I’m looking at Alaska Airlines’ scheduled flights this week to United hub cities (excluding LAX and SFO, since those are effectively AS hubs and most AS routes connect through them).
The routes shown include flights to hubs like ORD, DEN, IAH, EWR, and IAD.
What stands out to me is how limited some of the network coverage is. In particular, it seems like there’s no direct way to fly to Houston (IAH), the fourth-largest city in the US, from anywhere in California on Alaska Airlines. Instead, you’d need to connect through other hubs and fly significantly out of the way.
Even partner options don’t seem to solve it, since American Airlines also doesn’t appear to operate direct flights between major California airports (like SFO/LAX/SAN) and Houston.
It’s interesting how visible these network gaps become when you map out routes like this.
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