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CAA: Airport News, "Rivalry between Dallas, Fort Worth Fuels Battle over Airport, Some Say"
February 6, 2000
Rivalry between Dallas, Fort Worth Fuels Battle over Airport, Some Say
Dallas Morning News
Feb. 6--The mayor of Fort Worth was adamant: The new rule that opened Dallas
Love Field to greater airline traffic was just plain unfair.
"They refer to this agreement as a compromise," he said, "but all Fort Worth
got was a whole lot of nothing."
The year was 1979. The mayor was Woodie Woods. The agreement in question was
the Wright amendment, which allowed Southwest Airlines to fly to cities in
Arkansas, Oklahoma, Louisiana and New Mexico.
Last week, current Fort Worth Mayor Kenneth Barr echoed that complaint when
a federal court said Legend Airlines could fly anywhere it wanted.
"Pretty much everyone lost in the deal," Mr. Barr said.
But if that refrain has remained the same, virtually everything else about
the North Texas landscape has changed, Love Field backers say. Dallas/Fort
Worth International Airport -- and its undisputed success since its 1974
opening -- is a central reason.
"The area's population has roughly doubled, the economy of the area has
changed, and the airlines themselves have changed," said Bernard Weinstein,
director of the Center for Economic Development and Research at the
University of North Texas. "We [the Dallas-Fort Worth area] didn't command
the state in the 1970s as we do today."
Without the big regional airport, there would be no Las Colinas. Its main
thoroughfare, State Highway 114, was built specifically to service D/FW.
Interstate 635 also was extended north to hook up with D/FW, which allowed
the development of Valley Ranch. Plano's rise as a headquarters city has
also been linked to the city's easy access to D/FW.
And on D/FW's Fort Worth side, Alliance Airport has become the region's
premier cargo airport, helping drive residential and business development to
far North Fort Worth and its suburbs.
So why does Love Field still generate such emotions on both sides, 32 years
after the two cities signed an agreement with the Civil Aeronautics Board to
create D/FW?
U.S. Rep. Kay Granger, R-Fort Worth, suggests that the problem goes back
even further -- to the aeronautics board's 1964 ultimatum that Dallas and
Fort Worth build an airport together or risk losing federal aviation funds.
Under the agreement signed four years later, the cities agreed to shut down
their municipal airports to passenger traffic and focus on making D/FW a
success.
"That deal became enormous," said Ms. Granger, a former Fort Worth mayor.
"It was like a shotgun wedding. It is not like we said, 'Let's build an
airport together.' The federal government demanded we work together. It
required statesmanship on both sides to get it done."
That statesmanship didn't make the tensions go away. Mr. Weinstein said the
Love Field fight now is more about civic pride than economics or legal
agreements.
"At the root of the issue," he said, "is this historic rivalry between
Dallas and Fort Worth that still simmers beneath the surface."
And although Fort Worth is sticking with the old arguments, Dallas has made
an about-face where Love Field is concerned.
City officials now criticize Fort Worth for seeking court intervention. But
in the 1970s and early '80s, the city of Dallas filed or joined a number of
lawsuits to restrict Love Field service.
It first tried to evict Southwest Airlines -- which started flying in 1971
and is not subject to the aeronautics board's agreement -- and force the
airline's move to D/FW. Dallas officials later joined Fort Worth and the
D/FW Airport board in seeking court help to prevent other airlines from
moving any flights from D/FW to Love. The first to try was Texas
International, a forerunner of the modern Continental, in 1980.
The mayor at the time, Robert Folsom, urged city officials to join the legal
fight against Texas International, and he expressed frustration about court
rulings concerning Love Field. "I'm finding that everyone has more say than
we do as to what goes on out there," Mr. Folsom said in August 1980.
The current Dallas mayor, Ron Kirk, has said he is willing to compromise
with Fort Worth on Love Field operations, but he would not join Fort Worth
in legal action against Legend. To Mr. Kirk, the issue is about economics.
"The greatest hope we have is that competitive flights may bring down rates
at D/FW," Mayor Ron Kirk.
Many North Texans -- especially the hundreds of thousands who have moved
here since D/FW opened -- say they don't care about the civic disagreements.
"It's important for these two communities to work together for the strength
of this region," said Republican U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, herself a
Dallas transplant from Houston since 1974. "I want everybody to be committed
to the strength of D/FW, and I want there to be alternative types of service
at Love Field and Meacham [Airport in Fort Worth]."
Consider the changes since D/FW's grand opening. Dallas-Fort Worth's
population has gone from about 2.3 million people to almost 5 million. The
regional economy has increased from $50 billion a year in 1974 to about $200
billion.
Air travel as an industry has changed, too.
In 1974, one national airline was based in Dallas -- Braniff -- and it was
the biggest carrier at the new D/FW. American was third, behind Texas
International. Southwest, staying at Love Field, served just three cities in
Texas.
Twenty-six years later, Dallas is still home to a national airline, a much
bigger Southwest, and so is Fort Worth, where American now has its
headquarters. Braniff died, was resurrected and died again.
On D/FW's opening day -- Jan. 13, 1974 -- the airport had four terminals and
66 gates. It served about 25,000 passengers each day. Now, the airport
serves an average of 165,000 passengers daily from 127 gates, and a new
international terminal is expected to be completed by 2005.
Love Field, by comparison, has 16 operating passenger gates in the old
terminal at the foot of Cedar Springs Road and six more at Legend's new
terminal facing Lemmon Avenue. The airport serves about 17,000 passengers a
day.
Dallas officials say they don't know how Love Field's growth will be
affected by the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling on Legend.
"We will have this on our agenda for the next several weeks as we consider
how to adapt," Mr. Kirk said.
Doug Murphy, the Federal Aviation Administration's regional manager for
air-traffic control, said Love Field flights could grow 15 to 20 percent
without straining the system. "I've got no concerns about it right now," he
said.
The Legend ruling is only the latest development in an argument that's "been
going on for over 60 years," Mayor Barr said.
"It's part of the unfortunate rivalry that exists between these two cities.
We ought to be able to settle our differences," Mr. Barr said in an
interview in 1998.
The aviation rivalry started in the early 1940s, when the aeronautics board
persuaded Dallas and Fort Worth to consider building an airport in
Arlington. That effort failed when Fort Worth civic leader Amon Carter
insisted that the terminal face west. Dallas then backed out of the deal.
Fort Worth proceeded to build a regional airport in Grand Prairie called
Greater Southwest, which opened in the mid-1950s. Dallas stuck with Love
Field, which prospered while Greater Southwest slowly died.
That was the situation when the aeronautics board arranged the shotgun
marriage that gave birth to D/FW Airport.
Coercive or not, Mr. Barr said last week, "Fort Worth and Dallas have made
commitments to each other."
The 5th Circuit's Legend ruling doesn't change that, he said. "It's going to
cause damage."
American Airlines -- Fort Worth's longtime legal partner where Love Field is
concerned -- has already announced it will start Love Field service to Los
Angeles and Chicago in May.
"Every flight American is taking to Love is being taken from D/FW," Mr. Barr
said.
American Airlines chief executive Donald J. Carty said the decision was
about economics. "Some of our best customers," he said, "live closer to Love
Field."
Staff writer Catalina Camia in Washington contributed to this report.
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