"Dallas-Fort Worth airport tempts low-cost carriers"

Tuesday, October 12, 2004

Dallas-Fort Worth airport tempts low-cost carriers
Southwest may fill gap left by Delta
By David Koenig
The Associated Press


DALLAS - Southwest Airlines has grown into one of the nation's largest
carriers, but at its Dallas home, it's still the regional Texas airline that
started flying 30 years ago. 

Travelers in Dallas can take Southwest to Houston or Austin - and they do,
in huge numbers. 

But they can't fly from Dallas Love Field to New York, Los Angeles, Chicago
or dozens of other major U.S. cities outside the Southwest. It's a federal
law. 

That could change if Southwest expands to nearby Dallas-Fort Worth
International Airport, where financially troubled Delta Air Lines is
abandoning gates and dropping most of its flights by February. 

"Before Delta's announcement, we would have said we had no interest in being
at DFW," Southwest chief executive Gary Kelly said. "Obviously, if we find
ourselves with more and more competition for customers that use Southwest
out of Dallas and thought serving DFW was a way to defend against that ...
we just couldn't ignore that." 

Why DFW? Southwest could fly from there to anywhere. It can't do that from
Love Field because of the Wright Amendment, a 25-year-old federal law pushed
by American Airlines and the city of Fort Worth to block competition for DFW
after it opened in 1974. The law bans long-haul flights in or out of Love
Field except by small planes. 

Southwest loses a lot of business because of the law, Kelly said. When the
airline last studied the issue in the 1980s, the annual losses were
estimated in the tens of millions, he said. 

Many local officials consider the law a success. It helped DFW grow into one
of the nation's busiest airports, with convenient flights to cities across
the country, which in turn helped pull employers to landlocked North Texas. 

The law, however, is a frequent source of irritation for Southwest customers
flying out of Dallas, who must change flights before going on to distant
destinations - or take another airline. Southwest flies 16 flights daily out
of Detroit Metropolitan Airport and is the fourth-largest carrier there with
415,145 passengers there last year. 

Southwest has had other chances to start flying from DFW over the years, but
always said no. 

"We stayed out of the big airports because they are so costly and because
you would be competing with the legacy carriers," said Howard D. Putnam, who
was chief executive at Southwest before leaving in 1981 to lead Braniff
International, which ceased operations the next year. 

If Southwest stays out of DFW again, it could open the door for such
low-cost airlines as JetBlue and AirTran. 

JetBlue spokesman Gareth Edmonson-Jones said the New York-based carrier
believes other cities offer more profit than serving Dallas. JetBlue opened
its 29th city, Phoenix, earlier this month. 

But Dallas could be more appealing to JetBlue by 2006, when the company
takes delivery of smaller regional jets that are cheaper to operate than its
Airbus A320s, Edmonson-Jones said. 

Attached Photo:

Travelers check in for their flights on Southwest Airlines in Dallas Love
Field Airport, Dallas, Texas. The Wright Amendment, a 25-year-old federal
law, bans long-haul flights in or out of Love Field except by small planes.

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