Hub operations and airline competition

Abstract

Airlines are increasingly competing for connecting traffic in scheduled airtransport by coordinating flights through hubs. Airport capacities are identified as major constraints. This article focuses on connections through London. An analysis of data derived from two large passenger surveys reveals that British Airways (BA) at Heathrow sometimes feeds more traffic to foreign airlines' flights than it does to its own, and some comparisons of flight schedules show BA below almost all other major hub airlines in Europe in terms of ‘useful’ connections per flight. Lack of adequate multi-runway, single- terminal capacity could mean UK airports developing more as spokes than as hubs.