Comparing air service growth in Amsterdam and Brussels, this paper aims to understand how the strategies of airlines and public authorities allow certain medium‐sized cities to succeed in exceeding their local market by connecting passengers, while others do not. In contrast to Brussels, Amsterdam has become one of the most air serviced European cities, reaching a highly disproportionate level of service given both its size and its airport catchment area. Amsterdam has reached its rank thanks to a successful, global hub‐and‐spokes strategy led by KLM and its partners. Such a success story would have been impossible without support from the State pursuing the expansion of numerous, liberal bilateral air service agreements and a regional development strategy which facilitated the expansion of Amsterdam Schiphol airport in the 1990s. Finally, this paper shows how public and corporate governances might be able to convert themselves to the rules of the market economy.