In the United States, the most crucial air routes for traditional full-service network carriers (or legacy airlines) are those that connect the country's largest cities on the East and West coasts. Los Angeles to New York will be the most commonly cited example, but Boston and San Francisco are other major cities seeing transcontinental services.
These routes feature upgraded products, flagship lounges, and greater frequencies and seat capacities. Furthermore, everything from maintenance operations to marketing strategies is optimized with transcontinental travel in mind.
This begs the question: why do airlines focus so heavily on coast-to-coast travel? More specifically, what makes the transcontinental aviation market the most valuable in the United States? Let’s take a deep dive into this topic for today’s video!