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American Airlines to bank its flights again at Miami International Airport

American Airlines (Dallas/Fort Worth) is switching from a “rolling hub” to a more traditional “banking hub” at Miami International Airport (MIA) on August 19. With this change MIA will have 10 distinctive banks throughout the day. The change will help improve the revenue synergies for the company because it will allow for quicker and more competitive connections (each hub competes against other hubs for the quickest and easiest connections). The move will also increase the number of possible connections.

MIA has four runways so it can handle the inbound and outbound complexes.

Of course during afternoon thunderstorms in the summer months a banking hub will be more of a challenge as there is less room for any weather delays. If one complex is delayed on the ground by a thunderstorm, the following arriving complex will have to wait for that departing complex to depart.

American is doing the same thing at Chicago (O’Hare) (ORD) and Dallas/Fort Worth (DFW) throughout 2015. American does not have any re-banking plans at Los Angeles (LAX) or New York (JFK) right now due “to a variety of factors including gate space and slot constraints.”

American explained this change to its employees: