It is the nation's busiest airport, with more than 58 million passengers and 800,000 tons of cargo passing through annually to points around the state, nation and world. Often lost in all this movement is that the airport also annually offers more than 20 million local flyers a choice of flight schedules and destinations that is second to none.
Hub airports are central clearinghouses for connecting flights.
The variety of destinations and flight schedules available at a hub offers Metroplex residents travel options that otherwise would not be available and makes the Metroplex attractive to large companies that need easy access to national and international destinations. The airport also is a magnet for national and international corporations that locate their corporate headquarters and major facilities in the Metroplex. Companies like Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad, Exxon, Intel, Motorola and J.C. Penney would never have considered a city that lacked a world-class airport. Without hubbing, local air traffic could never support the 2,300 daily flights offered by 23 airlines to 170 destinations. This is because, as a major hub airport, it allows passengers to transfer to flights for destinations that local traffic would never justify.