lowecur said:
The buzz is these two cities will be announced shortly. STL is rumored to be the midwest hub.

imp:
STL would be a wonderful place for a MW hub but... some brief history is in need here.
STL City, which controls the revenue generated in the city proper and the airport has it's collective head up it's ass.
STL has bickered for at least 20 years on the expansion project. It's done now and they have 3 parallel runways to use for takeoffs and landings... but not simultaneously. The new control tower is in the IFR clearway for missed approaches off of an ILS from the north and in the approach path of arrivals from the south. Idiots.
So what they have is a huge, EXPENSIVE, inefficient airport plan... and they want the airlines to pay for it because the rest of STL which is STL County (90% of the population in STL) has absolved themselves of the issue.
Real team players.
STL city now has a HUGE bill to pay. The fee schedule they propose make STL the 2nd highest in the nation to operate out of.
STL went to AA and said, "Here are your landing fees." AA said, "In that case, here is our schedule... with only 20 mainline flights."
STL arrogantly went to SWA and said, "Here's your chance to kill SWA in STL... here's your landing fee prices." SWA said, "Thanks, but no thanks. We've got several areas that we can throw growth right now. In light of these prices, we'll reduce our capacity at STL by 8%. Have a LUVly day."
STL, not finished yet went to Dave Needdleman. STL said, "Yada, yada. Here's your prices." JBLU countered with a flight schedule of over 140 flights per day in and out of STL... but the last document shown was the pricing schedule that would enable it to happen (nowhere near what STL was wanting).
STL refused.
Dave said, "Then the only JBLU aircraft you will see in STL will be a divert."
History lesson over.
Maybe JBLU and STL have worked through some of the issues?