Ibiza Airport
Ibiza Airport is the international airport serving the Balearic Islands of Ibiza and Formentera in Spain located 7 km southwest of Ibiza Town. As the island is a major European holiday destination, it features some year-round domestic services as well as several dozen seasonal routes to cities across Europe, it is used as a seasonal base for Vueling. The airport was first established as a temporary military airport during the Spanish Civil War, remained open after the conflict for use as an emergency airport. In 1949 the site was used to operate some domestic and international tourist flights, but was closed in 1951, it was not until 1958 that work commenced to re-open the airport in reaction to the rapid development of the tourist market in the Balearic Islands in neighbouring Majorca. The airport was reopened on 1 April 1958 with the first destinations during that year including Palma, Barcelona and Madrid; the airport was expanded progressively over the subsequent decades with runway, taxiway and terminal enhancements designed to cope with the growing air tourist market which by the late 1990s was generating over 3.6 million passengers a year at the airport.
In 2011 the airport provisionally handled over 5.6 million passengers and around 61,000 aircraft movements, an increase of 11.9% and 8.4% compared with 2010. On 7 January 1972, Iberia Airlines Flight 602 struck a mountain when on approach to Ibiza Airport. All 104 passengers and crew on board were killed. Media related to Ibiza Airport at Wikimedia Commons Official website Current weather for LEIB at NOAA/NWS
Airport
An airport is an aerodrome with extended facilities for commercial air transport. Airports have facilities to store and maintain aircraft, a control tower. An airport consists of a landing area, which comprises an aerially accessible open space including at least one operationally active surface such as a runway for a plane to take off or a helipad, includes adjacent utility buildings such as control towers and terminals. Larger airports may have airport aprons, taxiway bridges, air traffic control centres, passenger facilities such as restaurants and lounges, emergency services. In some countries, the US in particular, they typically have one or more fixed-base operators, serving general aviation. An airport serving helicopters is called a heliport. An airport for use by seaplanes and amphibious aircraft is called a seaplane base; such a base includes a stretch of open water for takeoffs and landings, seaplane docks for tying-up. An international airport has additional facilities for customs and passport control as well as incorporating all of the aforementioned elements.
Such airports rank among the most complex and largest of all built typologies with 15 of the top 50 buildings by floor area being airport terminals. The terms aerodrome and airstrip may be used to refer to airports, the terms heliport, seaplane base, STOLport refer to airports dedicated to helicopters, seaplanes, or short take-off and landing aircraft. In colloquial use in certain environments, the terms airport and aerodrome are interchanged. However, in general, the term airport may imply or confer a certain stature upon the aviation facility that other aerodromes may not have achieved. In some jurisdictions, airport is a legal term of art reserved for those aerodromes certified or licensed as airports by the relevant national aviation authority after meeting specified certification criteria or regulatory requirements; that is to say, all airports are aerodromes, but not all aerodromes are airports. In jurisdictions where there is no legal distinction between aerodrome and airport, which term to use in the name of an aerodrome may be a commercial decision.
In United States technical/legal usage, landing area is used instead of aerodrome, airport means "a landing area used by aircraft for receiving or discharging passengers or cargo". Smaller or less-developed airfields, which represent the vast majority have a single runway shorter than 1,000 m. Larger airports for airline flights have paved runways of 2,000 m or longer. Skyline Airport in Inkom, Idaho has a runway, only 122 m long. In the United States, the minimum dimensions for dry, hard landing fields are defined by the FAR Landing And Takeoff Field Lengths; these include considerations for safety margins during takeoff. The longest public-use runway in the world is at Qamdo Bamda Airport in China, it has a length of 5,500 m. The world's widest paved runway is 105 m wide; as of 2009, the CIA stated that there were 44,000 "... airports or airfields recognizable from the air" around the world, including 15,095 in the US, the US having the most in the world. Most of the world's large airports are owned by local, regional, or national government bodies who lease the airport to private corporations who oversee the airport's operation.
