UA's CFO said yesterday at the Merrill Lynch conference that Cleveland "is actually a pretty good hub for us these days." He didn't commit to anything, but there have been conferences and reports in which the C-word was never mentioned. The risk remains, as he also mentioned, that a majority of leases on the regional fleet will expire over the next two years. CLE's fate as a UA hub would seem to rest on how that capacity is retained or replaced. 

I wonder if, instead of UA footing the bill for a new FIS facility, the city paid for it, that would convince UA to add back a foreign flight or two.  Paying for the facility wouldn't cost much more than what some governments (Pittsburgh, Raleigh, Baltimore) commit to subsidize foreign flights and even if UA pulled out, the city would still have the facility to offer the next guy to come along. The city is looking at a windfall of taxes from the casino business; they should put at least a little of it into productive investments - like the airport.

Vasp, thanks, but I have no influence with anybody.