The dehubbing Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport (CVG): A spatiotemporal panorama

At its peak, in 2005, Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport (CVG) was Delta Airline's second largest hub, offering more than 600 flights per day to nearly 150 destinations in the United States and Europe. In 2005, CVG processed over 22.7 million passengers. By 2013, CVG provided fewer than 180 daily departures to 77 destinations and processed fewer than 6 million passengers per year. The purpose of this paper is to explore the spatiotemporal dynamics of CVG's dehubbing process. We highlight the operational, market and geographic factors that contributed to CVG's decline and use basic exploratory data analysis to provide perspective and deepen our understanding of this process. Results suggest that a combination of commercial carrier strategies, operational efficiencies, hub structures, network topologies and regional competition contributed to the deterioration of CVG. We conclude with a brief discussion of the empirical insights generated and highlight their implications for mid-sized air transport markets.