ABSTRACT
Many new airlines use their aircraft intensively throughout the day, and that may well be the most profitable strategy. Most journeys by air are made either in the course of the traveller's business role or for a private leisure purpose. Deregulation in the US allowed and encouraged the legacy airlines to adopt hub-and-spoke (HS) networks, with hubs dispersed at major cities. In contrast, in Europe the national carriers used the national capitals as hub ports, and often confined their service at regional cities to routes connecting those cities to the national capital. Most new airlines have chosen to build point-to-point (PTP) networks, for which each flight number designates a single flight sector, and the airline serves only those routes that have enough traffic to support direct, non-stop service. In principle, an airline can choose between the alternative network styles. A new entrant inevitably starts with a small network, and almost all European entrants have chosen to operate a PTP network.
