Aviation

Legacy carriers are facing a choice: Pick your battles or lose for good

Shifting grounds: European legacy carriers have operated on a hub-and-spoke model for decades that relied on a dirty secret — short-haul feeder flights were a loss-leading necessity designed solely to fill high-margin long-haul flights. But as Lufthansa’s latest turnaround plan reveals, that model may have finally broken under the weight of ruthless competition from Gulf…