Focus city

In the airline industry, a focus city is a location that is not a hub, but from which the airline has non-stop flights to several destinations other than its hubs. For example, Northwest Airlines has focus city operations at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport as well as Indianapolis, which serves 17 non-hub destinations [ [http://www.nwa.com/travel/timetable/ NWA Timetable] ] as of June 2007.

Compared to a hub operation, flights from focus cities are often less frequent, served by smaller regional aircraft, and cater more to origin & destination traffic instead of connecting traffic. Connections are however, often available by default, due to the number of destinations/frequencies served by a single operator (sometimes in conjunction with operational partners).

The term "focus city" is somewhat of a misnomer, since it generally refers to an airport rather than a city. For example, US Airways has focus city operations at LaGuardia Airport in New York City, but not at the two other major airports for the New York City region: John F. Kennedy International Airport in Queens or Newark Liberty International Airport in Newark, New Jersey. Other terms with equivalent meaning are "hublet", "mini-hub", "key city."

Focus cities are also commonly used by low-cost operators such as Southwest Airlines or Ryanair that primarily fly point-to-point and thus do not have large concentrations of hub operations.

Currently, Continental Airlines and United Airlines are the only 2 US carriers with no focus city operations.Fact|date=September 2008

References

External links

* [http://www.usairways.com/common/resources/_downloads/usaroutemap.pdf Map of US Airways's routes and indicator of their focus cities]
* [http://www.airtran.com/route-map/city_information.aspx Map of AirTran's routes and indicator of their focus cities]
* [http://www.jetblue.com/wherewefly/ JetBlue route map with "key cities"]