.

• Dubai International Airport (IATA: DXB) is a major airline hub for Emirates Airlines.

• Hong Kong International Airport (IATA: HKG) is a major airline hub for Cathay Pacific, Hong Kong Airlines and HK Express.

• Indira Gandhi International Airport (IATA: DEL) is a major airline hub for Air India.

• Jakarta-Soekarno-Hatta International Airport (IATA: CGK) is a major airline hub for Garuda Indonesia and Indonesia AirAsia.

• Kuala Lumpur International Airport (IATA: KUL) is a major airline hub for Air Asia and Malaysia Airlines.

• Seoul-Incheon International Airport (IATA: ICN) is a major airline hub for Asiana Airlines and Korean Air.

• Shanghai-Hongqiao International Airport (IATA: SHA) is a major airline hub for China Eastern Airlines and Shanghai Airlines.

• Shanghai-Pudong International Airport (IATA: PVG) is a major airline hub for Air China, China Eastern Airlines and Shanghai Airlines.

• Singapore Changi Airport (IATA: SIN) is a major airline hub for Singapore Airlines.

• Tokyo-Haneda Airport (IATA: HND) is a major airline hub for All Nippon Airways and Japan Airlines.

• Tokyo-Narita International Airport (IATA: NRT) is a major airline hub for All Nippon Airways and Japan Airlines.

Conclusion

Most airline carriers operating direct flights are required to fly to a hub airport first, before arriving at the final destination, even if it may seem unnecessary. This however, is just another business strategy that is practised by several airline carriers that are usually based in that particular country.