customsquestion

Any direct routes? I went to travel agents there are no direct flights from any uk airport with any airline nor from ireland. I would rather avoid going through immigration anyway but cin if I can avoid that. Using dublin pre clerance would mean 2 changes

Pulaski

Check Travelocity, Expedia, and Orbitz, or your favorite travel site. I can't immediately see any international flights other than Toronto, so unless that flight is an international one (at least some flights from Toronto are "domestic" fights because you clear US immigration in Toronto).

There is an immigration hall in the airport, but I'll be damned if I can find what it is used for!

I just found this website: http://nsflight.com/Data/CVG.html. If the data is correct there are NO international flights arriving at CVG, other than the flights from Toronto.

customsquestion

Thank you so it is broad as it is long then? Go toronto or chicago it's all the same. I am really surprised they don't have a big airport

civilservant

I would pick YVR over ORD any day of the week and at least a million times on a sunday.

customsquestion

I am actually thinking Dublin-Ord american airlines with the preclearance and land as a domestic passenger it shouldn't be more than an hour from chicago.

Pulaski

Why? Not every mid-sized city can be an international hub.

There are several east coast cities that have international hub status that barely hang on- Chatlotte, Raleigh-Durham, and Jacksonville spring to mind. With major international airports in DC, Atlanta, and Miami, it is quite possible that any of the smaller international airports could lose hub status.

civilservant

It's almost certain Charlotte will with the merger of AA and USA.

OhioLiz

Delta used to run a daily flight between CVG and London but dropped it in recent years--we took it once or twice. They focused on a daily direct to Paris but sounds like that was dropped, too. Similar with Cleveland--there was a daily Continental air flight to Lon but I think that went away. We live in Columbus and generally fly BA or Delta direct to Detroit or we've done BA direct to Philadelphia and connected to Columbus. We've never had an issue with Detroit arrivals and did our initial POE/immigration there in 06. Philly always seems to bring trouble with the domestic flight--delays, cancellation, etc.

Pulaski

I forgot, RDU lost its hub status several years ago, ..... and I don't think Jacksonville counts either.

civilservant

Lets not forget that the whole idea of the hub and spoke system is that everyone flies into the large major airports and then connects to a smaller flight to their destination. If everywhere can get everywhere it kinda dosent work

Pulaski

Domestically you may have a point, .... though most air travel in the US still appears to be H&S at the moment. But I don't see long haul international being anything other than H&S because even with the largest jets, the main European hubs are FULL, so it doesn't matter how many airports in mid-sized cities fancy upgrading to "international" status with flights to London and Paris, because it just isn't possible logistically at the European end.

customsquestion

What do you mean by a "hub". Every international airport will have an immigration checkpoint whether it is a "hub" or not won't they?

Pulaski

A hub is a central airport to/from which you can catch flights on larger planes and to/ from longer distances. The large majority of international flights to/from the US are to/from hub airports, with only a few/ from non-hub airports.

Without the "feeder" flights very few cities would be able to support international flights even to London or Paris more than once or twice a week.

Duncan Roberts

Its nothing to do with the size of the airport, its the profitability of the routes. Do you really think there is a major desire for a direct flight between the UK and Cinci? I don't think there is a direct flight to the UK from anywhere in Ohio anymore. Cleveland had one once a day each way May-October but that was scrapped close to 10 years ago.

Pulaski

In some sense it's a quirk of history, whether an airline made the city a hub, and then whether that airline was the acquirer or acquiree in subsequent mergers.

Many sizeable airports have lost their hub status as airlines have been bought up or failed, and some of the remaining hubs, such as Charlotte, NC have remained a hub not because of a large local market or an advantageous location but because a surviving airline made it a hub.