operates ten hubs across the US, but it is its smallest that is also one of its most profitable. Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA), its hub at the heart of the nation’s capital, had over 26 million passengers last year, and American Airlines accounted for more than half of them.

American Airlines is so dominant at DCA that it offers more than five times the number of routes as its nearest competitor. This helps make it the airline of choice for government workers and federal contractors looking for the convenience of flying to the heart of Washington DC. So then why does American Airlines also fly to Washington Dulles (IAD), which is less than 30 miles down the road and the hub of arch-rival ? Let’s take a closer look.

Washington National Airport is American Airlines’ smallest hub, but one of its most profitable.

The American Airlines flights to Dulles

It is immediately noticeable that the flights to Dulles are not just “token” operations, as there are 3-4 flights daily from both Charlotte and Dallas. When you consider that the flights from those same cities to National are hub-to-hub operations with up to ten daily flights, it is notable that American Airlines offers nearly half as many seats to Dulles in addition to National.

What’s more, American Airlines will grow these two routes when the summer schedules begin in a few months. A fifth daily flight will be added from Charlotte, and the three daily flights from Dallas will be up-gauged to A321s. Looking at the greater Washington DC region, American Airlines has 20 daily flights from Charlotte and 16 daily flights from Dallas once you add in Baltimore-Washington (BWI).

Sufficient demand from American’s hubs

So while it would seem counter-intuitive that American Airlines would fly to a rival’s hub when it has its own DC hub just a few miles away, it is clear that there is enough pent-up demand from passengers at its own originating hubs that prefer Dulles over National when flying to Washington DC.

There is good reason for this. While Dulles and National might be separated by just 30 miles, in reality, they are about an hour apart on the road due to the notorious DC-area traffic. While National might be very convenient for those traveling in and out of the District of Columbia itself, it's not so much for those living and working further out in Maryland and Virginia.

If you ever need to travel between IAD and DCA, be aware that there is no dedicated shuttle, so a taxi or your preferred rideshare company is the best option. Budget on at least an hour door-to-door to be safe.

Serving the exurbs of Northern Virginia

The District of Columbia has 680,000 people packed into just 68 square miles. With such limited space, the population has spread out over the years, and more than 90% of the Washington DC metro area lives outside of the District. Northern Virginia (or “Nova”) now has a population of nearly 3 million people, doubling in size over the last couple of decades. It is also home to the headquarters of large aviation companies that we all know like Boeing, Northrop Grumman, and General Dynamics, as well as other large brands like Capital One, Hilton, and Mars.

As someone who used to travel to Reston, VA, every month, it is indisputable that Dulles is very convenient for Nova and National was never a consideration. So it is for most of those 3 million residents, and when paired up with the large populations of the Dallas and Charlotte metro areas, there is more than enough demand for American Airlines to tap into.

Other examples of convenience over hubs

Serving American Airlines’ partners

There is another good reason for American Airlines to fly to Washington Dulles. It is a key US destination for five of its oneworld partners, as well as codeshare partner Aer Lingus, thereby providing international feeder service for the American Airlines network.

American Airlines has no international operations at Dulles and no transatlantic service from National. So these 68 weekly flights with partner airlines provide additional long-haul options for American Airlines loyalists. American Airlines is also providing useful onward connections to smaller partners like Royal Air Maroc and Royal Jordanian that don’t have the same level of connectivity to its other US hubs that a large partner like British Airways has.

But there is an even bigger financial reason for American Airlines to care about its partners at Dulles. It is part of the oneworld Atlantic Joint Venture with British Airways, Finnair, Iberia, and recently-joined Aer Lingus . So these flights are included in the revenue sharing agreement that is at the heart of that venture, and American Airlines benefits financially from these international operations at Dulles even though it is not flying its own aircraft.

The strategic value of Dulles

The final reason that American Airlines likely flies to Dulles is that there is strategic value to holding onto its gates at the airport. Washington National is slot-constrained, and regulators are going to be even more loathe to allow growth at the airport after the accident in January. So, if American Airlines is to grow in the Washington DC region, it might increasingly need to look to Dulles as an alternative. It is also a useful diversionary airport for its flights to National, although the airline would probably prefer its hub in Philadelphia.

Learning a lesson from United Airlines’ experience

However, American Airlines has probably also learned a lesson from its rival, United Airlines, which pulled out of New York JFK in 2015 and moved all transcontinental and transatlantic flights to the region to its hub at Newark. United's public relations staff spent considerable effort spinning the move as a positive, despite the doubts of most industry pundits.

"I wish I could roll back the clock and change the decision. There wasn’t enough strategic thinking put into it. The routes may have been unprofitable alone, but the customers on them were unusually important. I can tell you that at American Airlines, we were delighted because it let us go out and win a bunch of big corporate accounts. For example, Disney and Time Warner, corporate accounts that had been exclusively United, not only flew United on transcontinental routes to JFK but all across the country and around the world. It was a major blunder."

Now stop and think of all the large corporate accounts that potentially have reason to rely on a convenient connection between operations in Dallas or Charlotte and Northern Virginia. Boeing is an excellent example, or Lockheed Martin between its facility in Mannasis and its Air Force Plant #4 in Dallas where its F-35 production takes place. Or indeed American Airlines itself from its headquarters in Fort Worth.

So, as long as the routes to Dulles are profitable, while also underpinning additional revenue via its global partners, American Airlines will surely continue to fly to the hub of its Washington DC competitor in addition to its hub at National. Perhaps the better question to ask is when are we likely to see routes from Miami, Chicago, or Phoenix to Dulles?