It has been several years since the last time I was able to make a series of these threads (summer 2014 is the last set of threads I could find), but they always seemed to be of interest to people on here.

I have gone through the online schedules of AA, DL, and UA, and have tallied up departures by aircraft type for each hub in order to get a picture of how each airline is currently deploying their fleet across their network. This subject has always fascinated me, so the hours of going through schedules are totally worth it . Anyway, this time around I picked a Monday in the middle of the summer (July 23, 2018, to be exact) and collected schedule data from the same day for all three airlines so that comparisons can be made. It is also interesting to see how things have changed over just a few years - here is a link to the AA thread from 2014 for reference: https://www.airliners.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=572585&hilit=hub+%26+aircraft+type

A few notes/disclaimers:

*This data was collected by hand, so it's possible there are a few inaccuracies. However, I have a high level of confidence in the data.
*Schedules are always subject to change, so the totals from when I collected data may already have changed slightly, and may change further in the coming weeks.
*As we know, the term "hub" is always unavoidably subjective. For the purpose of these threads, I'm classifying a "hub" as a station that has 100+ departures serving 30+ destinations.
*I don't have plans to do this for any other airline's network this summer - if someone would like to make a thread like this for AS, AC, etc., wonderful! Please use 7/23/2018 as the schedule date for a fair comparison.
*For simplicity's sake, I decided not to split out different subfleets in the tallies. International 757-200s will be aggregated with domestic 757-200s, and so on and so forth. I'm also using airline-agnostic aircraft codes, so if a given airline classifies their 737-700s as "73W" (looking at you, DL), the data here will still show "73G" instead.

Enjoy!


DFW

ERD: 53
ER4: 38
CR2: 1
CR7: 49
CR9: 107
E75: 69
M80: 91
319: 29
320: 12
321: 126
738: 200
752: 8
788: 2
789: 3
772: 17
77W: 5

Total = 810
60.9 % mainline


CLT

ERD: 11
ER4: 22
CR2: 63
CR7: 96
CR9: 158
E75: 23
E90: 1
319: 101
320: 42
321: 106
738: 41
332: 5
333: 3

Total = 672
44.5 % mainline


ORD

ER4: 88
CR2: 46
CR7: 125
E75: 44
M80: 3
319: 5
321: 39
738: 147
752: 1
763: 1
788: 14

Total = 513
40.9 % mainline


PHL

ERD: 2
ER4: 134
CR2: 13
CR7: 21
CR9: 6
E75: 59
E90: 33
319: 30
320: 19
321: 63
738: 13
752: 5
763: 9
332: 8
333: 5

Total = 420
44.0 % mainline


MIA

ER4: 44
E75: 39
319: 51
321: 21
738: 118
7M8: 23
752: 14
763: 13
772: 13
77W: 4

Total = 340
75.6 % mainline


PHX

CR2: 2
CR7: 27
CR9: 66
319: 37
320: 25
321: 60
738: 40
752: 10

Total = 267
64.4 % mainline


DCA

ER4: 41
CR2: 31
CR7: 19
CR9: 4
E75: 92
E90: 7
319: 26
320: 7
321: 5
738: 22
752: 1

Total = 255
26.7 % mainline


LAX

CR7: 18
E75: 52
319: 13
320: 1
321: 74
738: 32
332: 1
789: 7
772: 2
77W: 2

Total = 202
65.3 % mainline


LGA

ERD: 63
CR2: 6
E75: 37
E90: 18
319: 3
320: 1
321: 17
738: 23
7M8: 5

Total = 173
38.7 % mainline


JFK

ERD: 19
ER4: 5
E75: 3
321: 20
738: 35
752: 6
763: 4
772: 7
77W: 3

Total = 102
73.5 % mainline

Here are links to the threads for DL and UA:
DL - https://www.airliners.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=1396835
UA - https://www.airliners.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=1396837

the interesting thing I'm taking away from your AA/DL threads is how regional heavy LGA ops are. Is this just a case of the airlines wanting to ensure frequency for business travelers? LGA is often though of as a premium airport in terms of airline operations. It just seems strange to me that NYC seems to not support majority mainline.

