United Airlines to drop Cleveland as a hub in cost-cutting

This was all but inevitable once the Continental & United merger went through.

 

United is taking its talents to South Beach?

 

I blame LeBron James and Bernie Kosar. Cleveland gets shafted over everything. The NHL even went to Columbus instead.

 

United is probably moving all its Cleveland talent to Baltimore.

 

But the Cleveland airport will keep its name.

 

Won't miss it.

 

Don't forget the NHL went to Cleveland first. And flopped.

 

As I recall when I lived in Cleveland, it was a very minor Continental hub to begin with.

 

The only flight to Europe was a seasonal flight to London. And, as time went on, it got a lot more regional jets.

CO even sent a lot of its trancon connections through Houston.

It was never a big enough O&D market to justify a hub. CO took it over after UA originally abandoned it. It was never profitable, and once Southwest ramped up there (and AirTran started running flights out of Canton/Akron) it only got worse.

Chicago has the O&D traffic and the geography to warrant a hub, and they don't need it and Cleveland.

 

Played golf the other day with an American Airlines scheduler. Per him, there are about 50 AA schedulers and about 50 US Airways schedulers, and the new combined airline will need only about 85. He finds out this week whether or not he keeps his job.

 

Are they all going to work out of Dallas?

If yes, you've got to figure that even some of the US Airways folks who are offered a job won't want to/be able to make the move.

A number of people I know from Continental moved up here when they merged with United, but a lot more couldn't for family reasons.

 

That's a pretty good severance package for the ones who aren't selected or can't make the move, right?