Holly Hegemann does a great job of outlining some of the issues facing the city of Dallas and local leaders about the current battle over the WA. Gary Kelly isn't sitting back for things to happen and I firmly believe as he has said, "everything is on the table." For those who say that "well they are just now adding 4 more sim bays for a total of 10 simulators....SWA isn't going anywhere." Well I would say that if a city was willing to negotiate for being called "Home to Southwest", that will be chump change in building a new facility. I too believe SWA would consider leaving Dallas if the battle for the WA takes too long but only GK & his leadership team knows that limit but like a good poker player he'll use every advantage he can (within legal limits...we don't a bankruptcy judge to lean on) to get rid of the WA. We're in the 2nd inning of a 9 inning ball game...
chase
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Wright Amendment: Southwest Starts Pushing the Economic and Political Hot Buttons
Suppose you owned an airline and all your recurrent training took place at your company's headquarters.
Okay, no big deal.
But also suppose that your headquarters was located next to an airport that you couldn't use to fly in employees from far-flung locations.
Well, at least not without at least one stopover.
How much time is lost because of this situation? How much extra money is spent?
And what if the city in which your headquarters was based, and to which you paid millions of tax dollars each year, refused to support your efforts to lift the current restrictions on flying in and out of that airport?
If you're Southwest Airlines, these are not insignificant questions.
There has been a lot of noise over the last few months about whether Southwest will succeed in having the Wright Amendment, which restricts where it can fly to from Dallas, removed. But for the most part, the noise seemed to be pretty much a rehash of the same old DFW International Airport/American Airlines political line in the sand.
Until now.
Tuesday, Southwest Airlines' CEO Gary Kelly said in an article in the Ft. Worth Star Telegram that the airline intends to pursue its campaign to repeal the amendment for as long as it takes, even if it takes years.
But down underneath the headline, came what I thought was the more important comment, "And [Kelly] also hinted that the company might be forced to relocate its corporate headquarters to another city if Love Field remains restricted."
Finally, if there was still anyone wandering around in the dark about the airline's new attack points, a quote by Southwest Airlines' SVP of Governmental Affairs Ron Ricks, summed it up nicely, as he said, "Southwest is a growing company, but it's not growing in Texas. The fact of the matter is, a shrinking market is not the best site to have a corporate headquarters."
This marks the beginning of a major shift in strategy.
But this was not the first time the airline had signaled the change.
First, for those who might have missed them, a little over a week ago the Dallas Morning News presented a "He said, He said" dueling pair of commentaries. In this corner, Herb Kelleher, chairman of Southwest Airlines.
In this corner, former AMR Chairman Bob Crandall.
The subject?
What do you think?
I think it would be safe to say there was not much new ground broken by Bob's comments. In fact, considering how much money American Airlines lost on its last Love Field "defensive" adventure, I had to laugh, when he wrote:
First, Herb said:
Last fall, I wrote here more than once about how we had the impression that everything at Southwest was "on the table." And I mean everything. While publicly CEO Gary Kelly admitted as much in any number of interviews, I'm not sure that many people really understood the level of introspection going on at the airline.
But in the last month the airline has begun to reframe the situation it finds itself in. And a major part of that reframing concerns the city of Dallas, Texas, which Southwest calls home.
First, there is no doubt in my mind that the preference for Southwest Airlines at this point in time would be for the Wright Amendment to be thrown out. The airline has also made comments of late that indicate this could be done on an extended timetable --over a period of five years for instance.
But let's take a closer look at the city that Southwest Airlines calls home.
Dallas, once a leading Southwestern U.S. economic powerhouse, is struggling.
In a 2004 economic report prepared by Booz Allen Hamilton, the consulting firm said, "By all rights, Dallas should be booming like many of its peer cities that experienced population growth above the United States average over the last 50 years -- Phoenix, Austin, San Jose, and San Diego. Instead, the city is lagging behind on many key indicators. More worryingly, Dallas is falling further behind with each passing year. The city is rapidly losing its position as the region's economic core, the quality of its workforce is relatively low, and it is increasingly home to a transitional population rather than a community of middle-class families that live and work here."
Pretty damanging words.
(continued)
chase
________________________________________________
Wright Amendment: Southwest Starts Pushing the Economic and Political Hot Buttons
Suppose you owned an airline and all your recurrent training took place at your company's headquarters.
Okay, no big deal.