The LGA regional is noted everytime

Short haul flying with slots tightly controlled by legacies.

AA flies mainline to hubs and BOS...rjs elsewhere beyond a one off to Florida

The DCA number on Express is crazy. I get teh feeling that AA's main goal at DCA is to link up as many cities as possible for govt contracts and congressional route sake. I doubt you'd see so much traffic to ORF and JAX and CHS otherwise. Plus, that and state government travel.

Thanks again for putting this together.

A few observations. I know these are just snapshots and not representative of the schedule as a whole.

PHL has a net loss in flights since 2014 that has been discussed, but the mainline % increased by 8.

Piedmont had 82 DH1 departures from PHL in 2014 and now has 134 ERJ departures in 2018

In 2014 MIA's regional flights were all one class 50 RJ's. In 2018, almost half are 2 class ~70 seat RJ's

CLT lost 20 flights of 321/752 sized aircraft between 2014-2018

ORD gained 26 flights of 321/752 sized aircraft between 2014-2018

micstatic wrote:

the interesting thing I'm taking away from your AA/DL threads is how regional heavy LGA ops are. Is this just a case of the airlines wanting to ensure frequency for business travelers? LGA is often though of as a premium airport in terms of airline operations. It just seems strange to me that NYC seems to not support majority mainline.

It makes sense, because of the perimeter rule most of the flights to LGA are short hops, meaning for most travelers a/c type matters less. Plus as you noted frequency is extremely important for a market like NYC.

What I noticed is the total migration of CR2/CR7/CR9 aircraft out of certain hubs. LGA/JFK and BOS (not shown) are basically devoid of the Bombardier type.

micstatic wrote:

the interesting thing I'm taking away from your AA/DL threads is how regional heavy LGA ops are. Is this just a case of the airlines wanting to ensure frequency for business travelers? LGA is often though of as a premium airport in terms of airline operations. It just seems strange to me that NYC seems to not support majority mainline.

Yep, frequency is definitely part of it, along with the perimeter restriction that causes LGA to be much more heavily weighted towards short flights compared to other hubs. However, if you take a look at the subtypes of regional aircraft that AA and DL are flying out of LGA, there are significantly more of the arguably more comfortable E-Jets now vs 2014.

washingtonflyer wrote:

The DCA number on Express is crazy.

At least a huge chunk of that express flying is on E75s! And it's good (in my opinion, at least) to see far fewer CR2s in favor of more ER4s. Same for PHL.

Just 3 MD80 fights and one 752 Flight out of ORD. I assume the 75 is to MIA?

Miamiairport wrote:

Just 3 MD80 fights and one 752 Flight out of ORD. I assume the 75 is to MIA?

Yep, the M80s are 1x each to MSP, STL, and RDU, and the 757-200 is indeed one of the MIA flights (as is the lone 767-300 departure from ORD).

Still 91 M80 departures from DFW, wow! I was there last week and noticed quite a few, didn't think there was that many though. The MD-80's sure stand out now as they all still have the old paint scheme.

Interestingly, AA at PHL has trimmed almost 13% of its daily departures since 2014, but the seat count appears to be about the same: about 43,500 in 2014 and about 43,800 now. Express flight counts down 25% explains most of it, although both express and mainline have grown on average by about 5.5 seats per flight.

Impressive numbers form the CLT front. Expect that to grow even more when AA picks up 7 more gates next year.

Where is the 332 in LAX routing?

Big kudos to FSDan for doing this again. I go back to these quite often. My two big takeaways right away were the influx of A321s at DFW and how far JFK has fallen.

Boof02671 wrote:

Where is the 332 in LAX routing?

PHL

I’m curious about where the 5 A319’s out of ORD are flying to?

Wow more 763 flights from PHL than JFK. One I believe is a SJU turn.

