Yesterday, Reuters reported that Congress voted to repeal the Wright Amendment which limits flights from Dallas Love Field. Assuming the President signs it into law…and he has no reason not to, the first benefits will be available as soon as the airlines update their reservations systems…through ticketing out of Love Field.
Through-ticketing will allow passengers from Love to make connections in cities served from Love Field to destinations beyond. Previously, this would have to be done with separate tickets and was designed to limit where passengers could go.
Currently, service from Love Field is limited to airports in Texas, New Mexico, Oklaholma, Arkansas, and Lousiana. Alabama, Kansas, and Mississippi were added in 1997, although no nonstop service was begun…Southwest citing a lack of demand. Last year, Missouri was added to the list. Thus, if Southwest wishes, under the new through-ticketing options, a ticket could be sold on a plane from Dallas to Las Vegas…as long as that plane stops in St. Louis(for example), en route. Nonstop flights to longer distances will be limited for another eight years.
Southwest operates 121 daily departures from Love Field. Continental operates a regional service with an affiliate. American came in not long ago to operate its own service, more as a protest than anything else, since it has a fortress hub at Dallas-Forth Worth airport, which the Wright Amendment was put into place to protect. Available gate space at Love Field will be reduced to 20 gates from 32, the majority of which will be used by Southwest.
As the Star Telegram asks, who won the game last night? The passengers have to wait eight years for nonstop flights from Love. While Southwest is a low-fare airline, and remains committed to low fare service, the bill allows them a near-monopoly at Love Field while American maintains its near-monopoly at DFW Airport…the hope for competition encourages lower fares seems slim.
Jetblue has announced that it would announce service to Dallas if it could get access to Love Field. However, the reduction of gates at the airport will make that or any other carrier gaining access harder, especially with the tight grip the current airlines have on them.
In addition, there is another organization that will be hurt by this, Love Field Terminal Partners. The company owns the former Legend Airlines terminal at Love Field. It was about to sell the terminal for $100 million to another airline when the Wright Amendment battle heated up. It is suing Dallas, Fort Worth, American Airlines, Southwest Airlines, and DFW Airport. Legend Airlines was an airline that flew for a few months during 2000 from Love Field. Its initial flights were delayed by court battles with American Airlines and the city of Fort Worth. The airline flew 56-seater aircraft, which was below the Wright Amendment limit and thus allowed them to serve places like Los Angeles and Washington. Since none of the terminal space at Love was made available to them, they were forced to spend $24 million on a terminal and garage and ultimately declared bankruptcy.
As Representitive James Sensenbrenner(R-Wis) said, “Tonight is one of those nights when I think we ought to mess with Texas. This the most anti-consumer, anti-free enterprise piece of legislation that has come before this House in a long time.”