But also suppose that your headquarters was located next to an airport that you couldn't use to fly in employees from far-flung locations.
Well, at least not without at least one stopover.
How much time is lost because of this situation? How much extra money is spent?
And what if the city in which your headquarters was based, and to which you paid millions of tax dollars each year, refused to support your efforts to lift the current restrictions on flying in and out of that airport?
If you're Southwest Airlines, these are not insignificant questions.
There has been a lot of noise over the last few months about whether Southwest will succeed in having the Wright Amendment, which restricts where it can fly to from Dallas, removed. But for the most part, the noise seemed to be pretty much a rehash of the same old DFW International Airport/American Airlines political line in the sand.
Until now.
Tuesday, Southwest Airlines' CEO Gary Kelly said in an article in the Ft. Worth Star Telegram that the airline intends to pursue its campaign to repeal the amendment for as long as it takes, even if it takes years.
But down underneath the headline, came what I thought was the more important comment, "And [Kelly] also hinted that the company might be forced to relocate its corporate headquarters to another city if Love Field remains restricted."
Finally, if there was still anyone wandering around in the dark about the airline's new attack points, a quote by Southwest Airlines' SVP of Governmental Affairs Ron Ricks, summed it up nicely, as he said, "Southwest is a growing company, but it's not growing in Texas. The fact of the matter is, a shrinking market is not the best site to have a corporate headquarters."
This marks the beginning of a major shift in strategy.
But this was not the first time the airline had signaled the change.
First, for those who might have missed them, a little over a week ago the Dallas Morning News presented a "He said, He said" dueling pair of commentaries. In this corner, Herb Kelleher, chairman of Southwest Airlines.
In this corner, former AMR Chairman Bob Crandall.
The subject?
What do you think?
I think it would be safe to say there was not much new ground broken by Bob's comments. In fact, considering how much money American Airlines lost on its last Love Field "defensive" adventure, I had to laugh, when he wrote:
"In recent days, my successor, Gerard Arpey, has been criticized for allegedly 'threatening' to put more service into Love Field. In fact, Mr. Arpey is threatening no one. He is merely stating the obvious truth that if Dallas is to have two airports, any airline wishing to compete for Dallas travelers must serve Love Field. Moreover, Mr. Arpey knows -- as any thinking participant in the debate also knows -- that no successful business can grant a strong competitor a monopoly on the most desirable territory and hope to prosper."
While I found Bob's commentary predictably protective of American, there were two very important new points of attack in Herb's comments. Gary's comments Tuesday simply restated them.
First, Herb said:
"But Southwest still cannot even provide one-stop, single-plane or normal connecting air service between its headquarters city and points beyond the Wright/Shelby amendment states (yes, the Wright amendment can be amended: Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., amended it to add three more states)."
Secondly, just in case that one didn't hit home, he came back with:
"Dallas County reaped $15 million in taxes from Southwest in 2004, since Southwest's entire aircraft fleet is taxed in Dallas, not Fort Worth. Our air services are restricted, but our tax payments aren't."
Yes, nothing says that Southwest Airlines has to keep its headquarters in Dallas.
Last fall, I wrote here more than once about how we had the impression that everything at Southwest was "on the table." And I mean everything. While publicly CEO Gary Kelly admitted as much in any number of interviews, I'm not sure that many people really understood the level of introspection going on at the airline.
But in the last month the airline has begun to reframe the situation it finds itself in. And a major part of that reframing concerns the city of Dallas, Texas, which Southwest calls home.
First, there is no doubt in my mind that the preference for Southwest Airlines at this point in time would be for the Wright Amendment to be thrown out. The airline has also made comments of late that indicate this could be done on an extended timetable --over a period of five years for instance.
But let's take a closer look at the city that Southwest Airlines calls home.
Dallas, once a leading Southwestern U.S. economic powerhouse, is struggling.
In a 2004 economic report prepared by Booz Allen Hamilton, the consulting firm said, "By all rights, Dallas should be booming like many of its peer cities that experienced population growth above the United States average over the last 50 years -- Phoenix, Austin, San Jose, and San Diego. Instead, the city is lagging behind on many key indicators. More worryingly, Dallas is falling further behind with each passing year. The city is rapidly losing its position as the region's economic core, the quality of its workforce is relatively low, and it is increasingly home to a transitional population rather than a community of middle-class families that live and work here."
Pretty damanging words.
(continued)
uke: 