For example, in the United Kingdom the state-owned British Airports Authority operated eight of the nation's major commercial airports – it was subsequently privatized in the late 1980s, following its takeover by the Spanish Ferrovial consortium in 2006, has been further divested and downsized to operating just Heathrow now. Germany's Frankfurt Airport is managed by the quasi-private firm Fraport. While in India GMR Group operates, through joint ventures, Indira Gandhi International Airport and Rajiv Gandhi International Airport. Bengaluru International Airport and Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport are controlled by GVK Group; the rest of India's airports are managed by the Airports Authority of India. In Pakistan nearly all civilian airports are owned and operated by the Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority except for Sialkot International Airport which has the distinction of being the first owned public airport in Pakistan and South Asia. In the United States, commercial airports are operated directly by government entities or government-created airport authorities, such as the Los Angeles World Airports authority that oversees several airports in the Greater Los Angeles area, including Los Angeles International Airport.
In Canada, the federal authority, Transport Canada, divested itself of all but the remotest airports in 1999/2000. Now most airports in Canada are owned and operated by individual legal authorities or are municipally owned. Many U. S. airports still lease part or all of their facilities to outside firms, who operate functions such as retail management and parking. In the U. S. all commercial airport runways are certified by the FAA under the Code of Federal Regulations Title 14 Part 139, "Certification of Commercial Service Airports" but maintained by the local airport under the regulatory authority of the FAA. Despite the reluctance to privatize airports in the US, the government-owned, contractor-operated arrangement is the standard for the operation of commercial airports in the rest of the world. Airports are divided into airside areas; the landside area is open to the public, while access to the airside area is controlled. The airside area includes all parts of the airpo
British Airways
British Airways is the flag carrier and the second largest airline in the United Kingdom based on fleet size and passengers carried, behind easyJet. The airline is based in Waterside near its main hub at London Heathrow Airport. In January 2011 BA merged with Iberia, creating the International Airlines Group, a holding company registered in Madrid, Spain. IAG is the world's third-largest airline group in terms of annual revenue and the second-largest in Europe, it is listed in the FTSE 100 Index. BA was created in 1974 after a British Airways Board was established by the British government to manage the two nationalised airline corporations, British Overseas Airways Corporation and British European Airways, two regional airlines, Cambrian Airways from Cardiff, Northeast Airlines from Newcastle upon Tyne. On 31 March 1974, all four companies were merged to form British Airways. After 13 years as a state company, BA was privatised in February 1987 as part of a wider privatisation plan by the Conservative government.
The carrier expanded with the acquisition of British Caledonian in 1987, Dan-Air in 1992, British Midland International in 2012. Its preeminence highlights the reach of the country's influence as many of its destinations in several regions were part of the British Empire, it is a founding member of the Oneworld airline alliance, along with American Airlines, Cathay Pacific and the now defunct Canadian Airlines. The alliance has since grown to become the third largest, after Star Alliance. Proposals to establish a joint British airline, combining the assets of the British Overseas Airways Corporation and British European Airways were first raised in 1953 as a result of difficulties in attempts by BOAC and BEA to negotiate air rights through the British colony of Cyprus. BOAC was protesting that BEA was using its subsidiary Cyprus Airways to circumvent an agreement that BEA would not fly routes further east than Cyprus to the important oil regions in the Middle East; the Chairman of BOAC, Miles Thomas, was in favour of merger as a potential solution to this disagreement and had backing for the idea from the Chancellor of the Exchequer at the time, Rab Butler.
However, opposition from the Treasury blocked the proposal. It was only following the recommendations of the 1969 Edwards Report that a new British Airways Board, managing both BEA and BOAC, the two regional British airlines Cambrian Airways based at Cardiff, Northeast Airlines based at Newcastle upon Tyne, was constituted on 1 April 1972. Although each airline's individual branding was maintained two years the British Airways Board unified its branding establishing British Airways as an airline on 31 March 1974. Following two years of fierce competition with British Caledonian, the second-largest airline in the United Kingdom at the time, the Government changed its aviation policy in 1976 so that the two carriers would no longer compete on long-haul routes. British Airways and Air France operated the supersonic airliner Aerospatiale-BAC Concorde, the world's first supersonic passenger service flew in January 1976 from London Heathrow to Bahrain. Services to the US began on 24 May 1976 with a flight to Washington Dulles airport, flights to New York JFK airport followed on 22 September 1977.
