Recent airline mergers will result in some airports seeing substantial reductions in flights with will cause those airports to lose their regional hub status which in turn will make finding cheap airplane tickets and cheap vacation packages more challenging.
Travelers flying into or out of cities such as Cleveland and Memphis may soon find that that reduced flight frequencies translate into more expensive and more complicated (i.e. trips requiring more connections) flight options.
Delta Air Lines merged with Northwest Airlines in 2008 and then this past March announced that it was reducing its current service at Memphis International Airport, which had been one of Northwests three major hubs, by 25 percent. The airline described this decision as a needed cost savings measure.
Experts expect Delta will continue to reduce Memphis flights over the next five years. US Airways used a similar time frame in reducing its Pittsburg flights until its Pittsburgh hub was gone. US Airways traffic fell from a high in 1997 of almost 21 million passengers to a little over 13 million in 2004 and to about 8 million by 2009.
Airports in St. Louis and Cincinnati have lost their hub status. Experts expect that Cleveland Hopkins International Airport will eventually lose its regional hub status as a result of last years merger of United and Continental Airlines.
Domestic capacity continues to be reduced throughout the nation. Airports are going to have to be flexible and creative if they want to minimize airline capacity reductions at their facilities.
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