Miamiairport wrote:

Wow more 763 flights from PHL than JFK. One I believe is a SJU turn.

1x ZRH
1x AMS
1x SJU
1x LIS
1x BUD
1x PRG
3x MIA

TWA1985 wrote:

I’m curious about where the 5 A319’s out of ORD are flying to?

ORD-JAC x1
ORD-ATL x2
ORD-DCA x1
ORD-PHL x1

FSDan wrote:

Here are links to the threads for DL and UA:
DL - https://www.airliners.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=1396835
UA - https://www.airliners.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=1396837

Thank You

washingtonflyer wrote:

The DCA number on Express is crazy. I get teh feeling that AA's main goal at DCA is to link up as many cities as possible for govt contracts and congressional route sake. I doubt you'd see so much traffic to ORF and JAX and CHS otherwise. Plus, that and state government travel.

With the new size and hubs of AA compared to US its not really a need too. With WN and UA in the region has long has there making money. The merger give back/ loss of slots really played roll in making DCA what it is.

usairways85 wrote:

Thanks again for putting this together.

A few observations. I know these are just snapshots and not representative of the schedule as a whole.

PHL has a net loss in flights since 2014 that has been discussed, but the mainline % increased by 8.

Piedmont had 82 DH1 departures from PHL in 2014 and now has 134 ERJ departures in 2018

In 2014 MIA's regional flights were all one class 50 RJ's. In 2018, almost half are 2 class ~70 seat RJ's

CLT lost 20 flights of 321/752 sized aircraft between 2014-2018

ORD gained 26 flights of 321/752 sized aircraft between 2014-2018

The shift to ORD is interesting. The A321 has been HP/US and now AA weapon on domestic movements.

Speaking of AA PHL-CMH reduction (from 7 daily to 5 daily)

Do we smell a AA PHL-CMH mainline here?

By the way, three PHL-MIA 763 on a daily basis? (Hello, EA!) That is rather great.

grbauc wrote:

usairways85 wrote:

Thanks again for putting this together.

A few observations. I know these are just snapshots and not representative of the schedule as a whole.

PHL has a net loss in flights since 2014 that has been discussed, but the mainline % increased by 8.

Piedmont had 82 DH1 departures from PHL in 2014 and now has 134 ERJ departures in 2018

In 2014 MIA's regional flights were all one class 50 RJ's. In 2018, almost half are 2 class ~70 seat RJ's

CLT lost 20 flights of 321/752 sized aircraft between 2014-2018

ORD gained 26 flights of 321/752 sized aircraft between 2014-2018

The shift to ORD is interesting. The A321 has been HP/US and now AA weapon on domestic movements.

ORD-LAX is almost all 321s now. Also, over 1/3 of the DFW flights are now 321s along with SFO, LAS, BOS, MIA, and MCO seeing them depending on the season. I didn’t see the MD80 disappearing ORD-DFW disappearing this fast, but now many more daily seats. ORD does get the occasional 772 from DFW, but it’s strange seeing all the 788s (and occasional 789) and 738s now.

What crew bases are open at ORD? With 3 MD80s, that has to be closing?

I wonder what BOS is? Is that the largest non hub station?

slcdeltarumd11 wrote:

I wonder what BOS is? Is that the largest non hub station?

That or MCO. Suspect BOS has more flights, but MCO more seats. RDU, TPA, LAS must be up there too.

axiom wrote:

or MCO. Suspect BOS has more flights, but MCO more seats. RDU, TPA, LAS must be up there too.

slcdeltarumd11 wrote:

I wonder what BOS is? Is that the largest non hub station?

BOS had 84 departures today. 72 mainline. MCO had 52. All mainline.

So BOS beats out MCO by 30 flights a day.

September11 wrote:

Speaking of AA PHL-CMH reduction (from 7 daily to 5 daily)

Do we smell a AA PHL-CMH mainline here?

This dawned on me as well.

Thank you for this awesome thread. Always one of the best on Anet!