Service to Singapore was established in co-operation with Singapore Airlines as a continuation of the flight to Bahrain. Following the Air France Concorde crash in Paris and a slump in air travel following the 11 September attacks in New York in 2001, it was decided to cease Concorde operations in 2003 after 27 years of service; the final commercial Concorde flight was BA002 from New York JFK to London Heathrow on 24 October 2003. In 1981 the airline was instructed to prepare for privatisation by the Conservative Thatcher government. Sir John King Lord King, was appointed chairman, charged with bringing the airline back into profitability. While many other large airlines struggled, King was credited with transforming British Airways into one of the most profitable air carriers in the world; the flag carrier was privatised and was floated on the London Stock Exchange in February 1987. British Airways effected the takeover of the UK's "second" airline, British Caledonian, in July of that same year.
The formation of Richard Branson's Virgin Atlantic in 1984 created a competitor for BA. The intense rivalry between British Airways and Virgin Atlantic culminated in the former being sued for libel in 1993, arising from claims and counterclaims over a "dirty tricks" campaign against Virgin; this campaign included allegations of poaching Virgin Atlantic customers, tampering with private files belonging to Virgin and undermining Virgin's reputation in the City. As a result of the case BA management apologised "unreservedly", the company agreed to pay £110,000 damages to Virgin, £500,000 to Branson and £3 million legal costs. Lord King stepped down as chairman in 1993 and was replaced by his deputy, Colin Marshall, while Bob Ayling took over as CEO. Virgin filed a separate action in the US that same year regarding BA's domination of the trans-Atlantic routes, but it was thrown out in 1999. In 1992 British Airways expanded through the acquisition of the financially troubled Dan-Air, giving BA a much larger presence at Gatwick airport.
British Asia Airways, a subsidiary based in Taiwan, was formed in March 1993 to operate between London and Taipei. That same month BA purchased a 25% stake in the Australian airline Qantas and, with the acquisition of Brymon Airways in May, formed British Airways Citiexpress. In September 1998, British Airways, along with American Airlines, Cathay Pacific and Canadian
Asphalt
Asphalt known as bitumen, is a sticky and viscous liquid or semi-solid form of petroleum. It may be found in natural deposits or may be a refined product, is classed as a pitch. Before the 20th century, the term asphaltum was used; the word is derived from the Ancient Greek ἄσφαλτος ásphaltos. The primary use of asphalt is in road construction, where it is used as the glue or binder mixed with aggregate particles to create asphalt concrete, its other main uses are for bituminous waterproofing products, including production of roofing felt and for sealing flat roofs. The terms "asphalt" and "bitumen" are used interchangeably to mean both natural and manufactured forms of the substance. In American English, "asphalt" is used for a refined residue from the distillation process of selected crude oils. Outside the United States, the product is called "bitumen", geologists worldwide prefer the term for the occurring variety. Common colloquial usage refers to various forms of asphalt as "tar", as in the name of the La Brea Tar Pits.
Occurring asphalt is sometimes specified by the term "crude bitumen". Its viscosity is similar to that of cold molasses while the material obtained from the fractional distillation of crude oil boiling at 525 °C is sometimes referred to as "refined bitumen"; the Canadian province of Alberta has most of the world's reserves of natural asphalt in the Athabasca oil sands, which cover 142,000 square kilometres, an area larger than England. The word "asphalt" is derived from the late Middle English, in turn from French asphalte, based on Late Latin asphalton, the latinisation of the Greek ἄσφαλτος, a word meaning "asphalt/bitumen/pitch", which derives from ἀ-, "without" and σφάλλω, "make fall"; the first use of asphalt by the ancients was in the nature of a cement for securing or joining together various objects, it thus seems that the name itself was expressive of this application. Herodotus mentioned that bitumen was brought to Babylon to build its gigantic fortification wall. From the Greek, the word passed into late Latin, thence into French and English.
