"American Airlines Launches 'Rolling Hub' Plan at Dallas/Fort Worth Airport"

Friday, November 1, 2002

American Airlines Launches 'Rolling Hub' Plan at Dallas/Fort Worth
Airport
The Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Texas


Starting today, travelers at Dallas/Fort Worth Airport will experience
slightly longer connection times between flights but will also see less
congestion and spend less time on the tarmac waiting to take off. 

American Airlines is scheduled to debut its "rolling hub" concept today
at D/FW, ending the long-standing practice of scheduling large banks of
airplanes to land and take off at once. 

The traditional approach was costly to the airline because more gate and
ground workers were needed to handle the crunch of activity during the
peak periods. But it also meant shorter connection times, which for
years airline executives saw as crucial to attracting busy, high-paying
business travelers. 

In the current economy, however, with most passengers choosing lower
fares over shorter trips, smoothing out the flight schedule is seen as a
relatively easy way for the carrier to save money. 

"It's a much more efficient way of operating," American spokesman Al
Becker said. "It's a better, more efficient use of our airplanes, our
gates and our people."

The airline predicts that the airport will be less congested, because
great numbers of passengers won't arrive and leave at the same time. And
congestion on the runways will also be reduced, which will mean less
time waiting for permission to take off. 

One potential drawback is that travelers who prefer early-morning
"red-eye" flights may find that there are fewer departures at the start
of the day, because the airline won't be kicking off the morning with a
large bank of planes. 

But Becker said that any early-morning changes won't be noticeable to
most passengers, because schedules will change by just a few minutes at
most. 

Many travelers prefer the smoothed-out schedule because it makes
connections -- which will increase an average of about 10 minutes --
easier to reach, he said.

The airline experimented with the concept this year at its hub in
Chicago. Executives announced in August that D/FW would streamline its
schedule, after American unveiled a dramatic restructuring plan that
included 7,000 layoffs and the grounding of 83 aircraft. 

Some of those layoffs will the result of the change in the hub operation
at D/FW. Because it will need fewer gates to operate the same number of
flights, American won't need as many employees in the terminal or on the
ground. 

American and the other major airlines are struggling to stay afloat amid
the worst travel slump in airline history. The carrier has lost nearly
$3 billion this year because of a drop in business travel, an intense
fare war that has pushed ticket prices to historic lows and continued
effects on travel from last year's terror attacks.


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