No 767s at DFW. Never thought I'd see it!

Wow BOS has alot of mainline flights!

97 flights on a Monday. Most of those mainline flights are to PHL, LGA and DCA. Probably nearly 45 of them.

BOS:

ERD: 9
ER4: 1
E90: 23
319: 12
320: 1
321: 19
738: 30
7M8: 1
757: 1

I believe RDU has 53 flights a day. Of that, 30 are mainline. RDU-LHR/DFW/MIA/LAX are solely mainline, RDU-PHL/ORD/CLT see a mix of mainline and eagle equipment, and RDU-JFK/DCA/LGA/PIT are solely eagle. RDU-CUN also is mainline, but it only operates on Saturdays.

Only 1 757 a day in BOS. It's not going to CDG is it? Because I believe AA no longer flies BOS-CDG nonstop. I would guess either MIA, PHX, DFW or DCA. DCA also sees only 1 757 a day, is it coming from BOS 1x daily? Or from MIA, DFW or PHX?

The 10 757 departures a day out of PHX, must be mostly, if not all, Hawaii runs with ex-US 757s.

JFK sees now only 4 767 and 6 757 departures a day. I wold think the breakdown is as follows at JFK:
757 1x daily EDI, 1x daily DUB, 1x daily PUJ and 3x daily MIA
767 1x daily CDG, 1x daily MAD and 2x daily MIA
It looks like JFK will loose the 757 and 767 before PHL and MIA will. DFW has already lost the 767 as noted.

ORD also has lost the 757 and 767, other than the daily departures to MIA 1x daily each.

LAX also has lost the 757 and 767.

Thank you for the detailed update. I appreciate it.

American 767 wrote:

Only 1 757 a day in BOS. It's not going to CDG is it? Because I believe AA no longer flies BOS-CDG nonstop. I would guess either MIA, PHX, DFW or DCA. DCA also sees only 1 757 a day, is it coming from BOS 1x daily? Or from MIA, DFW or PHX?

PHL. It then goes on to SNN.

JFKMan wrote:

axiom wrote:

or MCO. Suspect BOS has more flights, but MCO more seats. RDU, TPA, LAS must be up there too.

slcdeltarumd11 wrote:

I wonder what BOS is? Is that the largest non hub station?

BOS had 84 departures today. 72 mainline. MCO had 52. All mainline.

So BOS beats out MCO by 30 flights a day.

Thanks, that surprises me. I figured BOS would have far more flights, but fewer seats - FL markets are large narrowbody central. But surely this is more seats by a long shot, too.

jfklganyc wrote:

The LGA regional is noted everytime

Short haul flying with slots tightly controlled by legacies.

AA flies mainline to hubs and BOS...rjs elsewhere beyond a one off to Florida

Which is why it's great for consumers when B6, WN or even NK is able to grab a slot at LGA or DCA.

STT757 wrote:

jfklganyc wrote:

The LGA regional is noted everytime

Short haul flying with slots tightly controlled by legacies.

AA flies mainline to hubs and BOS...rjs elsewhere beyond a one off to Florida

Which is why it's great for consumers when B6, WN or even NK is able to grab a slot at LGA or DCA.

Bingo. You get it!

jfklganyc wrote:

STT757 wrote:

jfklganyc wrote:

The LGA regional is noted everytime

Short haul flying with slots tightly controlled by legacies.

AA flies mainline to hubs and BOS...rjs elsewhere beyond a one off to Florida

Which is why it's great for consumers when B6, WN or even NK is able to grab a slot at LGA or DCA.

Bingo. You get it!

I'm actually surprised NK has a nice operation at LGA, 11 daily flights.

USAirALB wrote:

I believe RDU has 53 flights a day. Of that, 30 are mainline. RDU-LHR/DFW/MIA/LAX are solely mainline, RDU-PHL/ORD/CLT see a mix of mainline and eagle equipment, and RDU-JFK/DCA/LGA/PIT are solely eagle. RDU-CUN also is mainline, but it only operates on Saturdays.