In French, the term asphalte is used for occurring asphalt-soaked limestone deposits, for specialised manufactured products with fewer voids or greater bitumen content than the "asphaltic concrete" used to pave roads. The expression "bitumen" originated in the Sanskrit words jatu, meaning "pitch", jatu-krit, meaning "pitch creating" or "pitch producing"; the Latin equivalent is claimed by some to be gwitu-men, by others, subsequently shortened to bitumen, thence passing via French into English. From the same root is derived the Anglo-Saxon word cwidu, the German word Kitt and the old Norse word kvada. In British English, "bitumen" is used instead of "asphalt"; the word "asphalt" is instead used to refer to asphalt concrete, a mixture of construction aggregate and asphalt itself. Bitumen mixed with clay was called "asphaltum", but the term is less used today. In Australian English, the word "asphalt" is used to describe a mix of construction aggregate. "Bitumen" refers to the liquid derived from the heavy-residues from crude oil distillation.
In American English, "asphalt" is equivalent to the British "bitumen". However, "asphalt" is commonly used as a shortened form of "asphalt concrete". In Canadian English, the word "bitumen" is used to refer to the vast Canadian deposits of heavy crude oil, while "asphalt" is used for the oil refinery product. Diluted bitumen is known as "dilbit" in the Canadian petroleum industry, while bitumen "upgraded" to synthetic crude oil is known as "syncrude", syncrude blended with bitumen is called "synbit"."Bitumen" is still the preferred geological term for occurring deposits of the solid or semi-solid form of petroleum. "Bituminous rock" is a form of sandstone impregnated with bitumen. The oil sands of Alberta, Canada are a similar material. Neither of the terms "asphalt" or "bitumen" should be confused with coal tars. Tar is the thick liquid product of the dry distillation and pyrolysis of organic hydrocarbons sourced from vegetation masses, whether fossilized as with coal, or freshly harvested; the majority of bitumen, on the other hand, was formed when vast quantities of organic animal materials were deposited by water and buried hundreds of metres deep at the diagenetic point, where the disorganized fatty hydrocarbon molecules joined together in long chains in the absence of oxygen.
Bitumen occurs as a solid or viscous liquid. It may be mixed in with coal deposits. Bitumen, coal using the Bergius process, can be refined into petrols such as gasoline, bitumen may be distilled into tar, not the other way around; the components of asphalt include four main classes of compounds: Naphthene aromatics, consisting of hydrogenated polycyclic aromatic compounds Polar aromatics, consisting of high molecular weight phenols and carboxylic acids produced by partial oxidation of the material Saturated hydrocarbons. Most natural bitumens a
Palma de Mallorca Airport
Palma de Mallorca Airport is an international airport located 8 km east of Palma, Spain, adjacent to the village of Can Pastilla. The airport on the Balearic Islands is Spain's third largest airport after Madrid–Barajas and Barcelona-El Prat. Palma de Mallorca was used by 27.9 million passengers in 2017. The airport is the main base for the Spanish carrier Air Europa and a focus airport for Ryanair, EasyJet and Jet2.com. The airport shares runways with the nearby Son Sant Joan Air Force Base, operated by the Spanish Air Force; the interest of the Spanish Government in developing airmail during the first decades of the 20th century, put into study the possibility of establishing an air postal line in the Balearic Islands. In 1921, the company Aeromarítima Mallorquina established the postal line Barcelona - Palma, which used seaplanes in the port of Palma de Mallorca. Before the creation of this airline, trials were made in two flat fields: Son Sant Joan and Son Bonet, both of them being elected for the builiding of aerdromes.
In 1934, with the intention of flying touristic flights to the island, the company Aero-Taxi de Mallorca is created, stablishing a flight school in Son Sant Joan. A year another one will be founded in Son Bonet. In May 1935 the company LAPE, Líneas Aéreas Postales Españolas, antecessor of Iberia. A month after, in August, the first regular air route between Madrid and Palma, stopping at Valencia, is created. A year this line is replaced by other, connecting Palma and Barcelona. Three years Lufthansa and Iberia stablish new lines in Son Bonet, while Son Sant Joan is beginning to be used by the military. Through the years, Son Bonet will become the main civilian airport in the island, while the creation of Son Sant Joan Air Force Base will limit any further civilian enterprises at the aerodrome. In 1954, the runway was enlarged and paved to enable the operation of F-86 Sabre fighters, which meant the diversion of the Palma - Llucmajor road. During those years, the first paved taxiways and aprons were built, while Son Bonet received the first big groups of European tourists thanks to the airlines BEA, Air France and Aviaco.
