Replies

No hard feelings - I was also enjoying the debate, but the bullet points summed up my position.

You are wrong about Wright not affecting you. In the new transportation bill just signed into law, restrictions on SW flying to Missouri have been exempted from Wright. As a result, American has reduced their rates from DFW to some routes in Missouri. An earlier poster said that was proof that American could lower their fares. My question is, how much is American losing when they charge those fares? The airline industry can't raise ticket prices enough to cover the higher cost of jet fuel right now.

American is a major employer in the North Texas area. After 9/11, when the airlines were hit hard, the economy in N. Texas suffered, as did the already hurting economy in Tulsa where American has their maintenance facility. I'm not saying I want the government to prop up failing businesses, but I don't want them to go out of there way to make some businesses fail. The Federal Government (which is you and I) has already taken over the pension plan for United and I personally don't want to take over any other pension plans.

Love was supposed to be torn down when DFW was built. SW begged "please, please, we'll only fly little trips and won't hurt anyone" and got Wright. If there had originally been a provision in Wright to say that when DFW was strong and stable, Wright would be repealed, I might feel differently - but there isn't. A deal is a deal.

I know American is a major employer in the DFW area. I have some good friends who work for American and a couple of them went through the pain of United shutting down, another was the senior stew with Braniff when they shut down. I don't want them losing their jobs especially since a few are close to retirement age.

The funny thing is they don't agree with the Wright Amendment but because they're afraid of what might happen to American, they're kind of forced to support it. They would love for American to be as profitable as Southwest is and they realize American has made mistakes and missteps along the way. It's the old caught between a rock and a hard place. They recognize there are things American needs to change and that American would do well to be more like SW but on the other hand they don't want to get caught in any type of restructuring that might take place if American revamped. I can't really blame them for being 'selfish' either.

Heck, I like American Airlines. You can't live in the DFW area and not like them.(Well, I guess if one had ever had a bad experience with them one could dislike them but that doesn't apply to me.) On the other hand I admire Southwest and I don't like seeing them held back by the Wright Amendment.

I really believe eventually Southwest will prevail and the Wright Amendment will be repealed. It will either be incremental as found in the new transportation bill or it will be in one fell swoop. I can only hope American will do what they need to do in order to survive. As I've said in my other posts, I don't believe there would be a mad rush to Love Field. Even when SW is finally allowed to fly nonstop they still will have to bid on slots/gates so I foresee it would be a gradual expansion into some markets and they wouldn't expand into other markets due to the cost.

Even before 911 the economy in N. Texas was having a hard time. The dot-com and telecom industries were hit hard and that had an affect on the Dallas economy. I was exposed to the trickle down effect since I worked for the "Bank of the Northern Hemisphere" in mortgage banking. When the Dallas economy stalled they decided to move their production unit to 2 facilities up north. I could have taken a cut in salary and transferred but chose to look elsewhere within the bank. Thankfully I was one of the lucky few who found a position where my skills would transfer to a different department. Due to unforeseen circumstances I had to retire early.

As far as Love initially supposing to be torn down, it wasn't and that now is water under the bridge. Another thing to consider is American may not survive even if the Wright Amendment isn't repealed. I don't want that to happen at all! To me, American is part of the Texas landscape so I want them to succeed as much if not more-so than I want Southwest to continue to be successful.