Virgin Awarded Love Field Gates

[DCMartin]

This just keeps getting more and more convoluted! From the DOJ letter to Dallas:

"American and Virgin America will soon be requesting your official approval of the Sublease pursuant to the terms of American's lease. We would appreciate your approval of that request. Doing so will allow American to fulfill its agreed-upon--and court-ordered--divestiture requirement and will help ensure a smooth transition and additional competitive benefits for Dallas passengers."

What does that mean? Of course they would appreciate the city council do do what they are requesting. My question still remains: can they force Dallas to approve that request?

-According to final judgement, "the court has retained jurisdiction to issue further orders and directions as may be necessary to ensure and enforce compliance with the final judgement." However, I have no idea if that means they can actually tell Dallas what to do.

-The more important point in the letter I found is that American is no longer giving up the gates. They are sub-leasing them and the DOJ has signed off on it. This makes the $50,000 LEK study a moot point, and I don't think the city of Dallas has much go a leg to stand on if they choose to deny the sublease request.

 

[Flyer1015]

I still don't see why SWA should gain a near monopoly on the entire airport. 80% is enough and even their CEO said 16 gates was good enough.

 

[Flopgut]

Would be nice if Dallas could simply go ahead and do the right thing... 18 of 20 gates? Come on.

 

[Saluki Dawg]

I would normally agree with you flyer, however, in this case, DOJ has already determined that DAL/DFW are a single market. Since they are considered a single market and not separate markets, then WN has merely asked to go from 16/200+ gates to 18/200+ gates. VX also isn't being denied access to the DAL/DFW market since they already have gates at DFW with access to more for expansion as they see fit, something that they won't be able to do from DAL. Conversely, WN doesn't have the option to expand flights at DFW without giving up gates at DAL and can only expand from DAL.

 

[HowardBorden]

Would be nice if Dallas could simply go ahead and do the right thing...

I think that is exactly what they are attempting to do. That is why they hired an outside firm with the needed expertise to evaluate who would be the best candidate for the city of Dallas and what actions would be in the best interests of Dallas citizens and taxpayers. You may not agree with L.E.K's assertions but that does not mean they are wrong in their assessments, it simply doesn't jive with your anti-SWA bias.

 

[scoreboardII]

I don't think AA is allowed per the agreement to sublease the gates like the DOJ wants them too. If that where the case, why would the DOJ ever care about who ended up with the gates or even if AA kept them unused? DOJ is as usual being contradictory.

This is big time politics right here, the feds vs Dallas. My bet is Dallas wins. And whomever thinks they will end up with the gates will be waiting a very long time. Maybe that's the plan all along...

 

[scoreboardII]

Would be nice if Dallas could simply go ahead and do the right thing... 18 of 20 gates? Come on.

Yes, it would, just like the city of Houston did, give it to the most likely company to provide the greater good.

 

[FurloughedAgain]

How about a drink-off between Herb and Richard, winner take all?

 

[HowardBorden]

How about a drink-off between Herb and Richard, winner take all?

I think Herb could take him.
http://www.nevblog.com/images/herb_kelleher_whiskey.jpg

 

[DCMartin]

How about a drink-off between Herb and Richard, winner take all?

Hah! Nice

My money's on this guy
http://www.mixedmartialarts.com/thread/2232436/Sir-Richard-Branson-Like-a-Bawse-naked-chick/?page=1

 

[HowardBorden]

Hah! Nice

My money's on this guy
http://www.mixedmartialarts.com/thread/2232436/Sir-Richard-Branson-Like-a-Bawse-naked-chick/?page=1

Well, if we're talking about kite surfing with naked chicks I would give the nod to Sir Richard. In a drink off my money is still on Herb.

 

[FurloughedAgain]

It would be cool if they went old school wouldn't it? Branson's a showman. Have some silly contest like arm wrestling, charge for tickets, donate proceeds to charity. Winner gets the gates, both sides win from publicity!

 

[Flopgut]

I think that is exactly what they are attempting to do. That is why they hired an outside firm with the needed expertise to evaluate who would be the best candidate for the city of Dallas and what actions would be in the best interests of Dallas citizens and taxpayers. You may not agree with L.E.K's assertions but that does not mean they are wrong in their assessments, it simply doesn't jive with your anti-SWA bias.

No one is agreeing with LEK, except SWA. It's a bigger joke than the "consultants" in Houston. I hope part of this litigation going forward is a thorough examination of exactly who is behind these Texas airport "consultants".

 

[Flopgut]

I would normally agree with you flyer, however, in this case, DOJ has already determined that DAL/DFW are a single market.

DOJ did not say that, and that will not hold up as an argument going forward. The City of Ft Worth has been a party to all of the WA litigation, and to the extent that SWA/City of Dallas has not prevailed, it is because LUV and DFW are not considered a single market. Keep pushing that argument and LUV will end up with even more limits.

Beyond that, Virgin wants these gates for the same reasons SWA wanted them 40 years ago. How the hell can SWA say they can't have them, when it's no less than what they got themselves?!

GK may or May not want these gates, but he certainly doesn't want an airline like Virgin to get them. Virgin would do real well with them, and it will expose what a true windfall exploiting DFW is, as always has been, for SWA.

 

[scarlet]

VA could have come to Love when the Wright Ad was in effect and leased the gate from AA years ago= NO ?????????

 

[Ralph Cramden]

VA could have come to Love when the Wright Ad was in effect and leased the gate from AA years ago= NO ?????????

No. With the current Wright restrictions there are no markets meeting VX's market criteria, and AA had already leased their gates to DL. Only with our LGA/DCA slots and the lessening of the Wright restrictions does DAL make a viable plan for us.

Past history of the airport is meaningless as the game is changing, but if you want to consider what if's, what if DAL had been bulldozed and turned into housing, shops and parks when DFW was built?

 

[Flopgut]

Beware the late Friday decision... I think that means SWA will win.

http://aviationblog.dallasnews.com/...fort-to-sidetrack-love-field-gate-issue.html/

Favorite part:

?I?m concerned about that study because I think it represents profoundly backward-looking thinking,? Kingston said. ?That?s $50,000 down the toilet as far as I can tell.?

 

[fr8doggie]

Well, if we're talking about kite surfing with naked chicks I would give the nod to Sir Richard. In a drink off my money is still on Herb.

I thought some guy named Kelly is running SWA now?

 

[Flyer1015]

I would normally agree with you flyer, however, in this case, DOJ has already determined that DAL/DFW are a single market. Since they are considered a single market and not separate markets, then WN has merely asked to go from 16/200+ gates to 18/200+ gates. VX also isn't being denied access to the DAL/DFW market since they already have gates at DFW with access to more for expansion as they see fit, something that they won't be able to do from DAL. Conversely, WN doesn't have the option to expand flights at DFW without giving up gates at DAL and can only expand from DAL.

LGA and JFK are single market but come on they are entirely two different airports with different missions and locations. You can't fly to LAX or SFO out of LGA but you can out of JFK and Europe as well. You can't fly from DAL to Europe but you can from DFW.

Single airport. 20 gates. 16/20 to 18/20 makes no sense.

 

[Flyer1015]

It would be cool if they went old school wouldn't it? Branson's a showman. Have some silly contest like arm wrestling, charge for tickets, donate proceeds to charity. Winner gets the gates, both sides win from publicity!

Now this is classic. Clever:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=je6-h8DPmUM&feature=youtu.be