Unusual routs?

[Tha_Ape]

While I usually disagree (at least partially) with JS on the CBD, he's right on that. But in the (very slightly) better Russia, I see the effects.
And about the asymmetry, it's only for cargo, won't be so for pax. But that's the way cargo usually works.

[JumboShrimp]

It depends.
I think you must see the CBD as something still in progress, with the refinements not yet implemented.
If, as Sami suggested some day, the players are able to influence not only the traffic of an airport but also its infrastructure, then large airports will necessarily have a big initial advantage (both in terms of initial demand and initial infrastructure to attract more demand that you wouldn't have to build).
In such a case, turning a RL secondary airport into an AWS 1st tier airport will still be possible, but it would be a task that would take decades (yes, I imagine you don't have to grow big, you also have to stay big, improve, modernize, etc.).
Plus, there could even be some more specialization from airport to airport.
Indeed, the list of what can still be done from the basis Sami implemented just a few months ago is pretty long, and I like to see it in its childhood.

I am going to answer in the Feature Request forum with some ideas.

https://www.airwaysim.com/forum/index.php/topic,78252.0.html

[MikeS]

I have an eye on the possibilities of CBD, but after playing with it for a while, I haven't seen anything impressive yet. Demand shifts have been unnoticeable for me - for example, cargo demand have increased in Brazil in GW2 but I can't tell if it's reflex of the global increase of demand over years or the effect of demand shifting. Another thing that makes me concerned about CBD is the asymmetrical demand - I don't understand how demand can be so different in different legs of the same route, even in potential demand figures, and I won't create routes where I will ferry my aircraft on one of the legs. So far my cargo strategy has been creating routes where cargo demand is already high and I've been fine with it.

You're right, the demand does not shift much. But if we pass the concept to pax CBD: the demand of an area is split up onto all airports within the area with the larger airports having a larger pre allocated demand. All airport have a minimum demand however, so we will see the main hubs lose demand by default to adjacent mini airports as is the case with cargo.