Should Southwest Airlines reconsider its point-to-point route system?

Dallas-based Southwest Airlines is experiencing some of the most dramatic cancellations and delays in history, with some putting blame on the carrier’s operational systems.

For nearly a week, passengers have been stranded at airports across the country, with thousands of flights delayed or canceled during the holidays. The meltdown is likely to cost Southwest Airlines hundreds of millions of dollars.

The carrier is one of a few that still uses a point-to-point route system, where airlines fly between smaller markets at shorter distances. Point-to-point systems, or direct-route systems, used to be the norm for carriers before the U.S. federal government deregulated the airlines in 1978. Since then, most of the country’s major carriers have adopted a hub-and-spoke route system, which allows for multiple spokes, or routes, to connect to designated hub airports.