while browsing airfares at Southwest Airlines’ website - I came across something curious I am cut-and-pasting here:
Travel into and out of Dallas Love Field is subject to the limitations of the Wright Amendment. Federal law prohibits Southwest from offering for sale, or providing transportation between, Dallas Love Field and any point beyond Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Mississippi, and Alabama.
What is the Wright Amendment? And why was it passed?
Phouchg
A long time ago Dallas had its own airport, Love Field, and Fort Worth had its own airport, Meacham Field. When the two cities decided to build DFW airport, they also agreed to close their respective downtown airports, too. (or at least end passenger service)
Fort Worth kept its end of the bargain and immediately downsized Meacham once DFW opened, but Dallas kept putting it off and putting it off and putting it off all the way up to today. Southwest airlines came into existence at about the time this agreement came into effect, and I think that Southwest’s success had a lot to do with Dallas’ decision to keep it open.
Anyway, Fort Worth had a very powerful Congressman back then named Jim Wright, who later went on to be the Speaker of the House. Mr. Wright authored, and then pushed through, federal legislation that forbade airlines from operating direct flights out of Love Field to any state other than Texas or the four states that border Texas. This put a limit on just how big Love Field could get and ended up guaranteeing DFW’s success.
There’s a lot more to the story, but I think this is the info your looking for.
Actually, I think the Wright Amendment has now been amended to include those other states, but when it first went into effect it was just those first four states that bordered Texas.
Just to gloss Johnny’s post…all the major airlines agreed to move to DFW.
Upstart Southwest didn’t go along with the agreement. Instead they promoted that they would land you minutes from downtown Dallas with their “Spreading Love All Over Texas” campaign. This also accounts for their stock ticker symbol: LUV
The Wright amendment is one of the most un-American things that I have ever heard of. Controlling where and how business can operate?
American Airlines complained for years about Southwest running out of Love Field. They stopped complaining once they themselves started offering service from there and realized that business travelers from downtown Dallas find Love much more convienant than DFW.
Sometimes you feel like a coconut, sometime you feel like a yak.
It was politics, Adam. A lot of big money from big business went into making DFW a success. And that money found its way into political campaigns. Including Jim Wright’s campaign coffers.
Un-American?
Un-fortunately this story is very American.
Ethical?
Well, that’s a different story.
Goodness, you would think you folks haven’t heard about how airline flights and politics go hand in hand! :eek:
There are all sorts of goofy federal limits on who can fly where how often out of various airports, limits set by Congress and agreed to by the President at the time. Recent legislation passed in Congress and pending before President Clinton would, among other things, add flight slots to Reagan National Airport that can be longer than 1250 miles; currently such flights are severely limited out of that airport.
The commercial airline industry may have been ‘de-regulated’; it certainly never has been ‘de-legislated’ nor is it ever likely to be.
The gist of johnnyharvard’s explanation is pretty much right. However, a few of the details need to be fleshed out. (Long explanation to follow)
Prior to airline deregulation, the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB), the pre-cursor to the FAA, regulated airline service. The CAB determined which airlines served which airports and how often. During this time, both Dallas and Fort Worth had airports with passenger service - Dallas Love Field and Fort Worth Greater Southwest International Airport (also known as Amon Carter Field). Meacham was Fort Worth’s original municipal airport, but when Greater Southwest was built in the 1950s, Meacham became a small general aviation airport with no passenger service as far as I know.
In 1964, the CAB, tired of dealing with two airports less than 20 miles apart and tired of dealing with all of the political jostling coming from both cities, ordered Dallas and Fort Worth to designate a single airport for all interstate air carrier service to and from the DFW area. As you can imagine, neither city was willing to give up their airports. The CAB said that if the cities didn’t resolve the issue, it would choose for them. So the cities agreed to jointly build and support Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport. As part of that resolution, both cities agreed to close their respective airports and move all service to DFW. In addition, all airlines serving both airports also signed agreements to move their service to the new airport.
