AA cant take the heat

[FlyinHigh737]

Let the PEOPLE choose.

 

[SWAnnabee]

Boz,

You know better than that.

Chris

Know better than what. Just listening to another point of view and asking others if it is credible. Again, not intending to flame SWA but I just believe that if you agree to something you shouldn't change it when it suits you. Again, this is IF the above post was true.
Now, if it was just political strong-arm tactics from competing airlines who were stronger than SWA (at the time) and unfair, then I would side with SWA.

 

[mach zero]

What about the City of Fort Worth violating the original bond agreements when they built AFW. http://www.dallasobserver.com/issues/1997-11-06/news/news_print.html

 

[JayhawkDude]

Does anyone else think this is funny?

Study says repealing Dallas airport limits would cut fares

FORT WORTH (AP) — Eliminating restrictions on long-haul flights from Dallas Love Field would cause fares between North Texas and dozens of U.S. cities to fall up to 50%, according to a recent study by an aviation consultant.
Consultants Simat, Helliesen & Eichner of Cambridge, Mass., predicted that if the restrictions were lifted, Southwest Airlines would begin service quickly from Dallas to more than 40 cities including Chicago, St. Louis and San Jose, Calif.

Average fares to those cities would fall as other airlines matched Southwest's lower fares, the consultants said.

The consultant's study was commissioned by Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, which favors a law that limits most commercial flights from Love Field to Texas and seven nearby states.

DFW Airport officials released a summary of the study two weeks ago, saying it bolstered their argument that repealing the law would hurt DFW by shifting hundreds of flights to Love Field, which is closer to downtown Dallas.

DFW Airport officials did not release the consultant's findings on fares until the Fort Worth Star-Telegram requested them from DFW's legal department, the newspaper reported in Friday's editions.

DFW Chief Operating Officer Kevin Cox denied trying to hide the fare findings.

"We just didn't think anyone was interested in 160 pages of voluminous material," he said.

"That's ludicrous," Southwest spokeswoman Beth Harbin said Friday. "Why wouldn't people be interested in information that could save them 50%? DFW only shared half the information."

On Thursday, two North Texas congressmen introduced legislation to repeal the Love Field limits, known as the Wright Amendment, saying the law hurt consumers by keeping air fares in the region artificially high.

But U.S. Rep. Joe Barton, a Republican from suburban Fort Worth and chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, immediately said he would do whatever it took to keep the law on the books.

The Wright Amendment passed in 1979 and was designed to build up then-new DFW Airport by protecting it from competition by Love Field. Southwest remained neutral on the subject for years but began lobbying openly for the law's repeal late last year, calling it anti-consumer.

Southwest is the dominant carrier at Love Field and would be helped most by repeal of the Wright Amendment. American Airlines, a unit of Fort Worth-based AMR, dominates at DFW Airport and has lobbied to keep the restrictions at Love Field.

 

[SWA tech]

SWA will be going to 206 flights a day out of love. Also SWA new city this year will be Dallas when the WA is gone thats what people are talking about??

 

[CLE145CA]

Jim offered a "compromise" permitting nonstop Love Field air service within Texas and the four states adjoining it. Southwest was told by its congressional supporters that it was either Jim's "compromise" or "nothing"; so Southwest took something over nothing.

This is the argument, in principle, I am reading on this thread by those that support the Wright Amendment: "Southwest knew the deal when they got involved with this so they should just accept it and the Wright Amendment should stay in place."

In that respect, should pilot contracts work the same way? The negotiators go to the bargaining table to ask for the world, while management offers status-quo or maybe minor increases and/or cuts. After years of negotiations, the negotiators and MEC come to the pilot group with a tentative agreement providing 10% raises and other improvements. Do pilots vote yes and approve TAs because they know they will never get anything better in the future? No.

Airlines got their planes at a set rate from their lessors, but hey they struck a deal so why should they have the right to renegotiate lower terms in financially hard times? Didn't they know what they were getting into?

Yes, these comparisons are apples-to-oranges, but times change. It is up to the management of both of these companies to do what they think best for their shareholders, customers and employees. There is going to be spin on both sides to get their points across.

The Wright Amendment may have been necessary and understandable back when DFW was conceived and opened, however the success and viability of DFW doesn't appear in question.

IAH-HOU
JFK-LGA-EWR
DCA-IAD-BWI
ORD-MDW
SFO-OAK
DFW-DAL (?)

 

[SWAnnabee]

Good point.