Posted on 04/22/2005 7:10:58 PM PDT by Paleo Conservative
Speaking to reporters at a U.S. Chamber of Commerce aviation conference, Mr. Kelleher also said he would be amenable to an incremental phaseout of the Love Field limits. Although he didn't have a specific timetable, Mr. Kelleher said the federal law could be eased over time by gradually allowing routes between Love Field and additional cities.
"We are totally open to how you approach it," Mr. Kelleher said.
The 1979 Wright law was written to protect Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport by limiting standard commercial jets flying to and from Love Field to Texas' adjoining states. The law was later amended to allow flights between Love Field and Mississippi, Kansas and Alabama.
Southwest officials rekindled the Wright debate last year when they broke their long-held neutrality on the rules and called for their repeal.
Mr. Kelleher's remarks marked the first time a Southwest official has described a legislative strategy that might encompass both a phaseout of the Wright amendment and tying it to lifting restrictions at Reagan National.
His comments came just days after Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., revealed in an interview that he is working on legislation to repeal the amendment.
Texas' two Republican senators have been cool to the idea of changing the Wright amendment, voicing support for continuing to protect D/FW Airport.
(Excerpt) Read more at dallasnews.com ...
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Personally, I understand why it was created, (to let a multi-billion dollar project like DFW International Airport go down the drain would have been a disaster) but DFW isn't going to be destroyed by allowing Southwest and a few other airlines to fly from DAL to more states.
The recent twist in the issue is Delta pulling almost all of its flights from DFW and no longer classifying it as a hub. Now they only fly to their other hubs from DFW. Before that, Delta flew dozens of routes from DFW and one could see almost every type in their fleet, everything from MD-11's to 777's and 767's passing through DFW. Now it is mostly single aisle aircraft and one 767-300 to ATL.
With the loss of Delta, a lot of DFW is now empty and I'm sure DFW will put up a huge fight to keep the Wright Amendment in place.
I dont know much about this issue, but I do travel enough to know that the first word that comes to mind when I travel Southwest aka Love Field is FUN and the first word in mind for American Airlines aka DFW is SNARKY.
So what would happen if WN just went to the old 4E terminal at DFW and flew some routes that DL had effectively abandoned? I am assuming that Delta still has their former landing slots at DFW and would sell ame to WN. I cannot tell you the number of times I have driven past DFW to get to DAL and WN. I also find it amusing that the 'Economic Engine' of north Texas (DFW) is 'threatened' by the financial success of Southwest Airlines.
The Wright Amendment is one of the more asinine aviation regulations of the Post-WWII era. Simply protectionism for American Airlines.
I assume if Delta has any extra left they could attempt to sell the slots to Southwest but I have a feeling the fight over that would be very entertaining to watch. However, I don't think Southwest will start flights out of DFW. On April 2nd, they pulled out of IAH and now only serve Houston through Hobby which is their other Texas hub. Flying out of DFW would probably be a money losing adventure just like serving IAH while having a hub at HOU.
As a little but of self promotion, a picture of the final flight and its water cannon salute can be found by clicking on the link in my profile page.
WN had only six flights/day at IAH all to/from DAL. At the moment I am in PDX. I came up from HOU today on Southwest through PHX and I can tell you that the first leg was >90% full and the second leg was completely full. Do the big guys get this many seats filled on their aircraft?
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With the loss of Delta, a lot of DFW is now empty and I'm sure DFW will put up a huge fight to keep the Wright Amendment in place.
Considering how close Love Field and DFW are to (just 11 miles according to the great circle calculator web page), I don't see why the Texas legislature doesn't force Soutwest to move from Love Field to DFW and close Love Field to scheduled passenger service. It should be restricted to general aviation and maintenance for aircraft.
Quite frankly I don't think Corpus Christi and other smaller cities in Texas are better connected to the rest of the world than they were before Southwest Airlines started flying. Southwest flies to DAL and HOU, neither of which is an international airport. When they first started flying to Corpus Christi, they had the smallest jet that flew into CRP of any airline. Eastern and Braniff flew 727s, and Texas International flew DC-9s, and they flew to IAH and DFW. They also had arriving flights late in the evening from those airports. This meant it was possible for someone living in Corpus Christi to get connecting flights in Houston or Dallas at convenient times for business. There used to be a Braniff flight on a green 727 from CRP that left at 6:30 in the morning and 35 minutes later landed at IAH. That same plane then continued on to LGA (New York Laguardia) and got there before lunch time. You can't tell me that Corpus Christi is served as well by the regional jet service that gets 4 flights per day on Continental Express to and from IAH, or 3 flights on American Eagle to and from DFW, or 3 flights per day on Delta Connection to and from ATL.