This was all well and good until about 1972. While the new airport was being built, Southwest Airlines came into being and began offering intrastate service out of Dallas Love. When the new airport opened in 1974, all airlines except Southwest moved as they had agreed. Southwest, however, argued that they could not be made to move from Love. In a lawsuit filed by the Dallas and Fort Worth against Southwest, Southwest won the right to remain at and operate intrastate service out of Love Field. The courts ruled that because Southwest Airlines was authorized by the Texas Aeronautic Commission to operate intrastate passenger service at Love Field, under state law the cities of Dallas and Fort Worth could not require Southwest Airlines to move to DFW Airport or to cease providing intrastate air passenger service from Love Field. As a result, only intrastate service was allowed in and out of Love Field from 1973 to 1978 - intrastate meaning within the state of Texas only.
So, 1974 comes around. DFW opens, all airlines except Southwest move to the new airport, Fort Worth closes and dismantles Greater Southwest Airport, and Dallas is forced to leave Love open so that Southwest can continue operating service to other cities within the state of Texas.
Things go along like this until 1978 when Congress decides to deregulate the airline industry. Now, airlines are free to choose which cities they will serve and how often. The CAB no longer designates which airlines will serve a city. Southwest feels that it should no longer be limited to intrastate only service and gets permission from the CAB to offer flights to New Orleans, outside the state of Texas.
So now Dallas and Fort Worth have spent billions of dollars to build DFW Airport. Fort Worth becomes concerned that Southwest’s expanded service at Love, which in a just world Dallas should have been forced to close as it had agreed to originally and as Fort Worth had done with its airport, will have a negative impact on its investment in DFW. As a compromise, the Wright Amendment was approved by Congress. The Wright Amendment prohibited service from Love Field beyond the state of Texas and the four states that border Texas – New Mexico, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Louisiana. In 1998, Congress approved the Shelby Amendment, which increased the allowed states to eight, adding Kansas, Mississippi, and Alabama.
So while some people decry how “Un-American” the Wright Amendment is, in my opinion the “Un-American” thing is that while two cities agreed to close their airports, one lived up to the agreement and one did not. One lost exclusive control of its own airport and all the revenue that came with it and now must share revenue with the other city. One got to keep its airport open and still receive revenue from it along with the revenue it shares with the other city from the new airport.
Apparently, agreements are unenforceable and a contract doesn’t mean anything anymore. How’s that for “Un-American”?
Sorry for the long history lesson here, but I find that most people outside of the Dallas/Fort Worth area have little understanding of what the Wright Amendment is really about. Hell, few people in this area have an understanding of it.
::steps down from soap box::
Kepi, I remember going around and around about this before. THE WRIGHT AGREEMENT WAS A GOVERNMENT IMPOSED RESTRAINT OF TRADE. Jim Wright was a crook. The whole country can thank him for the S&L crisis where he covered for his buddies. Dallas/Ft Worth can thank him for the fact that a one way trip from Houston to Nashville costs $128 but it costs $245 to go to Nashville from Dallas/Ft Worth (as per today’s WSJ article on this subject.) American Airlines is horrible, consistently at the bottom of ratings while Southwest is consistently at the top of the ratings. However, I cannot fly non-stop to San Diego on Southwest because some politicians and regulators were bought off sometime in the 70’s. The courts and FAA have ruled in favor of breaking the Wright restrictions. However, the crooked mayor of Dallas, whose law firm is RETAINED BY AMERICAN AIRLINES is dragging his feet on opening up Love Field. But Southwest and newcomer Legend Airlines should soon be providing unfettered service. This isn’t the old Soviet Union.
mipsman -
Southwest is free to provide “unfettered service” from this area to any city in its system by moving to DFW right now if it wants. But for 25 years it has refused to move. Why? Why not? Why should it move to DFW and compete with 25 other airlines, when it can stay at an airport THAT SHOULD HAVE BEEN CLOSED IN 1974 and capitalize on its monopoly? After all, the other airlines have been prohibited, until recently, from offering any service from Love Field because they signed agreements to move to DFW and have lived up to those agreements. This has given Southwest a monopoly that it does not want to give up. You think they’re happy that Legend and Continental and American (and possibly Delta and United) are preparing to move in on their turf? I doubt it.
