United is a hub-and-spoke company. United’s hubs are strategically located at Chicago,
Washington, Denver, Los Angeles, and San Francisco airports. These hubs provide direct
international flights to international destinations such as China, Kuwait City, Europe, Australia,
Latin America, and the Caribbean. In addition, these hubs also provide services to domestic
destinations for the international passengers. Hub-and-spoke method makes operations
streamlined for airlines than do the point-to-point method. More resources are combined and
available at hubs than at point-to-point airports. Thus, it makes easy for the airlines to manage
passengers. Due to the hub-and-spoke method, United’s passenger load factor is 81.2%, which
is much better than many point-to-point airlines.