The increase in traffic, the inability to enlarge Son Bonet, made the authors of the 1958 National Airport Plan propose building a large civilian airport in the premises of Son Sant Joan airbase. The National Airport Council approved this plan the following year and commercial traffic was transferred from Son Bonet to Son Sant Joan; this would become the birth of. During that year, a terminal and a civilian apron were built south of the military facilities, along with a VHF communication center. A VOR was installed in the island; the 7 of July 1960, the airport was opened to both domestic and international traffic. Just two weeks expansion of the airport was declared urgent by the government, on summer 1961 the works of extension of the runway and taxiway were started. At the end of the year, more plans were made, including a power plant, a communications centre and fire and rescue facilities. After reaching 1 million passengers for the first time in 1962, in 1965, a new terminal was constructed, air navigation services were completed at the end of the following year.
In 1965 Air Spain began operating from the airport and a smaller terminal, which today is module B was planned to be built. Passenger numbers had increased reaching 2 million in 1965. A second runway was to be built, it was to be built parallel to the existing one, work began on it in 1970. Two years terminal B went into service, the second runway opened in 1974. In 1980, the airport carried 7 million passengers. However, this increased to nearly 10 million in 1986; this yet again led to a new terminal to be constructed, today's current central terminal building where passengers both enter and exit the airport and check in and retrieve their luggage. Construction was designed by the Majorcan architect Pere Nicolau Bover. During the construction in 1995, passenger numbers exceeded 15 million; the new terminal opened in 1997. Following a decline in passenger numbers at the airport following the September 11 attacks in 2001, numbers rose between 2002 and 2007 when traffic peaked at 23.2 million passengers, however from 2007 there has been a decline in passenger numbers with 21.1 million using the airport in 2010.
Today, Palma de Mallorca airport carries over 29.7 million passengers to their destinations, with 178,253 aircraft movements to mainland Spain and the United Kingdom. In November 2015, Air Berlin announced that it would shut down its hub operations at the airport which it had maintained for over ten years. All seven domestic connection routes to the mainland - such as flights to Valencia and Sevilla - as well as the route to Faro in Portugal ceased during spring 2016. During the Summer months the dual-runway airport handles as many movements as London–Gatwick, on the busiest day of the week as much as 1,100 movements - as many as London–Heathrow, the busiest in Europe. According to the operational data provided by AENA, the airport can handle 66 movements per hour or during a 24-hour operational period 1,600 aircraft movements. Palma de Mallorca Airport occupies an area of 6.3 km2. Due to rapid growth of passenger numbers, additional infrastructure was added to the two terminals A and B; this main
Brussels Airlines
Brussels Airlines is the flag carrier and largest airline of Belgium and headquartered at Brussels Airport. It operates to over 120 destinations in Europe, North America and Asia and offers charter services and crew training; the airline is a member of the Star Alliance as well as the International Air Transport Association. The airline's IATA code SN is inherited from Sabena and SN Brussels Airlines. Lufthansa purchased 45% of the company in 2009, on September 29, 2016, Lufthansa announced it would purchase the remainder of Brussels Airlines; the transaction was completed in early January 2017. Brussels Airlines was created following the merger of SN Brussels Airlines and Virgin Express, the former subsequently created after the bankruptcy of Belgium's legacy national carrier Sabena. On 12 April 2005, SN Airholding, the company behind SNBA, signed an agreement with Richard Branson, giving it control over Virgin Express. On 31 March 2006 Virgin Express announced their merger into a single company.
On 7 November 2006, the new name, Brussels Airlines, was announced at a press conference at Brussels Airport. Brussels Airlines began operations on 25 March 2007; some time between this time period, the airline was forced to change its 13-dot logo to a 14-dot logo due to superstitious passengers complaining about the logo. On 15 September 2008, it was announced that Lufthansa would acquire a 45% stake in Brussels Airlines with an option to acquire the remaining 55% from 2011; as a part of this deal, Brussels Airlines would join Star Alliance. From 26 October 2008, the ICAO code was changed from DAT to BEL. On 15 June 2009, Brussels Airlines announced that the European Commission had granted approval for Lufthansa to take a minority share in Brussels Airlines; as a result of this clearance by the EU, Brussels Airlines was able to join Star Alliance. Since 25 October 2009, Brussels Airlines has been a member of Lufthansa's frequent flyer programme Miles & More. On 9 December 2009, Brussels Airlines became the 26th Star Alliance member during a ceremony at Brussels Town Hall.
On 15 December 2009, Brussels Airlines announced it was working on a new regional airline in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The name of the airline was Korongo; the main base of the airline was at Lubumbashi in Congo. The airline was launched in April 2012 and shut down in 2015. Brussels Airlines cancelled the airDC project, due to disagreements with Hewa Bora. On 5 July 2010, a fifth Airbus A330-300 entered into service. Brussels Airlines increased its frequency to Abidjan and added Accra, Cotonou and Lomé as new destinations. On 11 August 2010, tour operator Club Med announced a new cooperation; as from April 2011, Brussels Airlines will transport 80% of all Club Med passengers out of Brussels, both on existing regular Brussels Airlines routes as on new charter routes operated by Brussels Airlines. Brussels Airlines announced that it will lease 2 Airbus A320 aircraft from January 2011. On 26 August 2010, the company announced its new maintenance project; the contract with Sabena Technics for the A330 and Boeing 737 ended on 1 January 2011 and Brussels Airlines will do the maintenance on the planes.
To be able to do this, the move from Building 117 to Hangar 41 was necessary. 73 people from Sabena Technics joined the Brussels Airlines maintenance staff. On 1 June 2012 Brussels Airlines inaugurated the route to New York JFK, operating daily with an Airbus A330-300 fitted with the new interior; this is the first Belgian airline in 10 years to fly to New York, after the collapse of Sabena and Delsey Airlines. Since 18 June 2013 they fly 5 times a week to Washington Dulles. Since April 2016 Toronto Pearson has been added to the North-American network, it has been announced that as from March 2017 a new service to Mumbai will commence with 5 flights per week operated by a new Airbus A330-200 arriving early 2017. On 30 January 2014, Brussels Airlines launched the most important expansion in its history, with nine confirmed seasonal destinations and a return to the Polish market after some years of absence, it confirmed the permanent exit of its Avro RJ100 fleet by 2016. On 22 March 2016, members of the terrorist organization ISIL detonated two bombs in Brussels Airport, closing the airport until Sunday, 27 March 2016.
Brussels Airlines shifted some long haul flights to Zurich and Frankfurt and began Airbus A319/Avro RJ100 shuttle service between Liege/Antwerp and Zurich/Frankfurt, as well as providing contracted bus service from Brussels to Antwerp and Liege from where it served European destinations. On 28 September 2016, the Supervisory Board of Lufthansa announced that the airline would exercise the option to acquire the remaining 55% of Brussels Airlines' parent company SN Airholding; the modalities would be defined before the end of the year in order to conclude the transaction at the beginning of 2017.. In March 2017, Thomas Cook announced its intention to sell its Belgian flight operations. Brussels Airlines' parent company. Thomas Cook Airlines Belgium was shut down by November 2017 with two aircraft and all traffic rights being integrated by Brussels Airlines.. Brussels Airlines took over the 160 Thomas Cook Airlines crew members. In February 2018 CEO Bernard Gustin and financial director Jan De Raeymaeker had to resign after a meeting with the Lufthansa board over the future of the airline.