Look, the Wright Amendment may be a restraint of trade as you say. So are a lot of regulations passed by governments. Find out about restrictions placed on New York LaGuardia and Washington National. Dallas Love Field is not unique in this regard.
The fact of the matter is that the Wright Amendment would never have come into being if Dallas had closed Love Field in 1974 as it agreed to do. It would never have come into being if Southwest would have moved to DFW as all the other airlines did in 1974. It would never have come into being if Southwest hadn’t tried to provide service outside of Texas despite the earlier court case that gave it a right to intrastate service only.
So I find it hard to criticize the Wright Amendment for being unfair when its whole reason for being was to establish a compromise to correct an already unfair situation to begin with. Fort Worth wouldn’t have had to rely on Jim Wright and Congressional mandates if Dallas and Southwest would have done the right thing in the first place. Dallas gets to have its cake and eat it too, while Fort Worth gets screwed.
I’m obviously no expert on TX politics (as I have shown on this subject before), but this link has some info that sorta changes some of the perspective.
Basically, according to this link, Love Field had a 50-1 ratio over the FW airport in 1965.
I don’t see how closing that airport and sharing in the DFW Int’l pork barrel give FWers a reason to complain.
If anyone should be angry, it should be the Dallas folks for giving up such a chunk.
From the article Mjollnir posted, which sorta puts the 50-1 ratio into context:
Emphasis mine.
OK lets recap:
Dallas and Fort Worth were outgrowing Love and Meacham.
The CAB demands a central airport for the region, preferably located centrally between both cities.
Plans are drawn up for Midway Airport to be built in Arlington.
Dallas backs out because the entrance faced Fort Worth!
Fort Worth builds the central airport (Carter Field, AKA Greater Southwest) anyway, but it isn’t successful. Why? Because a) the airport is located in an unpopulated area about 15 miles from the center of Fort Worth, and b) the region still has two competing airports since Dallas is still operating Love.
The CAB again orders both cities to build a larger central airport. If they can’t resolve this themselves, the CAB will choose a site for them. What motivation does each city have to resolve this without CAB involvement? Dallas has the airport with more traffic, but Fort Worth has the central location. The CAB has already indicated that it desires a centrally located airport, which tips the scales in Fort Worth’s favor.
The two cities decide to build a new airport together and close their respective airports. History had shown that the central airport would not be successful as long as Love Field remained in operation.
Dallas uses Southwest Airlines legal victory as an excuse to keep Love open. As the owner of the facility, why didn’t it just simply close it?
Wary that DFW would suffer the same consequence as Greater Southwest if service at Love was allowed to expand, Fort Worth asked Congress to protect its investment in DFW (which the federal government forced Fort Worth to participate in, by the way) by limiting flights at Love Field. The result was the Wright Amendment.
If the CAB had decided not to do anything, would Fort Worth’s airport have withered away? Maybe. Unless capacity at Love peaked out and the airport had no room to expand – a likely outcome. Then, maybe the traffic at Greater Southwest would have grown. And it certainly would have the room to expand. For those who don’t know, Greater Southwest was located on the southeast corner of the Hwy 183 / Hwy 360 intersection, right across Hwy 183 from the southern entrance of DFW.
So, it’s not that Fort Worth had to close an unsuccessful airport and got the privilege of participating in a much more successful one. It’s that Fort Worth was positioned to have the right location if the CAB chose the site. Rather than sit around and wait for the CAB to force Dallas to close Love and establish the regional airport at or near Greater Southwest, both cities agreed to close their airports and build a new one together. Fort Worth closed Greater Southwest, but Dallas left Love Field open. I hope you can understand Fort Worth’s consternation. Dallas had proven itself to be untrustworthy and unwilling to fulfill its obligations.
