The war machine rolls on...........

[canyonblue]

North Texans and American Airlines Join Together to Create 'Stop-and-Think' Citizens' Initiative
Tuesday March 21, 2:32 pm ET

New Organization Gives Voice to Citizens With Growing Concerns About Wright Amendment Changes

DALLAS, March 21 /PRNewswire/ -- American Airlines announced today that it is joining North Texas citizens in a region-wide effort to underscore area residents' growing concerns about changes to the Wright Amendment. The new initiative, Stop-and-Think, opened its Dallas-area headquarters today. As its first initiative, the Stop-and-Think organization is launching a public education campaign featuring individuals, civic leaders, community organizations and businesses around North Texas.

"We continue to believe that changes to the Wright Amendment will negatively impact local businesses, the economy and potentially thousands of jobs throughout North Texas," said David Cush, Vice President and General Sales Manager for American. "While those who want changes to the Wright Amendment have been vocal, residents concerned that they will be negatively impacted by changes have not been heard. Time and time again, American has been asked to help. The result is Stop-and-Think, a broad-based, citizen-led and citizen-centric effort."

A core community activist group will help guide Stop-and-Think. Cush was joined by several members at a news conference, including Andy Broadus, an educator in Arlington; Kenneth Choe, director of the Korean Society of Dallas; Jesse Diaz, president of Dallas LULAC Council 4496; Stephen McReynolds, a Private First Class in the Army National Guard; Kay Neve and Jenny Wolf, Park Cities parents and active community volunteers; Edward Okpa, a North Dallas real estate practitioner; Rafael Rodriguez, a community liaison at North Dallas High School; and Gehrig Saldana, a retired City of Dallas employee.

"As a Love Field-area resident and mother of two young children, I'm worried about how changes at Love Field will affect my family. We are thankful to have American Airlines join us in creating Stop-and-Think. We now have a way for our friends and neighbors to express their concerns in a way that will be heard," said Jenny Wolf. "Our goal is to get everyone to do just that -- stop and think. Stop and think -- about the noise, traffic congestion, public safety and the significant community and lifestyle implications associated with changes to the Wright Amendment. That is what has been missing from this debate."

"As a resident of Fort Worth for 16 years, a husband and a father, I worry about the economic impact. I am concerned that changes to the Wright Amendment will cause a troubling effect on businesses that could be more far-reaching than just the typical jobs in the travel industry alone," said Stephen McReynolds, a Private First Class in the Army National Guard. "It is more than just travelers who use DFW Airport. It's the thousands of people who rely on the airport every day for employment and the thousands more who rely on airport employees for their own livelihood. I want to know the full impact that changes to the Wright Amendment will bring for everyone, and I think others should too."

"I work in schools every day. As a parent, educator and resident of Dallas for more than 54 years, I know how distracting it can be for kids to learn in an environment where they have to deal with loud and disruptive noises, like airplanes," said Rafael Rodriguez, a Community Liaison at North Dallas High School. "I think we need to really examine the less-obvious, human costs of expanding an inner-city airport that will create a noise issue for tens of thousands of people every day.

Citizens Invited to Speak Out

The Stop-and-Think organization has developed a print and television advertising campaign, as well as an interactive Web site. North Texas citizens concerned about changes to the Wright Amendment are invited to visit http://www.stop-and-think.org and speak out on issues they care about. Stop-and-Think supporters will routinely review submissions to the Stop-and-Think Web site to identify additional individuals and organizations to feature in future phases of the advertising campaign.

Stop-and-Think initially will be managed from its Dallas headquarters located at 3409 Rosedale Avenue, Dallas, TX 75205. The headquarters will be a gathering place for community activists, volunteers, Stop-and-Think staff, as well as employees and retirees from American Airlines and other companies interested in this cause. Citizens who would like to get involved and learn more about the negative consequences of changes to the Wright Amendment are invited to visit the headquarters location, log on to http://www.stop-and-think.org , or call 214-368-STOP.

 

[The Prussian]

...but the battle continues on many fronts.

