Replies

There's nothing to stop AA or any other airline from having flights fly from Love now. Several years ago, around the time AA started American Eagle, American actually built a couple of gates at Love because they were going to try and capture some of SW's business. From what I remember of news reports back then, American changed their mind and decided to base its puddlejumpers' out of DFW because their base hub was there and they didn't have to worry about transferring maintenance or other employees from DFW. They also decided the restrictions SW was operating under were too restrictive and they wouldn't have that problem flying out of DFW.

Love is surrounded by homes, business and major roads in a way that DFW isn't.

And, so??? SW has been flying a lot of flights out of Love for years and those homes, businesses and major roads aren't exactly new nor have they impacted Southwest's ability to fly out of Love. If American starts to fly out of Love because their flights can go non-stop to cities outside of what Wright restricts, it will mean competition with SouthWest and the consumer will be the one's who benefit from the competition.

Do I foresee a mad rush by all the other airlines to start flying out of Love? There will be some who start to fly out of Love but I don't see a mad rush. Partly because Love Field is limited in how much they can expand terminal wise. There just isn't room to build additional terminals to accommodate a bunch of new gates. Also, SW already runs a pretty busy schedule out of Love Field and Love may not be able to handle a mass influx of new flights. SouthWest may add additional flights since they'll be able to fly non-stop instead of having to have a stop-over in a border state. It's conceivable SW may save money since they won't have to pay gate fees and other fees to land in border states just to comply with the Wright Amendment.

I remember several years ago I wanted to fly to Las Vegas. I called SW because I was pretty sure their flights to LV would be cheaper than anyone else's. Because of the Wright Amendment the agent couldn't specifically tell me SW had flights into LV. They had to make a distinction and tell me I could fly to Phoenix and catch a connecting flight on to Las Vegas. They weren't even allowed to tell me they had a flight out of Dallas with a stop-over whose final destination was Vegas.

I can see where the Wright Amendment was good legislation when DFW initially opened since it forced the different airlines to move to DFW. The thing is, DFW has matured and can now stand on their own feet. Repeal of the Wright Amendment will have only a nominal impact on DFW. One only has to look at Houston with Hobby and Houston Intercontinental to see what will happen between Love and DFW.

As a side note, I used to live in Humble in a subdivision off of Will Clayton Pkwy that was in the direct flight path going east to west into HIA. Standing out on my deck I could see through the windshield and see the pilot/co-pilot. There were a few times we'd wave and the pilot/co-pilot would wave back at us. Our house was pretty well insulated and I became used to the noise but my (now ex) husband never did.