“Everybody smokes in hell”
Alright, let’s throw in the “other” airport not mentioned here:
Houston’s Hobby Field.
When Southwest Airlines started it wanted to cash in on the lucrative Dallas/Houston commuter business traffic.
The key was using the two older airports that were close to downtown.
Somebody help me here, but I believe Hobby was supposed to close down when Houston Intercontinental opened. But there was Southwest leasing a small section of the old airport and keeping it a going concern.
Here are some basics about the Houston airport situation:
Intercontinental (IAH) opened in 1969. All airline service moved from Hobby to IAH at that time.
Hobby functioned as a general aviation airport until Southwest Airlines started intrastate service in 1971. In response, Braniff and Texas International returned with some limited service. With airline deregulation in 1978, Houston leaders encouraged new carriers that were not serving the city to offer service from Hobby.
The city of Houston owns both Hobby and IAH, in effect only competing with itself. That is much different from the DFW situation where two cities share one airport, and only one of the cities owns the other. If Dallas agreed to share the revenue from Love with Fort Worth, or if ownership of both airports was transferred to a neutral regional airport authority similar to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (which operates LaGuardia, JFK and Newark airports), then there may not be an issue here. But as long as Dallas continues to operate Love Field despite its agreement to close it down, and as long as expanded service at Love poses a threat to the viability of DFW, this issue may never go away.
The argument that opening up Love to more service will lower airfares in this area because other airlines will try to compete with Southwest can also be argued another way. Close Love and force Southwest to move to DFW (if it still wants to serve this region) and you’ll see the other airlines at DFW drop their fares in response. The question of competition is not answered by having two airports compete against each other, but by having all airlines competing from the same airport. If having two airports was the answer, then how do you explain competive airfares in cities with only one airport?
Kepi,
You wouldn’t happen to live near Love Field, would you?
Nope. In fact I live about 2 miles from the north entrance of DFW.
Oh, and by the way. Southwest has no problem with offering service from both Houston airports, as well as from four airports in the LA area (LAX, Burbank, Orange County, and Ontario), and three airports in the Bay area (San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose). But for 25 years it has refused to serve DFW, where it could fly to any city in its system. Why?
I’ll tell you why. Because it has been content with maintaining its Wright/Shelby Amendment imposed 8-state monopoly. But now that monopoly is about to face some competition. You see, one of the items in the Wright Amendment allows service outside of the 5-state area if the plane has 56 or fewer seats. In 1979, the only planes that had that few seats were ones that didn’t have the ability to fly great distances. Well now, several airlines have so-called regional jets with that number of seats that have the ability to fly much longer distances. It is these types of planes that American and Continental intend to fly out of Love. This will allow them to go beyond the 8-state perimeter to cities like Los Angeles and Cleveland. But capacity at Love is limited, so don’t expect a whole lot of new cities being served from there.
Southwest, however, has only larger Boeing 737s in its fleet, and in all likelihood won’t be getting any smaller planes. That’s one of the things that has made them successful. Having only one type of aircraft in its fleet allows it to maintain costs and provide a quick turnaround time at its gates. So while the Americans and Continentals will be able to offer cross-country service out of Love, Southwest will still be limited to the Wright/Shelby states.
Maybe this will prompt them to finally offer some service from DFW. Then perhaps we will see all those lower airfares everyone keeps hoping for.
Doctordec -
I’m curious about the $200.00 savings you found by going into Love instead of DFW. Is your flight direct from Cleveland or does it have a stop? Is it on Continental or Southwest? If it’s on Southwest, do you realize that it will require a stop in one of the eight allowed states, where you will have to deplane, claim your luggage, and then recheck your luggage on the flight to Dallas using a separate ticket? If it’s on Continental, it will require a plane change in Houston, unless you are traveling after June 1 when Continental starts offering direct CLE to DAL service.
