Which system describes airlines using hubs as connecting centers for many flights to outlying cities?

Which system describes airlines using hubs as connecting centers for many flights to outlying cities?

• A. Hub-and-spoke system
• B. Point-to-point system
• C. Direct flight network
• D. Spoke network

Answer: (A)

Using hubs as connecting centers describes the hub-and-spoke model. In this setup, many flights from smaller cities come into a central airport (the hub), and passengers transfer there to reach other destinations. This concentrates operations at a few busy hubs, making it easier to feed large numbers of travelers onto many onward flights and to optimize aircraft and crew usage. Travelers often experience a transfer at the hub, which is a trade-off for broader network reach.

This differs from a point-to-point system, where flights run directly between origin and destination with minimal or no connections, focusing on direct service rather than centralized transfers. A direct flight network emphasizes non-stop routes between specific pairs, again reducing or eliminating transfers. The term spoke network is less standard on its own; it implies routes radiating from a hub but isn’t the formal description used—the recognized term for the described setup is hub-and-spoke.