Some business leaders downplayed the impact of United's decision. Others speculated about silver linings, such as the potential for lower fares at a non-hub airport or the possibility that budget airlines might fill the void. Watch video
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Hub status matters. How much? Well, that depends on whether you've got it.
Corporate executives, politicians, cultural leaders and frequent flyers reacted with chagrin Monday, as details trickled out about United Airlines' decision to remove Cleveland from its roster of gateway airports. From April to June, the world's second-largest airline will trim flights here, bringing down daily departures from Cleveland by roughly 60 percent.
The news, which broke Saturday, tossed a bucket of cold water over a city starting to show some heat: A new convention center; the Flats East Bank riverfront development; a rental-housing boom; a smattering of downtown hotels.
Now Cleveland will lose 470 jobs, a quarter of United's workforce at Cleveland-Hopkins International Airport. By mid-year, travelers leaving the city on the busiest days will have 127 fewer flight choices. And, adding insult to injury, airline executives said Monday that the company's upcoming annual shareholders' meeting, once planned for Cleveland, will take place in Chicago instead.
Some business leaders downplayed the impact of United's decision. Others speculated about silver linings, such as the potential for lower fares at a non-hub airport or the possibility that budget airlines might fill the void.Ken Mayland, a Pepper Pike economist and frequent traveler, wasn't so sanguine. "This works toward making Cleveland backwater," he said.
Mark Leahy, the general manager for Cleveland's convention complex, oversaw the opening of a new convention center in Pittsburgh in 2002. Two years later, US Airways -- then bankrupt -- pulled back from its Pittsburgh hub, in a move that kicked off a decade of flight cuts and airline-job losses in that city.
The convention pitch for Pittsburgh changed. Driving distance became more important. Non-stop flights were a smaller part of the package. That's likely to happen in Cleveland now, less than a year after the Cleveland Convention Center opened and made the city a contender again for major events.
"This is a setback, absolutely," Leahy said. "Is it the end of the world? No, it isn't. Every community is going to get a punch in the nose now and then. You get up and get back going."
For meeting planners and people who book conventions, the number of daily in-bound flights matters. For cities trying to attract major events, a hub airport airport sweetens the deal.
But "there are fewer and fewer hubs in the U.S., and it's something we have to deal with," said Michael Guerriero, the division president for event management at Experient, a Twinsburg event-planning company that handles worldwide. "Generally speaking, where there may not be a hub, you can count on other carriers to fill the gaps as needed."
That might be true on the event side. Still, it's little comfort to businesses that are worried about higher travel costs, missed connections and negative perceptions.
Dominion Resources, Inc., which owns East Ohio Gas, now expects to incur 50,000 extra hours of annual travel time between Cleveland and its headquarters in Richmond, Va. Richmond is one of the cities that will lose its non-stop service.
Edward "Ned" Hill, a professor of economic development at Cleveland State University, said the loss of flights will be painful for Cleveland's professional services industry. Accountants, lawyers and business strategists fly daily to other cities to advise corporate America.
If quick trips and overnight business stays stretch out because of connections and delays, costs will rise, productivity will fall and companies will have to consider growing elsewhere, Hill said.
Without a hub here, some businesses might be less likely to consider Northeast Ohio for their headquarters or regional offices. And the flight reductions might push out some companies that already are shaky on staying in Cleveland.
"It's just not good news," said David LaRue, president and chief executive officer of Forest City Enterprises, Inc., a national real estate company with headquarters downtown. "I hope this isn't just the first part of the process, and that (United) does continue to have those major cities served in a direct manner, because that is extremely important to our business and other businesses in town."
Forest City is evaluating updates to its headquarters offices at Terminal Tower, where the company has a short-term lease in a building it also owns. The health of the airport is one of many factors executives are weighing, LaRue said. Forest City's target markets include Boston, Denver, New York and San Francisco -- all on United's list of non-stop flights to be retained.
"I think it is a wait-and-see," LaRue said. "The list of direct flights that they're keeping, it sounds positive for us."
The Cleveland Clinic, the city's largest employer, plans to meet with United executives to get a better sense of the potential impact on travel for doctors, employees, executives and speakers. The Clinic booked more than 12,000 trips last year through United, a spokeswoman said.
Dr. Michael Anderson, the chief medical officer for University Hospitals, described the timing of United's decision -- just as the Global Center for Health Innovation is preparing to open in downtown Cleveland -- as horrible.
"The major health systems in town, like UH, have incredible growth and innovation," Anderson said. "We need to bring physicians in and recruit them and have them travel here. And now, to have United pull our hub -- it really hurts."
Politicians blamed airline consolidation, the economy and each other. Labor leaders bemoaned the loss of jobs, many of them union positions with desirable benefits. Cultural institutions braced for fallout from more limited flight schedules.
Massoud Saidpour, curator of the performing arts series at the Cleveland Museum of Art, said the cuts will make it even harder for foreign artists who already faced travel challenges because of the city's limited international flight offerings and tighter visa rules enacted after Sept. 11, 2001.
If getting to Cleveland appears too difficult, certain artists might choose to skip the city altogether. United's downsizing here also could present problems for downtown's theater district, which is the nation's largest performing arts center outside of New York City.
"The loss of the hub will no doubt create significant new challenges for our company, impacting our ability to arrange nearly 200 flights worth of travel for the actors, directors and designers that we attract to our region each season," said Charles Fee, the producing artistic director for the Great Lakes Theater. "And, personally, as a United MileagePlus member, I am deeply disappointed."
The Cleveland Orchestra, which typically flies to Fort Lauderdale, Fla., en route to its Miami residency, said it's too early to predict the impact from United's decision. Changes for the Cleveland International Film Festival should be minimal, since United appears likely to keep most non-stop routes that the festival uses for guest filmmaker travel. United is still the festival's official airline.
Beyond travel schedules, the loss of a hub also could deal a psychological blow to Cleveland, a city whose tough attitude masks an often-shaky self-image. David Gilbert, who leads the local convention and visitors' bureau, said the biggest damage would occur if Cleveland lets these cutbacks creep into the city's psyche.
"It's not personal about Cleveland," he said. "It was a business decision by United. And when you look at the rationale for the business decision, it makes sense for them."
The visitors' bureau, known as Positively Cleveland, says that the city remains a driving destination, with 86 percent of visitors coming by car. And on the convention circuit, plenty of Cleveland's competitors -- Columbus, Indianapolis, Nashville and, yes, Pittsburgh -- aren't nerve centers for a major airline.
Leahy, the convention center manager, works for SMG, a major facilities operator based in suburban Philadelphia. Though the company runs facilities in hub cities including Chicago, many SMG properties are located in smaller markets without such robust daily flight schedules.
"I was in Savannah, which was very, very successful," Leahy said of his previous management jobs, "and people there joke that when you die, you have to go through Atlanta to get to heaven or hell."
So how much does hub status matter?
"If you don't have a hub, you downplay the importance of them," he said. "If you have one, you play it up, certainly."
Plain Dealer reporters Stephen Koff, Sabrina Eaton, Alison Grant, Teresa Dixon Murray, John Funk, Robert L. Smith, Brie Zeltner, Zach Lewis, Andrea Simakis, Clint O'Connor and Olivera Perkins contributed to this story.