I checked Continental’s website, as well as Travelocity, and using a departure date of April 1 and a return on April 8 (in order to get the cheaper Saturday night stay fare) I found these fares:
CLE to DAL - $388 with connection in Houston
CLE to DFW - $391 direct (no connection)
On Southwest, you would have a stop in at least one of these cities: Chicago, St. Louis, Nashville, Baltimore, or Las Vegas. That stop may or may not include a plane change. Then you would continue on to another stop with a plane change in one of the eight Wright/Shelby states before continuing on to Dallas. Not to mention that you would have to purchase two separate tickets - one from Cleveland to the Wright/Shelby stop and another from the Wright/Shelby stop on to Dallas. This was way too confusing for me to try to figure out what the fare would be, but I’m certain that it would in no way be $200 less than the Continental direct fare to DFW listed above. I mean, not even Southwest would have a $191 combination fare from Cleveland to St. Louis to Little Rock to Dallas.
Some more information that hasn’t been posted yet. Greater Southwest airport was located about two miles from where DFW airport is now. This puts it approximately halfway between the two downtown areas. Greater Southwest was supposed to be a joint venture between the cities of Fort Worth and Dallas. However, (in as classic a case of gerrymandering as I’ve ever heard of) Fort Worth annexed a strip of land about a mile wide just long enough to include GSW inside the city boundaries therefore allowing them to collect all tax revenues from GSW. Needless to say, Dallas was pissed and pulled out of the venture, which doomed GSW. And frankly, I don’t blame them.
Because of this boondoggle, when DFW was designed the airport was incorporated as an independent city.
zyada –
Sorry, but I have to correct a couple of things in your post.
First, Greater Southwest was not the airport that was suppose to be the joint venture between the two cities. That was to have been Midway Airport, but Dallas backed out of the deal while the airport was being designed in 1943. The reason Dallas backed out? Because the designs had the entrance of the airport facing Fort Worth of all things!
After Dallas backed out, Fort Worth decided to go it alone, and built GSW ten years later all on its own. You got it wrong when you said Dallas pulled out of GSW because Fort Worth would get all the tax revenue. Dallas never participated in nor did it ever intend to participate in the building or operating of GSW. This was purely Fort Worth’s, and only Fort Worth’s, airport. So yeah, Fort Worth annexed the land it planned to build its airport on to place it within its city limits and therefore was entitled to receive the tax revenue from it. Since Dallas was not involved in GSW in any way, it was not entitled to any tax revenue from GSW.
Greater Southwest didn’t fail because, as you claim, Dallas pulled out. It failed because, although it was built midway between the two cities as the CAB desired, the problem of two competing airports still existed. The CAB’s original plan was to have one – and only one – airport in this area. As long as Love Field remained operating, GSW was destined to struggle. That is why Fort Worth wanted Dallas to close Love Field when the two cities agreed to build DFW. Fort Worth didn’t want DFW to suffer the same fate as GSW, which it most definitely would have if Love had continued to offer full service.
Second, DFW is not incorporated as an independent city. It lies within the city limits of Grapevine, Euless, Irving, and Coppell. The cities of Dallas and Fort Worth own the airport, but it is in the jurisdictions of these four other cities. For example, if you are ever unfortunate enough to get a parking ticket at the airport terminals, you have to take care of it the Grapevine municipal court. DFW does, however, operate as a quasi-city with its own police force, water and sewage system, etc. I believe that Dallas and Fort Worth may receive revenues such as rent and fees from the airlines, but the tax revenue belongs to these four cities, and may or may not be shared with Dallas and Fort Worth – each city has its own agreements with them. For example, all four passenger terminals lie completely within the city limits of Grapevine, and Grapevine lays exclusive claim to sales and property taxes from them. The new rental car facility is within the city limits of Euless, but Euless has worked out an agreement with Dallas and Fort Worth to split the tax revenue.
Hope this clarifies things for you.