Will airlines scrub their Tar Heel hubs?

• Position: American Airlines' and USAir's declining passenger boardings in Raleigh-Durham International and Charlotte/Douglas International airports

Ask economic-development types what has lifted North Carolina from thank-God-for-Mississippi status to a hot prospect for Fortune 500 headquarters, and you're likely to get a consensus.

The airline hubs, they'll tell you.

That's why leaders are worrying out loud over the fate of American Airlines' hub at Raleigh-Durham International and USAir's hub at Charlotte/Douglas International.

Granted, USAir accounted for 93% of Charlotte's 6.5 million passenger boardings through October 1991, and American had more than half of RDU's 3.9 million passenger boardings. But 75% of Charlotte's boardings and 53% of RDU's are for connecting flights. And those connections could just as easily be made in, say, Atlanta or Nashville.

American admits it's taking a drubbing at RDU, and CEO Robert Crandall has warned Triangle business leaders that American's local boardings need to be closer to 30% than the current 15%.

American loses more at RDU than at any of its other hubs -- $115 million through the first nine months of '91. Some fear RDU may suffer the same fate as Dayton, Ohio, where USAir last year slashed flights from 73 to 20 after $45 million in...