Summary Banked hubs streamline connections & offer flexibility. Rolling hubs reduce delays but lower revenue for airlines. Industry experts suggest a hybrid approach for greater efficiency.
The major carriers in the US, such as American Airlines and Delta Air Lines, saw a pronounced shift from the concept of banked hubs around the turn of the millennium. This was done to ease the traffic congestion at the airports. American Airlines reverted to a rolling hub at the Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport (DFW) airport , and Chicago O'Hare International Airport (ORD) .
It was hoped that introducing a rolling hub would cut down on the takeoff queues at the airport, aiding to reduce delays. However, terms such as “rolling hubs” and “banked hubs” are not well-known in the public sphere. So, we will take a look at what they really mean.
Banked hubs Before Covid-19, the hub and spoke model had more or less been buried. Delta Air Lines had pioneered the hub and spoke model around the mid 20th century to optimize network coverage. Under the hub-and-spoke concept , airlines choose the hub airport as their central transfer point.
International carriers such as Cathay Pacific and Singapore Airlines have a single-hub airport. If flights originate at a carrier’s “spoke airports,” i.e.
, the airports in the various cities in the carrier’s network, the passengers are first transferred to the hub airports. So, a passenger wanting to fly from Kathmandu to Laos on Singapore Airl.