I haven't heard SW say that Wright was passed to protect AA either, but just ask someone who isn't as informed as apprently you and I are and they will tell you that Wright is there to protect AA, because the SW pr campaign to repeal Wright leaves people with that impression.
There's not doubt that a repeal of Wright would hurt AA. It's debatable whether the damage would be long or short term. Either way, the North Texas economy will be hurt. The Dallas/Ft. Worth economy was directly affected by 9/11 because the airline industry was damaged. I believe that repealing Wright would have a similar if not worse affect. Wright is still protecting the taxpayers of Dallas and Ft. Worth.
That's where you and I disagree. I don't believe repeal of the Wright Amendment would have that much of an impact on the DFW area. It would have some impact but not very much. Love Field's location and lack of room to expand would prohibit a mass exodus from DFW to Love. I also don't think repeal of Wright would hurt AA all that much either. AA's already struggling because they gobbled up quite a few unproductive routes from other airlines. Remember Braniff? There were other airlines too that AA bought the routes from. AA had to take unproductive routes in addition to the more profitable routes.
I still own three whole shares of Braniff. My Dad used to commute between Houston and Dallas on a regular basis. Braniff had a flight that left Houston at 6:30 and they served breakfast on the flight. Braniff decided to move the flight forward by about 20 minutes and they discontinued serving breakfast on that flight. My Dad bought 2 shares of Braniff where he could write their CEO and complain not only about the time change and no breakfast as a consumer but also as a stockholder.
I'd like to see a non-biased study of Love's capacity for more flights because in the late 80's to early 90's Southwest ran flights out of Love on a regular basis. Back then I was at Love Field every other weekend because my son flew to Houston to visit his Dad. On Friday nights and Sunday afternoons SW flights were leaving Love every 10 minutes or so. I'm just not all that convinced there's room or timeslots available for a bunch of new flights out of Love.