SkyBus v. SWA

[Phaedrus]

A startup low-fare airline from Columbus, Ohio, wants to offer nonstop flights from the Midwest to Fort Worth Meacham Airport by January 2007. Fort Worth officials have told Skybus, which is not flying now and first contacted the city last year, to come back and talk after some solution is reached in the political wrangling over the Wright Amendment. The potential for a new carrier flying full-size airplanes out of the 80-year-old airport in north Fort Worth has city officials finding something positive if Congress repeals Wright, according to city documents obtained under the Texas Public Information Act. Notes from a Jan. 23 phone call between Fort Worth Mayor Mike Moncrief and U.S. Rep. Kay Granger, R-Fort Worth, paint an "optimistic" picture of life after the 1979 law, which allows passenger flights from Dallas Love Field only to cities in Texas and eight nearby states. Wright "only applies to Love Field" and would not prohibit a nonstop route from Fort Worth to Columbus, according to notes made from the call. However, the legality of long flights from Meacham could be challenged in the courts. "If Skybus does operate out of the City and is successful, then it could be a real boon for our stockyards and cultural district," a typewritten outline says. "Could mean more tax dollars and jobs." Skybus would have a goal of bringing 9,000 people a month to Fort Worth with a minimum of 60 departures on planes with 140 or more seats, according to the talking points. Skybus officials approached Fort Worth in October and again in February, said Mike Feeley, the city's aviation director. Moncrief declined to elaborate on the phone call and instead issued a statement: "Fort Worth is going to be very careful not to do anything that would act to the detriment of our strongest economic engine, D/FW Airport." Pat Svacina, a spokesman for Granger, said Granger regards the phone call as informational only. Skybus representatives did not return several calls for comment. After the February meeting between the city and Skybus, Feeley said he told Skybus officials that the timing was not good to negotiate for new air service because of the Wright talks. ""Our recommendation for them was to talk to D/FW Airport," he said. Since 1929, seven operators have tried to run regular commercial passenger flights from Meacham. None has survived more than a couple of years. Skybus, which has almost reached its funding goal of $100 million, wants to emulate the low-fare Irish airline Ryanair, according to The Columbus Dispatch newspaper. The airline's executive team includes Charlie Clifton, a former top Ryanair executive, and Ken Gile, former chief pilot and director of flight operations at Dallas-based Southwest Airlines. Tim Wagner, a spokesman for American, said American would oppose flights from Meacham that go beyond the Wright boundaries.