Danger,Dangerkitty said:
I'm sorry for the furlough but it sounds like you have rebounded...congrats on getting back up & moving on.
In regards to your 2nd paragraph I believe the following synopsis of the events during that time might give the ready a slightly different perspective of what happened than your brief description.
History of the Wright Amendment
Southwest Airlines has been dedicated to providing low fares and dependable air travel to America for 38 years. In 1967, Southwest Airlines chose to liberate the City of Dallas from the exorbitant airfares that existed even then. Of all the cities and airports in the country, Dallas was picked to host the concept of a low-fare airline for all travelers. But no good deed goes unpunished, as they say, and for its efforts 38 years ago to bring affordable air travel to the Metroplex, Southwest Airlines suffered 12 years of nonstop litigation from DFW International Airport and its airline tenants. (We weren't very popular with the locals...they certainly had a track record of trying to hinder our growth...the WA was just the last way for them to do it in my view.) The first four years were spent just trying to begin service. Only after a final decision by the Texas Supreme Court, affirmed by the U.S. Supreme Court, was Southwest able to begin service on June 18, 1971. By then, the litigation had cost Southwest millions of dollars, depleting virtually all of Southwest's financial capital-but not its will. After losing the initial legal battle, competing airlines joined forces with DFW Airport and the Cities of Dallas and Fort Worth in a series of new legal bouts before administrative agencies and state and federal courts. The purpose of that litigation was to defeat Southwest by evicting it from Love Field in Dallas, the source of Southwest's competitive niche. That litigation continued, in numerous forms and before numerous forums, again including the U.S. Supreme Court. The last battle in this series was not settled until September of 1979, with one last regulatory ruling from a federal agency decreeing that Southwest could operate from Love Field, both for intrastate and interstate flights. Key paragraph...again showing the intent of the competition...there was "no compromise being sought....our competitors didn't want a compromise, they wanted us out of business.
During this 12 year period, the city Southwest wanted to liberate from high airfares made it a crime for a commercial air carrier to land at Love Field (a law that was later overturned by a federal judge as an abuse of law). Along the way, two of Southwest's competitors were indicted by a federal criminal grand jury for their role in the conspiracy to bankrupt the fledgling carrier. To the best of my knowledge no one in SWA has ever been charged with a crime in how we compete...was AA one of these parties? It would have been much easier for Southwest to pack up and move its low fare airline to another city but Southwest believed in Dallas and knew the citizens of North Texas deserved the Freedom to Fly. They, too, wanted Love Field to be the cornerstone of a budding competitive niche that is not dependent upon monopoly, but founded on close-in, non-hub airports that allow for quick aircraft turns and high productivity for both airplanes and employees.
In 1978, Southwest saw a ray of hope; the U.S. Congress passed the Airline Deregulation Act, establishing a national policy that would take the government out of the business of regulating which routes an airline could fly. AA still didn't stop their efforts to put SWA out of business...again Herb didn't go looking for a fight, it was brought to SWA. Congress acknowledged that open competition is the best means of determining air routes and fares, but memories are short, and Love Field would soon be excluded from this freedom with the passage of the Wright Amendment less than a year later.
Unsuccessful in beating Southwest into submission via the courts, DFW supporters made this local issue a congressional issue. House Majority Leader Jim Wright, without notice, without hearings, and without opportunity for public comment or informed debate, attached an amendment that banned any airline from engaging in interstate air commerce from Love Field to an unrelated bill. The U.S. Senate refused to go along, and forced a compromise, today's Wright Amendment, whose admitted purpose is to protect DFW Airport (and the airlines which serve it) from competition.
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Ironically I believe one day the folks in N Texas will wake up & find the WA gone...it too will go the same way it was created....AA won't be consulted but a compromise will be reached by "politicians" & the bill will cease to exist or a phase out will be ordered....AA will be forced to deal with it just as SWA was forced to deal with it....does anyone want to bet that AA will be able to handle this "new situation" as well as SWA did 25 years ago?
Again Danger, I hope things continue well for you but I would respectfully disagree with your assessment that SWA was a willing partner to the WA...I believe the informed reader might come to a different conclusion. Cheers,
