Thanks for that. However it seems to me that within Europe hub and spoke is already dead; any city of a reasonable size would have, or would aspire to have, direct flights to every other city. The question which must be asked is whether this point to point model will extend; when 321LR and similar a/c arrive in numbers will second tier airports expect to have direct flights to a wide range of cities in the US. It will be interesting to see.
Where to start? You’re fundamentally misunderstanding the marketplace here.
If hub and spoke is dead, why are KLM, sorry “Amsterdam Airways” in your parlance, able to offer such a comprehensive offering to the world via AMS to the UK market? By your rationale, hardly anyone would need to connect anymore? How come Lufthansa, Air France, Finnair, SAS and Swiss are still operating the hub and spoke model?
So, if you’re right, there’s zero market between GLA-DUS? Not a single person flies GLA-ZRH? Of course that’s unreal, as p2p loco needs volume that many business markets can’t provide. It’s a balance. I love easyJet, flown four sectors with them last week, all on time, but they’re often not business friendly. See the IOM thread to see how they might not even be the best fit.
That also surprises me, especially where it leads to easyJet getting an increased foothold in Gatwick instead of a franchise operating a network feeding into BA's longhaul
BA DID try this, could not make it work. Two London hubs was not a smart move, added a load of costs, duplication and diluted yields. Now remove the hub and look at BA LGW today, they’re in a realy good place and profitable. *short haul BA at LGW in the black* Something many never believed possible, me included! BA let EZY dominate LGW as they couldn’t make it work for themselves, but later fought back, and BA now serve sun routes more in the spirit of British Airtours than a mini-me LHR. Ironically EZY have been good for BA at LGW in the longer term.