Focus city

In the airline industry, a focus city is an airport that is important to one airline but is not a hub.  An airline has daily flights from the Focus city to many destinations that are also not its hubs.  Even though the word "city" is part of this term, it means a city's airport, not the city. 

An example of an airline's focus city is US Airways (now part of American Airlines) at Washington National Airport in Arlington, Virginia.About US Airways, usairways.com, retrieved 2011-Mar-16   Focus city airports can have some of the same facilities that hubs have.  For example, the airline may repair or clean their aircraft at a focus city because it is cheaper. They might also have places and equipment to handle cargo.

Many low-cost carriers that mostly fly point-to-point use focus cities more than hubs. Southwest Airlines,Singe, Kerry Hall and Steve Harrison. Southwest Airlines to land in Charlotte, The Charlotte Observer, charlotteobserver.com, September 28, 2010, retrieved 2011-Mar-16 Spirit Airlines, JetBlue Airways, Allegiant AirThomason, Art. Allegiant Air CEO rings NASDAQ bell , The Arizona Republic, azcentral.com, Feb. 4, 2009, retrieved 2011-Mar-16 and WestJet in the Americas, and Ryanair, EasyJet, Norwegian Air Shuttle and Wizz Air in Europe are examples.

References

Other websites
Map of AirTran's routes and indicator of their focus cities
JetBlue route map with "key cities" 

Category:Airlines