There are companies that have left Corpus Christi due to the lack of convenient air travel to the rest of the country. Southwest now flies the biggest jets that service CRP 737-500s which are the same size as the 737-200s they flew here till last year, but they don't fly them anywhere that I can get connecting international flights. They have cheap flights to Houston and Dallas, but they will not do any interline checking of bags. That means even if I wanted to fly to HOU and then catch a flight to New York on Air Tran, I have to retrieve my bags from the baggage claim first, and then check in at Air Tran's counter. So what if Southwest screws up and doesn't get my bags to me at the airport. Will they forward them to the other airline so I can get them at my destination? Hell no. The won't even offer it for an additional fee. Actually I think this should be looked into by the antitrust division of the Justice Department. What's so different between refusing to transfer bags and the Bell system's refusal to allow interconnection by competing long distance companies in the 1970s? Southwest is the monopoly provider of scheduled service between CRP and HOU, and they have more flights per day than any other airlines from CRP, and they don't offer tickets to all the destinations from CRP that they offer from HOU even though all their flights to and from CRP are DAL-HOU-CRP-HOU-DAL. I could buy tickets from their website from HOU to ISP (Long Island, New York City), but I can't buy a ticket from them from CRP to ISP.
Too bad I can't buy tickets to several of those destinations from CRP on Southwest's website.
Yes and no. It depends on the route.
There would be no need for the Wright amendment if Southwest move to the gates Delta abandoned at DFW. DFW was built precisely to relieve congestion and get rid of the noise from operations at Love Field. Love Field is not centrally located in the Dallas / Fort Worth metroplex. It's about an hour's drive from downtown Fort Worth. Do you wonder why the city of Austin has destroyed the runways at the former airport at Mueller Field after they opened the new Bergrstom International Airport?
DAL and HOU are 'international' airports because they each have Customs service. I got a new WN schedule today at HOU and inside it has connecting flights to LGA, HNL, SFO and others using WN as one leg of the trip. Some changes occur at MDW and some at PHX. Those are the ones I remember seeing.
Have you ever boarded a flight to a foreign country from either of those airports? Technically CRP is an "international" airport. It used to have flights to Acapulco, Mexico back in 1968. You'd better be careful about shipping anything perishable to CRP from a foreign airport, because they don't have customs agents there every day of the week.
Herb is so full of crap on this. Back in the late 70s and all through the 80s and 90s, Herb fought every attempt to open Love Field to full traffic. (it used to be only intra texas, then broadened to neighboring texas states).
Why? Herb had his own little money making machine at Love Field, he had nearly all the gates and could fly point to point out of there. Sure anyone else could fly out of there to points beyond provided they had 50-55 seats (IIRC), but in the days before the 50 seat RJ's no one would remove half their seats to do so. Legend Airlines tried to fly all first class with modified DC-9's with the maximum number of seats, but Southwest and American Eagle, and American (with a hub at DFW) pulled every trick in the book to delay their service, resulting in the fact that Legend didn't have enough money to run the airline right, even though they had a very loyal following.
Now, Herbie baby realizes the gig is up, and, what a suprise! He wants Love Field open (now that its practically at capacity and he could make a mint flying nonstops out of there to LAX, OAK, MCO, PHX and BWI.)
The crux of this is, Love should have NEVER been restricted, they did it because back when DFW was built, it was a white elephant and had no traffic. Old Fort Worthless Jim Wright was in the pocket of American and Southwest and did what they wanted him to do, create a nice monopoly for Southwest and give American a DFW without low cost Southwest.
Herb needs to stay retired....
Southwest has no reason to go to DFW, it would split up their passengers, not add new ones, plus landing fees and rents at DFW are much higher than at LUV. Southwest purposely avoids the expensive airports, which is why they don't fly to San Fran, JFK, Newark, Denver, Miami, Atlanta. Herb had a money printing machine at Love Field, now that it is full and there is no real growth, why, Herb wants the restrictions dropped!
Imagine that!
SW should never have been at IAH, not the right fit, remember when they flew out of Ellingson Field in Houston? Nothing but NASA traffic, I don't thing anyone flies out of there now.
Is Meacham field still operating in Dallas? I remember some startup that wanted to fly out of there.
I can tell you that during the week, most of America West's flights are fully booked, overbooked or in the 90% area.
Especially the ones I want to fly on as a standby!
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