Southwest moved aggressively into all of American’s former north-south hubs (RDU, Nashville, San Jose). One might or might not like the recent policy changes at Southwest, but they were an instant success when they began at RDU in 1999. By then it was becoming clear that Midway was in trouble. Southwest has 14% market share here, as of December 2025. They also opened the door for other low-cost carriers like Avelo, Breeze, Frontier, and JetBlue to enter the market. This changed the pricing dynamics at RDU forever. ValuJet was here before Southwest but didn’t have the market power to effect much change.
Look at fares in CLT to see what happens when one airline utterly dominates an airport.
Notoriety is not always a positive. I think losing the hub was really a blessing, let me suggest a couple reasons why. Yes, some people know about hub airports - but the vast majority of them just fly thru. The city sees little economic benefit from all those passengers. Worse, if the hub struggles with delays and an over crowded terminal, than the hub can damage a city’s reputation. I think Charlotte is dealing with this - that terminal is way over crowded, and things rarely seem to run on time. Even worse is when 1 airline dominates, locals pay the cost in higher tickets. It is actually cheaper on many flights from me to fly out of BHM to ATL, then to drive over and start my flight at ATL. Reputation, costs, diversity of offerings - I think that in the end RDU is lucky not to be a hub and much better for it.
Another factor was that for the business flyer, the AA/Midway hub had flight banks that weren’t always helpful. For trips east of the Mississippi, most business flyers want a same-day round trip that leaves at sunrise so that you can get close to a full working day at the destination before coming home in the evening. But AA’s hub schedule had 3 northbound and 3 southbound rushes a day, and the first didn’t start until about 9 am… pretty useless for the RDU-based business traveler. Over time AA and Midway did add some sunrise flights (LGA, ATL, etc) but the situation was never ideal.
One long-lasting result of the AA hub, however, is the London nonstop. I believe it would have happened eventually anyway, but much later in the game.
Ah man I didn’t check back here before the flight so only seeing this now, but would have gladly met up for a beer!
Highly recommend others taking the trip down. From leaving my front door in DTR to arriving at the hotel in Key West was less than 3.5 hours total. Phenomenal little getaway option to escape the cold.
Classism Xenophobia (Nimby) has unfortunately plagued our beautiful community. A light rail line is nice, however this city has graduated to the status of supporting subway rail.
Screw the money laundering studies, we need this immediately! Imagine a line that ties the entire Capital Blvd, Dowtown, and South Saunders st corridor together!
Raleigh is the densest under counted city in NC due to politricks, but the transportation system is almost non existent. Don’t forget the fact Wake County is the largest county in the Southeast outside of Florida and Texas.
We should broaden our view and become more critical of our city leaders. That’s all.