Philadelphia could lose hub status with merged U.S. Air

A new General Accounting Office report questions whether Philadelphia International Airport will remain a hub after the merger of U.S. Airways and American Airlines.

Wharton School of Business professor of management Peter Cappelli says when airlines merge or any business for that matter, even if they promise no changes, eventually things will be streamlined.

“Airlines merge to save money and to seek out new opportunities,” said Cappelli “and a big part of that is to consolidate operations so when you get carriers that have lots of hubs together you can bet they are all not going to survive.”

Cappelli believes Philadelphia or New York will lose a hub for the merged airline.

“It’s probably a pretty good bet that one will. Whether Philadelphia loses is not completely clear. New York is a bigger market, but New York’s got three airports around it so it’s pretty jammed up so it’s not clear to me that Philadelphia will necessarily lose the competition,” he said.

The report by the General Accounting Office would not take a stand on whether Philadelphia or New York would be the odd hub out.

 

A spokesman for U-S Airways says Philadelphia is an important part of the company’s system.