CLEVELAND, Ohio – It’s been nearly a dozen years since United Airlines closed its hub at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport.
Many Northeast Ohio travelers, apparently, are still eagerly awaiting its return.
I’m afraid they’re going to be waiting a very long time.
Here’s the truth: Cleveland Hopkins International Airport will never again be a hub for a major legacy carrier like United. At least not in my lifetime.
The city is even building a new airport terminal that accepts that reality.
I don’t say this to be negative. I’d like Hopkins to have more nonstop destinations as much as anyone. But wishing it won’t make it so.
Don’t take my word for it.
Brett Snyder, a former airline employee who writes about the industry at CrankyFlier.com, said airline consolidation has eliminated any demand for new hubs in the United States.
“There will not be any new hubs,” said Snyder, in an interview this week. “There is no need for new hubs in the United States.”
Wishful thinking
For readers who need a refresher on why hub airports are so coveted: They serve as a transfer point for connecting passengers and therefore typically support far more nonstop destinations than could be sustained by local travelers alone.
At its peak, United offered nonstop service to 68 destinations from Cleveland. Today, it offers flights to just 12 cities.
The impetus for this column was a blog published in late November in an online aviation-focused publication called Simple Flying. Its provocative headline: “5 U.S. airports with the potential to become legacy airline hubs.”
Cleveland was listed as a potential new hub for United, along with Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky (Delta), Tampa (Delta), Austin (Delta) and San Diego (no carrier identified). The idea was picked up by a couple of local news outlets and generated considerable buzz on social media.
Don’t believe it.
Aviation analyst Robert Mann said United is unlikely to open any new hub, especially in the Midwest, where the carrier has maintained a dominant presence at Chicago O’Hare International Airport for more than four decades.
United is currently locked in a fierce competition in Chicago with American Airlines, which also operates a hub at O’Hare.
“They’re in a high-stakes battle with American in Chicago,” said Mann, with R.W. Mann & Co. in New York. United will not, he said, “divide its flying assets from a city like Chicago for a city that’s an hour away by air. It’s just unrealistic.”
Indeed, a spokesperson for United put to rest the speculation in a statement this week.
“Currently, we are focused on our existing hubs,” said Spencer Taich, manager of consumer public relations for United.
In addition to Chicago, those hubs include Denver, Houston Bush, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Newark and Washington Dulles.
A statement from Cleveland Hopkins also acknowledged the reality of the airport’s non-hub status. The statement said officials are focused on expanding nonstop options where there is market demand and improving connectivity through existing markets.
“While CLE is engaging with both existing and prospective airline partners, none involves a level of service that would qualify as a hub,” it said.
Travel consultant Henry Harteveldt worked for Continental Airlines in the 1980s when the carrier made the decision to open a hub in Cleveland. The airline needed a hub in the Midwest and Detroit, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati and Milwaukee were already taken.
Today, Detroit is the only one of those cities that remains a hub.
“As soon as United and Continental merged [in 2010], there was no way Cleveland was going to compete with the Chicago hub,” said Snyder.
“That’s why most of the hubs in these midsized cities went away – better hubs in bigger cities,” said Snyder. “That’s where we’re at today. I see no way any airline will open a hub in any midsized city.”
What’s next
Despite the hub closure, United remains the largest carrier in Cleveland, with about 25% of passenger traffic in 2024.
The carrier still maintains a crew base in the city, with hundreds of pilots, flight attendants and maintenance staff calling Cleveland home. Taich said the carrier employs about 1,200 people in the region.
Harteveldt, president of the Atmosphere Research Group, said it’s not impossible that Cleveland could one day function as a hub again – but it won’t be for United or another of the big four U.S. airlines (including Delta, American and Southwest).
“It is highly unlikely that Cleveland will ever be a hub again,” he said. “But never say never.”
As smaller carriers, such as Breeze, Allegiant, JetBlue, Frontier and others expand, they could grow their operations to include more connections in Cleveland or elsewhere, he said.
Frontier Airlines, the second-largest carrier in Cleveland, opened a crew base at Hopkins in 2024, which is sometimes a first step toward a larger operation, said Harteveldt.
(Allegiant and Breeze, it should be noted, operate out of the much smaller Akron-Canton Airport, about 50 miles south of Cleveland Hopkins.)
There is one silver lining to a hub-less Hopkins: With more competition at Cleveland Hopkins over the past decade, fares have come down dramatically.
In 2013 – the last full year of United’s hub — Cleveland’s airfares were among the highest in the country, at an average of $453 per ticket, according to U.S. Department of Transportation data. Only four airports were more expensive: Houston Bush, Washington Dulles and Newark (all United hubs), plus Cincinnati, which was still a Delta hub at the time.
Through the second quarter of 2025 (the most recent data available), fares at Cleveland Hopkins were $370, lower than the national average of $386.
Passenger traffic, meanwhile, continues to grow. In 2024, Cleveland Hopkins welcomed 10.2 million passengers – the most since 2008, when 11.1 million passengers used the airport and Continental still operated its Cleveland hub. (Full-year passenger figures for 2025 are not yet available.)
Nearly all of those 10 million passengers are now starting or ending their trips in Cleveland, rather than connecting through – a shift that has placed significant strain on parts of the aging airport.
Last year, the city unveiled plans for a new $1.6 billion airport terminal designed to accommodate this new reality, with more parking, expanded drop-off and pickup areas, more security screening, a better customs facility and other features.
This new airport terminal isn’t expected to open until 2032 – a full 18 years after United closed its hub in Cleveland.
I don’t know about you, but I’m looking forward to that day.
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