Gustin was replaced by Christina Foerster on 1 April 2018. On 1 May 2018, Dieter Vranckx joined the company as CFO; the company is headquartered in the b.house in the General Aviation Zone on the grounds of Brussels Airport and in Diegem, Flemish Brabant. The airline asked the Belgian design agency MAXIMALdesign t
Airline hub
Airline hubs or hub airports are used by one or more airlines to concentrate passenger traffic and flight operations at a given airport. They serve, it is part of the hub-and-spoke system. An airline operates flights from several non-hub cities to the hub airport, passengers traveling between spoke cities need to connect through the hub; this paradigm creates economies of scale that allow an airline to serve city-pairs that could otherwise not be economically served on a non-stop basis. This system contrasts with the point-to-point model, in which there are no hubs and nonstop flights are instead offered between spoke cities. Hub airports serve origin and destination traffic. In the airline industry, a focus city is a destination from which an airline operates limited point-to-point routes. Ergo, a focus city caters to the local market rather than to connecting passengers. However, with the term's expanded usage, a focus city may function as a small-scale or total hub. Allegiant Air, JetBlue and Southwest Airlines are examples of US-based airlines that consider some of their focus cities run like a hub.
The hub-and-spoke system allows an airline to serve fewer routes, so fewer aircraft are needed. The system increases passenger loads. However, the system is costly. Additional employees and facilities are needed to cater to connecting passengers. To serve spoke cities of varying populations and demand, an airline requires several aircraft types, specific training and equipment are necessary for each type. In addition, airlines may experience capacity constraints. For the passenger, the hub-and-spoke system offers one-stop air service to a wide array of destinations. However, it requires having to make connections en route to their final destination, which increases travel time. Additionally, airlines can come to monopolise their hubs, allowing them to increase fares as passengers have no alternative. Airlines may operate banks of flights at their hubs, in which several flights arrive and depart within short periods of time; the banks may be known as "peaks" of activity at the hubs and the non-banks as "valleys".
Banking allows for short connection times for passengers. However, an airline must assemble a large number of resources to cater to the influx of flights during a bank, having several aircraft on the ground at the same time can lead to congestion and delays. In addition, banking could result in inefficient aircraft utilisation, with aircraft waiting at spoke cities for the next bank. Instead, some airlines have debanked their hubs, introducing a "rolling hub" in which flight arrivals and departures are spread throughout the day; this phenomenon is known as "depeaking". While costs may decrease, connection times are longer at a rolling hub. American Airlines was the first to depeak its hubs, trying to improve profitability following the September 11 attacks, it rebanked its hubs in 2015, feeling the gain in connecting passengers would outweigh the rise in costs. The hub-and-spoke system is used by some cargo airlines. FedEx Express established its main hub in Memphis in 1973, prior to the deregulation of the air cargo industry in the United States.
The system has created an efficient delivery system for the airline. Other airlines that use this system include UPS Airlines, TNT Airways, Cargolux and DHL Aviation, which operate their primary hubs at Louisville, Liège, Luxembourg and Leipzig respectively. Although the term focus city is used to refer to an airport from which an airline operates limited point-to-point routes, its usage has loosely expanded to refer to a small-scale hub as well. For example, JetBlue's New York–JFK focus city runs like a hub, although in reality it is still deemed as a focus city. A fortress hub exists when an airline controls a significant majority of the market at one of its hubs. Competition is difficult at fortress hubs. Examples include Delta hubs at Atlanta, Salt Lake City and Minneapolis–Saint Paul. Flag carriers have enjoyed similar dominance at the main international airport of their countries and some still do. Examples include Lufthansa at Frankfurt Airport, Air Canada at Toronto Pearson Airport, Alitalia at Rome Fiumicino Airport, KLM at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol, Garuda Indonesia at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport, British Airways at London Heathrow, Air China at Beijing Capital Airport, Iberia at Madrid-Barajas Airport and Air France at Paris Orly and Charles de Gaulle Airports.
A primary hub is the main hub for an airline. However, as an airline expands operations at its primary hub to the point that it experiences capacity limitations, it may elect to open secondary hubs. Examples of such hubs are Turkish Airlines' Istanbul–Sabiha Gökçen hub, British Airways' hub at London-Gatwick, Air India's hub at Mumbai and Lufthansa's hub at Munich. By operating multiple hubs, airlines can expand their geographic reach, they can better serve spoke–spoke markets, providing more itineraries with connections at different hubs. A given hub's capacity may become exhausted or capacity shortages may occur during peak periods of the day, at which point airlines may be compelled to shift traffic to a reliever hub. A reliever hub has the potential to serve several functions for an airline: it can bypass the congested hub, it can absorb
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