RDU-PHL is pretty much all mainline. It's a market where frequency has likely dropped in favor of gauge.

6/18
2x 320
1x 319
1x 190
1x 175

STT757 wrote:

jfklganyc wrote:

The LGA regional is noted everytime

Short haul flying with slots tightly controlled by legacies.

AA flies mainline to hubs and BOS...rjs elsewhere beyond a one off to Florida

Which is why it's great for consumers when B6, WN or even NK is able to grab a slot at LGA or DCA.

It's good for consumers who fly the route B6, WN, or NK choose to fly with the slot they grabbed.

And it's not as good for consumers who fly the route another carrier drops, or who use the frequency that is dropped, in order to sell the slot.

FSDan wrote:

DFW

ERD: 53
ER4: 38
CR2: 1

Surprised there are more ERD than ER4 out of DFW.

Also, what is the one CR2 flight per day? Seems likes an oddball to only have one flight per day for an pretty common aircraft type.

Does this put to rest the AA draw down of JFK narrative that is recurring monthly here?

kbmiflyer wrote:

FSDan wrote:

DFW

ERD: 53
ER4: 38
CR2: 1

Surprised there are more ERD than ER4 out of DFW.

Also, what is the one CR2 flight per day? Seems likes an oddball to only have one flight per day for an pretty common aircraft type.

The one CR2 flight is a ORD-MEI-PIB-DFW-PIB-MEI-ORD rotation.

American 767 wrote:

Only 1 757 a day in BOS. It's not going to CDG is it? Because I believe AA no longer flies BOS-CDG nonstop. I would guess either MIA, PHX, DFW or DCA. DCA also sees only 1 757 a day, is it coming from BOS 1x daily? Or from MIA, DFW or PHX?

The 10 757 departures a day out of PHX, must be mostly, if not all, Hawaii runs with ex-US 757s.

JFK sees now only 4 767 and 6 757 departures a day. I wold think the breakdown is as follows at JFK:
757 1x daily EDI, 1x daily DUB, 1x daily PUJ and 3x daily MIA
767 1x daily CDG, 1x daily MAD and 2x daily MIA
It looks like JFK will loose the 757 and 767 before PHL and MIA will. DFW has already lost the 767 as noted.

ORD also has lost the 757 and 767, other than the daily departures to MIA 1x daily each.

LAX also has lost the 757 and 767.

Thank you for the detailed update. I appreciate it.

The single daily 757 in BOS is BOS-PHL.

The single daily 757 in DCA is DCA-PHX. At PHX, 6 of the 10 daily 757 departures are to Hawaii, plus 1x each to SAN, DFW, DCA, and CUN.

You're exactly right on the JFK 757/767 situation.

washingtonflyer wrote:

BOS:

ERD: 9
ER4: 1
E90: 23
319: 12
320: 1
321: 19
738: 30
7M8: 1
757: 1

If we use the same day I used for the rest of the data (7/23), BOS actually has 100 departures.

ERD: 8
ER4: 2
E90: 23
319: 11
320: 1
321: 23
738: 30
7M8: 1
757: 1

Destinations are all 10 hubs + PIT, MDT, ROC, and SYR.

DiscoverCSG wrote:

STT757 wrote:

jfklganyc wrote:

The LGA regional is noted everytime

Short haul flying with slots tightly controlled by legacies.

AA flies mainline to hubs and BOS...rjs elsewhere beyond a one off to Florida

Which is why it's great for consumers when B6, WN or even NK is able to grab a slot at LGA or DCA.

It's good for consumers who fly the route B6, WN, or NK choose to fly with the slot they grabbed.

And it's not as good for consumers who fly the route another carrier drops, or who use the frequency that is dropped, in order to sell the slot.

In the end of the day, it’s far more important for people in nyc and dc to get more options to fly to airports that they want to fly to than for once a day flight to small airports. Ewr and iAd will gladly pick up demand for those airport.