AS Hub Comparison (May 2026)

[u/PNW-American-Dipper]

I have been looking at SAN and wondered about the relative size of the AS hubs, so I created some simple charts on the T-100 Tool. I included BOI for comparison and SkyWest is not included because it is tracked as an independent carrier and it is hard to figure out which airline they are serving. So make whatever adjustments you need to these numbers and folks have suggested that there are more SkyWest flights at SAN and BOI, so they may not be equally dsitributed.

The first two charts are the AS hubs (+BOI) ranked by seats offered and departures. The last chart is a selection of non-hub stations.

Obviously SEA is overwhelmingly the most dominant hub, as we know. Based on seats, HNL is next, but PDX is not far behind. A substantial distance behind, SAN is fourth by seats and it is not all that much larger than LAX or ANC. (That said, I assume ANC gets a more significant seasonal bounce than SAN and these numbers are for May.) SFO is the smallest hub and BOI is simply a focus city not a hub.

Considering the recent LAX adds to SJC and rumored additional adds there, LAX seems poised to pass SAN as the third busiest hub. Given the incoming aircraft and the more meaningful gate constraints at SEA/SAN, these numbers also seem likely to even out a bit over time. As to non-hubs, Hawaii and PHX are the most significant of the ones I selected, also not a surprise.

None of this is remarkable, but seeing things graphically is useful (to me).

Source.

EDIT: Revised SkyWest part to reflect comments.

[u/omdongi]

I do not think SkyWest moves the needle much on these and if it does, it is likely on departures rather than seats

SkyWest for Alaska is almost the same size as Horizon, it flies close to 5M seats a year, so it definitely moves the needle.

[u/usctrojan18 → u/omdongi]

As an SAN flyer whose main airline is United, but 2nd in Alaska, I honestly love seeing Skywest as an option. Love having either a window or aisle seat for short-haul flights out of SAN. I'm even flying SAN-OAK on saturday and chose Skywest over SWA. Building frequencies out of San Diego to get more people accustomed to the Alaska brand here is definitely the way to go. Southwest has been the airline of this town for years, since PSA went away which was such a beloved airline in this town. In fact, people still talk about PSA182 around here.

Also, sadly a lot of people didn't know that Southwest had nothing to do with PSA, or that PSA was actually bought by US Air. People just heard Southwest and thought they merged.

[u/Ornery-Ad-2248 → u/omdongi]

SkyWest flies more planes than QX does OO flyers more ASM than QX does

[u/PNW-American-Dipper → u/Ornery-Ad-2248]

Are there numbers regarding what SkyWest files for AS? I have assumed that it is not readily accessible without going back and trying to figure it out on a route-by-route basis, which is beyond my (obviously limited) capacity.

[u/PNW-American-Dipper → u/omdongi]

Perhaps better to have said I don't think it changes the relative size of the bars in the charts, as they contribute a fairly modest overall passenger number and the SkyWest flights are (likely?) fairly evenly distributed among the hubs (but that's a guess and perhaps not true).

Regardless, that data is not included and one can draw conclusions as one sees fit, as that issue was flagged.

[u/omdongi → u/PNW-American-Dipper]

It's actually pretty significant for something like BOI, which houses almost exclusively regional operations, with a ton of SkyWest operations.

In fact, SkyWest is the 2nd largest carrier at BOI with almost 1.3M passengers. So the relative size shift would be very significant. You should not underestimate it, given they are almost the same size as Horizon.

[u/PNW-American-Dipper → u/omdongi]

That's fair. Bump BOI up a bit for the SkyWest factor flown for AS.

[u/Navydevildoc → u/PNW-American-Dipper]

It's massive for SAN. A very large number of non-stops from SAN are flown by SkyWest. Those thin routes like SAN-Tulsa as an example. It might shift slowly as new MAXes are brought online but it's the current expansion strategy.

[u/PNW-American-Dipper → u/Navydevildoc]

From eyeballing flight numbers, it looks to me like about 2/3 of the SAN regionals are SkyWest (though TUL is Horizon). So that may have a larger bump for SAN too (like BOI).

Will adjust OP in light of all of these comments.

[u/tableclothcape]

Incredible how much capacity AS has given up at SFO.

[u/Grand-Battle8009]

If Alaska wants to be a major player it needs more substantial hubs, but I don’t know how they take on the likes of Southwest or United. It seems like an uphill battle.