Topic summary
Hub-and-spoke

Extracted from the Wikipedia article Spoke–hub distribution paradigm.
Commercial aviation
In 1955, Delta Air Lines pioneered the hub-and-spoke system at its hub in Atlanta, Georgia, in an effort to compete with Eastern Air Lines. In the mid-1970s FedEx adopted the hub-and-spoke model for overnight package delivery. After the airline industry was deregulated in 1978, several other airlines adopted Delta's hub-and-spoke paradigm.