700UW said:
Nobody serious is attacking CLT as a hub nor saying that it should be shut down - certainly not me. But it is simply undeniable that CLT is by far the smallest and least important market (at least in terms of Cuba) that got a nonstop HAV flight. With the exception of ATL - another hub similar to CLT only much larger - every single other U.S. gateway awarded HAV is, or is near, a relatively meaningful Cuban-American diaspora and/or a region that generates meaningful Cuba O&D. CLT is simply neither of those. That's just reality - thus why AA requested seven daily MIA-HAV before a single daily CLT-HAV.
That said, CLT is certainly a massive hub but so is MIA, and CLT really offers nothing major by way of relevant/meaningful connectivity to/from HAV that can't be offered over MIA. When we look back five years from now, I suspect that if you sum the O&D to/from Cuba from every single city AA serves from CLT but not MIA, it will amount to less than 10% (maybe even 5%) of total U.S.-HAV demand. U.S.-HAV demand is and will remain incredibly concentrated in a few cities - every one of which has multiple daily flights to MIA, and all of which - not coincidentally - have just been awarded a nonstop to HAV on at least one if not multiple airline/s.
All that said, the DOT did not award the HAV frequencies simply "based on population." No need to read "some articles" - the DOT themselves stated its reasoning for awarding a HAV frequency to Cuba-O&D-irrelevant CLT pretty clearly:
"As was said at the outset, given the nature of the U.S.-Cuba market at this time, a major focus of the proceeding would need to be on addressing the service needs of the most important segments of that market. But it was also important to insure services at hub cities that, while perhaps not major Cuban-American population centers, could nevertheless expand the reach of catchment areas to sweep in many areas of potential interest in Havana scheduled travel and to thereby create significant service and competitive benefits. In short, in addition to providing the Department with an opportunity to address the need for service, this proceeding also provides the Department with an opportunity to establish a framework for promoting competition in the overall U.S.-Havana market. It is with this in mind that the Department tentatively allocates one frequency to American for daily service from its Charlotte hub, and one frequency to Delta for daily service from its Atlanta hub." (emphasis mine)
