In what likely will have negative implications on cheap traveloptions out of Cleveland, including cheap airplane tickets, discounttravel deals, and cheap vacation packages,United Airlines has announced that Cleveland will no longer serve as one of itshubs and the airline will slash daily flights out of this city as well aseliminate 470 jobs.
This means the airline will not continue to use Clevelandto connect passengers coming from other airports around the country. Uniteds current daily departures fromCleveland will fall from 199 to 72 by June.
United contends that its Cleveland hub has not beenprofitable for over a decade, generating tens of millions of dollars of annuallosses in recent years. The airlinesposition is that We simply cannot continue to bear these loses.
United announced last November that it will reduce itsannual costs in 2014 by $2 billion by shifting flights, increasing workerproductivity, and improving its maintenance procedures.
Airline mergers over the past five years have resulted insimilar reductions of air service at many other small hub cities, includingCincinnati, Memphis, and Salt Lake City.
Given that it is difficult to fill in a plane betweensmaller cities, airlines use hubs such as Cleveland to attract passengers andconnect them to their destinations. Travelers living in hub cities have a wider selection of nonstopdestinations because their airport has more flights than if it was limited toflights only supported by local traffic.
Cleveland used to be a hub for Continental before it mergedwith United in 2010. Ever since themerger Cleveland has been in danger of losing its hub status because theairline now has Uniteds Midwestern hub in Chicago.
The Ohio Governor has expressed disappointment withUniteds decision and openly disagrees with this action. However, he did point out that United claimsthat the demand for air travel from Cleveland remains strong and that theairline will maintain almost all of its flights to and from major markets.
Delta Air Lines announced last June that it would beclosing its Memphis hub which was inherited when in merged with NorthwestAirlines in 2008. Delta continues tooperate its largest hub out of Atlanta.
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