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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I really believe eventually Southwest will prevail and the Wright Amendment will be repealed.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.

The Wright Amendment isn't holding SW back - Wright is holding Love back - and for very good reasons. I have friends that fly for both airlines and they all know how I feel. Right now AA is hurting, but coming back strongly. Two years ago, their stock was trading somewhere around $5 per share - Friday it closed at $19.

I guess my heart goes out to the majors because 9/11 hit them hard. I believe United and American were targed partly because of their names. In my opinon SW has spent years making deals only looking to take the next step with no intention of honoring their agreements. I lived through the Braniff mess - I don't want N. Texas to go through that again.

I agree that Wright will eventually be repealed. I just pray it is incrementally and gives American time to catch up. The new CEO at American seems up to the challenge.

You keep saying that there isn't room for growth at Love - you're correct. SW holds a monopoly on the gates there so there isn't much room for AA to come in a compete fairly. The Congresswoman from Dallas (who I am on the opposite side of politically) has said that if Wright is repealed, she will introduce legislation to tear down Love. Kit Bond is so furious with AA for what happened with TWA that he made sure Wright was lifted with respect to MO in the recent transportation bill. This is a political football.