March 22, 2006
David Leonhardt
Texas Skies May Finally Be Set Free

THE airline industry's attempts to kill off Southwest Airlines finally seemed to have run their course by 1979. The established carriers had filed one lawsuit after another against Southwest, then a little Texas discount airline, and each had failed. "This litigation should have been terminated long ago," a federal appellate judge ruled. It had come to resemble "harassment," he wrote.
But the big boys, especially American Airlines, still had one card to play. They persuaded Jim Wright, then the Democratic majority leader in the House, to pass a law that would shackle Southwest. Called the Wright Amendment, it restricted flights in and out of Love Field, the Dallas airport that was Southwest's home base, to destinations in five states: Texas and the four neighboring ones.
Twenty-seven years later, it is clear that the Wright Amendment has been a miserable failure. Southwest eventually began flying routes that did not start or end in Texas and brought down fares everywhere it went. The airline is the single biggest reason that the number of Americans who fly has tripled since the mid-1970's. It is also the only large airline to have consistently turned a profit over the last 30 years.
Amazingly, though, the Wright Amendment is still around. Southwest flies from Baltimore to Las Vegas and from Seattle to Nashville. But it would be breaking federal law if it flew between Love Field and Chicago, Denver or Phoenix.
And the law has served its narrow purpose quite well, protecting American Airlines from competition at its home, Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport. Tickets from Dallas-Fort Worth cost about a third more than those from a typical airport. So, on a round trip into Dallas that costs $400, nearly $100 of the fare might simply be the "Wright tax," a little gift from you to American Airlines, made possible by Congress.
The amendment is an excellent example of a law that benefits a small special interest at the expense of everybody else, yet survives because the special interest has the most at stake and fights hard for the status quo. (For other examples, check out the barriers keeping phone companies from entering the cable television business or the laws shielding real estate agents from true competition.)
But here's the good news. It looks as though the Wright Amendment may not last until its 30th birthday.
THE cruelest part of the amendment is that the very members of Congress who should most want to get rid of it — those from Texas — have kept it alive. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, a Republican elected in 1993, has been the law's most important defender, and House Republicans like Joe L. Barton and Kay Granger have played a role, too. It is not an exaggeration to say that their main airline policy has been to ensure higher fares for their constituents.
To them, the Wright Amendment was a fair compromise intended to allow the new Dallas-Fort Worth Airport, which had opened in 1974, to become a thriving international airport without forcing Southwest completely out of its home. If Southwest really wanted to fly long routes from Dallas, it could simply move its operations to Dallas-Fort Worth.
There is a good response to all these arguments. Dallas-Fort Worth is the kind of airport Southwest usually avoids; it is crowded, expensive and dominated by a hub carrier. And the Wright Amendment was not really a compromise. It was a brute force attempt by American, and the politicians it could influence, to outmuscle a rival.
But these details are not the most compelling case against Wright. That comes in the form of a simple question to which the amendment's supporters have never had a good answer. Almost three decades after the government deregulated the airlines — when flying is far safer, cheaper and more popular than it once was — why on earth should one corner of the country still have a vestige of regulation that clearly hurts passengers? Isn't capitalism good enough for Texas?
"If you believe in free enterprise, if you believe in helping the consumer," said Representative Jeb Hensarling, a Texas Republican who opposes the policy, "you ought to repeal the Wright Amendment." He compares Wright to a hypothetical law aimed at helping McDonald's by barring Jack in the Box from selling hamburgers to anyone who lives more than two miles from a Jack in the Box. Plainly, nobody would tolerate that.
But the one nice thing about obviously bad policies is that they are not always as entrenched as they seem. Sometimes a small change can set off a domino effect, in which a lot of people hurt by the policy suddenly begin asking themselves why it is still around.
The first domino in this case fell when Delta sharply cut back its flights at Dallas-Fort Worth in 2004, according to Southwest. That rekindled Southwest's interest in expanding at Love Field, and the company started a "Set Love Free" campaign.
But the turning point came last year, when Senator Christopher S. Bond of Missouri sneaked through his own amendment exempting his state from Wright's rules. Southwest started flying from Love Field to Kansas City and St. Louis in December, and fares immediately plummeted. Other senators threatened to take similar steps.
Sensing the shift, Ms. Hutchison called a meeting this month of the North Texas Congressional delegation. Its members agreed to avoid taking any action until June to allow local officials in Dallas and Fort Worth time to negotiate a compromise.
Ms. Granger, who represents Fort Worth in the House, told me last week: "There's no doubt about it. This is a more serious challenge to the status quo than there has been in the past."
Ms. Hutchison said that she now expected "a gradual phaseout of the Wright Amendment."
"I think fares have been too high in Dallas. I do think that," she said. "I would welcome more discount carriers."
It's good to have her in the club.
E-mail: [email protected]

 

[Pickle]

Build a bridge. Get over it.
Is it (W)right? Is it wrong? Who cares. Either way it is.
You want to fly from Dallas to somewhere far away? Got to DFW. Don't like that? Have your codeshare partner do it. I speak completely for myself on this point, but I am sick to death of hearing about how unfair the Wright Amendment is.

OK, the bullseye I painted on my backsice is just about dry, so Southwest guys fire away.

 

[pipejockey]

Well I for one am pulling for AA on this one. I hope they kick some ass! It's time for the worm to turn in this industry.

 

[SWA/FO]

If your so sick of it, why chime in on a "Wright" thread? I doubt, AA will kcik anybodys a$$. They will be losing money with their DAL operation - FACT

 

[HalinTexas]

Build a bridge. Get over it.
Is it (W)right? Is it wrong? Who cares. Either way it is.
You want to fly from Dallas to somewhere far away? Got to DFW. Don't like that? Have your codeshare partner do it. I speak completely for myself on this point, but I am sick to death of hearing about how unfair the Wright Amendment is.

OK, the bullseye I painted on my backsice is just about dry, so Southwest guys fire away.

Let it be repealled and you won't hear any more about it.

SWA's codeshare partner, ATA, is unprofitable. Still. We have 29 airplanes,no credit to buy any and we're still furloughing. This scenario ain't gonna happen.

SWA has taken most of our markets over because John Denison says they "aren't profitable." For example, as of next month ATA will no longer serve the state of Florida. We used to serve six cities, but we are now in competition with our codeshare partner. That can't happen.

Having said that. The Wright Amendment is a federal law that benefits one company over another. AMR and the two cities better cut a deal or the WA will be dropped in one fell swoop.