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Point-to-point transit is a transportation system in which a plane, bus, or train travels directly to a destination, rather than going through a central hub. This differs from the spoke-hub distribution paradigm in which the transportation goes to a central location where passengers change to another train, bus, or plane to reach their destination.


Use in airlines

The point-to-point model is used widely by
low-cost carrier A low-cost carrier (LCC) or low-cost airline, also called a budget, or discount carrier or airline, is an airline that is operated with an emphasis on minimizing operating costs. It sacrifices certain traditional airline luxuries for cheaper fa ...
s, including
Allegiant Air Allegiant Air is an American ultra low-cost carrier, ultra-low cost airline headquartered in Las Vegas, Nevada. The airline focuses on serving leisure traffic from small and medium-sized cities which it considers to be underserved, using an ult ...
and
Southwest Airlines Southwest Airlines Co., or simply Southwest, is a Major airlines of the United States, major airline in the United States that formerly operated on a low-cost carrier model. It is headquartered in the Love Field, Dallas, Love Field neighborhood ...
in the U.S., and European carriers such as
Ryanair Ryanair is an Irish Low-cost carrier#Ultra low-cost carrier, ultra low-cost airline group headquartered in Swords, County Dublin, Ireland. The parent company, Ryanair Holdings plc, includes subsidiaries Ryanair , Malta Air, Buzz (Ryanair), Buzz ...
,
easyJet EasyJet plc (styled as easyJet) is a British multinational low-cost airline group headquartered at London Luton Airport. It operates domestic and international scheduled services on 927 routes in more than 34 countries via its affiliate airlin ...
and Wizzair, along with some low-cost carriers in Asia like
AirAsia Capital A Berhad (), operating as AirAsia (stylised as ''airasia'') is a Malaysian multinational low-cost airline headquartered near Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Established in 1993 and commencing operations in 1996, the airline is the largest in M ...
, Lion Air and
VietJet Air Vietjet Aviation Joint Stock Company (), operating as VietJet Air or Vietjet, is a Vietnamese low-cost airline based in Hanoi. It was the first privately owned airline to be established in Vietnam, being granted its initial approval to operate ...
, for example. Many such airlines sell each flight leg independently and have no concept of round-trip ticketing or connecting flights so baggage must be collected and rechecked even to transfer between flights booked at the same time on the same airline. Although there are many point-to-point airlines, most have at least a "homebase" airport where most flights originate or depart. The United States airport system was point-to-point, controlled by CAB, until
deregulation Deregulation is the process of removing or reducing state regulations, typically in the economic sphere. It is the repeal of governmental regulation of the economy. It became common in advanced industrial economies in the 1970s and 1980s, as a ...
in the late 1960s and early 1970s. After the 1978 Airline Deregulation Act, the hub concept became prevalent. With the advent of low-cost carriers, point-to-point air transport increased. Some full-service network carriers operate the point-to-point model alongside the hub-and-spoke system for certain high-density routes between focus cities. In Europe, for example, most traditional full-service airlines operate seasonal point-to-point service outside their hubs to serve
Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea ( ) is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the east by the Levant in West Asia, on the north by Anatolia in West Asia and Southern ...
and Alpine holiday resorts.


Advantages

* It eliminates the need for connections the majority of the time. * It considerably reduces travel time. * It considerably reduces risk of baggage loss or baggage arriving much later than the passenger, as baggage is not transferred as fast as passengers. * Total fuel and pollution per passenger is lower: a passenger flying directly from Brussels to San Francisco will burn less fuel than flying via London or New York. * Without the need to satisfy connections for passengers, trips in a point-to-point system are less interdependent, but the operational constraints of needing to have sufficient equipment and personnel in each location at the right time to satisfy the timetable remain. That minimizes the risk of the domino effect in which the delayed arrival of one trip into a place leads to delayed departures of the (often) multiple trips with which its passengers had to make connections, cascading delays through the network. Therefore, a point-to-point system is less prone to delays. * It has proven advantageous in the
air cargo Air cargo is any property carried or to be carried in an aircraft. Air cargo comprises air freight, air express and airmail. Aircraft types Different cargo can be transported by passenger, cargo or combi aircraft: * Passenger aircraft use the ...
industry in which freight is carried in the unused baggage hold space on passenger flights ("belly cargo"). Traditionally, large cargo aircraft are scheduled to fly between large hubs so freight often has to be forwarded on by additional flights or by rail or road. Belly cargo carried point to point can be delivered closer to its final destination.


Disadvantages

* If a desired origin–destination pair is not served, passengers will have to make a connection as in the hub model or travel by another mode of transportation. Low-cost carriers typically do not facilitate or honor connections, even if the consecutive flights are operated by that carrier and arrive and depart from the same airport. * The frequency of trips may be reduced because the number of origin–destination pairs is orders of magnitude larger. * In the event of major weather events or system malfunctions, it is more difficult to isolate problems to a single part of the country. Such example was the 2022 Southwest Airlines scheduling crisis.


See also

* Spoke-hub distribution paradigm (alternative shipping model) * Direct flight


References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Point-To-Point Transit Freight transport Civil aviation