I forgot to mention that DFW can’t legally be incorporated as a city because it has no residents. It has no mayor or city council or elections or any of the things that constitute an incorporated city in the state of Texas.
Hmmmm if I read what Kepi posted initially correct, I don’t understand the assertion by Kepi that somehow Dallas backed out of a deal.
So, it appears that Southwest managed to successfully prevent Love Field closure by establishing that the attempt to force a closure of the Field was illegal.
Not that that makes the Wright Amendment any more ‘right’. 
Are there airports other than Love Field (like Meacham Field) in the D-FW area offering passenger service?
Also, off topic, when the new Denver International opened, did they close Stapleton, or restrict flights?
DS -
I don’t know the precise details about the Love and Southwest situation, so I may be completely off base here, but I think that Dallas may have intended to keep Love open as a general aviation airport with no commercial service, allowing only private planes, cargo planes, flight training, etc. All commercial flights were to move to DFW and Love would cease being a commercial airport. But Southwest’s victory effectively prevented that, as the court ruled that Southwest could not be made to move to DFW or stopped from providing service out of Love as long as Love stayed open as an airport. As owner of the airport, Dallas could have shut down Love, dismantled the facilities, turned it into an industrial center, created a city park out of it, make it into a skating rink (which it actually did in part of the main terminal at one time!), etc. As long as it stayed open as an airport, Dallas had to allow Southwest to operate out of it, but I think it always had the power to shut it down.
I have no proof of this, however, other than my memory of the situation at the time and my own understanding of the battle going on right now.
Mjollnir -
Right now, there are no airports offering passenger service other than DFW and Love. On a couple of occasions, some small startup/commuter airlines have attempted to offer service out of Meacham (Mesa, Lone Star, etc.) The city of Fort Worth, however, has always limited them to intrastate service only, in spirit with the original court decision that allowed Southwest to serve Love. Most didn’t last very long for various reasons. For example, Mesa pulled its Fort Worth to Houston service in order to deploy its planes in some other markets where it served as a commuter for larger airlines like US Airways. It was also hamstrung by the restrictions the city placed on it in not allowing service outside of Texas.
Fort Worth, however, has mentioned that should the courts eventually rule that Love can stay open and that the cities are no longer bound by the agreements they signed, it might allow commercial service out of Meacham and/or Alliance Airports. Alliance especially would be attractive in that it is located on the edge of the fastest growing area of North Texas, yet has tons of room in which to grow.
I figure that if the original agreements are ruled null and void, then all bets are off and we might see Fort Worth actively pursue new commercial service at its airports.
Looking at the whole thing today, its quite irrelevent. I do not think DFW is having any trouble with competition. I don’t feel any primary airport is having trouble. Total flights are way up since the 70’s. Most primary airports are handling all the flights they safely can and then some. I am all for letting smaller auxillary airports pick up some slack.
Comparing Love field to Houston’s Hobby is not a good comparison. Houston Hobby is much larger (unless Love field has grown). Although Hobby is closer to Downtown Houston than IAH, it is not by very much. Love field is very close to Downtown Dallas. In the 1980’s Hobby (the older airport in Houston) was one of the top 30 airports in the U.S.
Not bad for a number 2 airport.
I have heard no one bitching about Long Beach airport taking away people from LAX. That is the coolest. One waiting room. Baggage claim outside on the parking lot side. Loading and Unloading on the plane from the outside, just like the Beatles did in the early 1960’s
I think Fort Worth’s biggest argument is that the two cities signed an agreement that centralized all commercial service at DFW. This agreement allows for future decentralization of commercial service to other area airports if the decentralization request was approved by 8 of the 11 members of the DFW Airport Board. The Board is comprised of 7 members appointed by the city of Dallas and 4 members appointed by Fort Worth. If Dallas wants to expand service at Love or if Fort Worth wants to allow service at Meacham or Alliance, the Board must grant approval.
Dallas, however, claims that its powerless to stop upstart Legend Airlines (or any other airlines) from serving Love because Dept of Transportation rulings and the Shelby Amendment require it to allow expanded service without approval of the DFW Airport Board.
Fort Worth is arguing that the Airline Deregulation Act and court precedents (Western Airlines v. Port Authority of New York and New Jersey) allow airport owners to exercise their proprietary rights to operate their airports as they see fit. Neither the Shelby Amendment nor Dept. of Transportation rulings prevent Dallas or the DFW Airport Board from limiting service at Love Field.
All Fort Worth wants is for the agreed to process to be followed before any airline is allowed to fly out of Love Field (or Meacham or Alliance, for that matter). If, however, the courts rule that the cities are not bound to those agreements, then each city is free to open up their airports to whatever service they want.
For a high-level recap of Fort Worth’s position, check out:
http://ci.fort-worth.tx.us/cmo/Wright/wrindex.htm
A couple of other points about the DFW/Love Field issue. Prior to the opening of DFW, there were constant complaints & even picketing about the noise level at Love. The airlines got so many complaints they had to set up a special department to handle them. Meanwhile, all airlines then in existence signed an agreement that they would transfer permanently to DFW when it was built. Shortly after DFW opened, the airline industry was de-regulated and anyone with the money and chutzpah could fly anywhere they wanted to BUT the original airlines were tied to DFW. Southwest wasn’t in existence prior to de-regulation so they decided to set up business at Love Field. The situation was similar to the Dulles/National airports in that no carrier at that time was allowed to fly more than about 300 miles non-stop and land at National. This rule was not for national security (in spite of what you may have been told) but to cut down on traffic at National and encourage traffic at Dulles. The Wright Amendment simply set up a similar rule for Love/DFW so that traffic would be encouraged at DFW and discouraged at Love. In other words, the Wright amendment simply made the best of a bad situation in that, after promising to shut down Love field, Dallas left it open and operating for a commercial carrier.
I wonder how much of the situation has to do with the fact that some small carriers have argued that the law requires any general aviation airport to allow all uses, including commercial uses. Denver is fighting such a claim, where a start-up airline is attempting to use Centennial Airport, a smaller, general aviation airport usually used by corporate jets in the SE part of the suburbs. I don’t know the current state of that legal battle; I can well imagine Dallas would be willing to claim their hands are tied by the same argument.