BEFORE — Hub-and-Spoke

every passenger routes through the hub -> delays + ground crew cost Every major American airline runs a hub and spoke network where you fly into a hub city then connect to your final destination. Except Southwest. They fly point to point. Direct city-pair flights - no central hub. And that one choice changed everything about their cost structure. Herb Kelleher and Rollin King started Southwest in 1971 flying only inside of Texas, and from day one, they built the operation to look nothing like legacy carriers. They had point-to-point routes, one aircraft type across the entire fleet, the 737, ~25-minute turnarounds on the ground, and no assigned seats, faster boarding. Boeing 737 pilots, mechanics, all interchangeable everywhere. And had a turnaround target of around 25 minutes on the ground. So no assigned seats, right? Boarding is faster. Until recently, Southwest remained profitable for 47 years in a row, which basically no other airline could claim. And the core math is that hub and spoke costs you delay and ground crew. Point to point trades out that breath for cheaper flights per seat. So the operation ends up becoming the moat. And this isn't something you can outmarket as a competitor. You have to rebuild your airline's strategy from the ground up.