"Senate may allow Love flights to Missouri"

Wednesday, October 19, 2005

Senate may allow Love flights to Missouri
By MARIA RECIO
The Fort Worth (TX) Star-Telegram


The Senate is poised to approve a bill as soon as Thursday that would expand
service at Dallas Love Field by adding Missouri to the list of states that
can be served from the airport.

The provision to add Missouri to the eight states that are not limited by
the Wright Amendment was included in a large spending bill by Sen. Kit Bond,
R-Mo., who chairs an appropriations subcommittee with spending authority
over the Transportation Department and other agencies.

Congressional and aviation industry sources do not anticipate a separate
vote on the provision or even that senators will debate it on the Senate
floor. The change would still have to be approved by House members, who did
not address the issue in the House-passed version of the bill.

But the expected alteration of the Wright Amendment by the Senate comes at a
critical time for Fort Worth-based American Airlines as critics of the law
in the Senate and House can point to the first forward motion towards repeal
since Love Field-based Southwest Airlines declared war on the restrictions a
year ago.

"Twenty five years ago the Wright Amendment was passed to prevent Southwest
Airlines from offering nationwide service out of Dallas' Love Field," Bond
said in a statement Wednesday. "I am pleased that I was able to exempt
Missouri from this anti-competitive, anti-consumer policy."

Once the bill is passed by the Senate, differences still have to be worked
out with the House-passed funding bill. Rep. Kay Granger, R-Fort Worth, a
member of the House Appropriations Committee, said through a spokesperson
that she would fight to remove the provision, although she will not be a
member of the conference committee that makes the final decisions.

The vote on the Senate appropriations bill is part of an agreement reached
earlier this year between Bond and Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, who
argued in an appropriations subcommittee meeting in July that the 1979
Wright Amendment law designed to protect Dallas/Fort Worth Airport needed to
be debated in legislative hearings at the Senate Commerce, Science and
Transportation Committee.

Bond had initially included language that would have essentially gutted the
Wright Amendment by permitting Love Field-based Southwest Airlines to offer
and market "through-ticketing" that is now forbidden by the law. Southwest
can currently only offer point to point tickets from Love Field to cities
within Texas, its four bordering states, and Mississippi, Kansas and
Alabama.

Hutchison, who sits on both the appropriations committee and the Senate
commerce panel, pledged to work for hearings after Bond said he would remove
the "through-ticketing" language which would enable Southwest to sell
tickets from Love Field to any point in its system.

"She expressed her concerns to Sen. Bond that this should not be taking
place on an appropriations bill," said Chris Paulitz, Hutchison's spokesman.

Typically, the appropriations committee is responsible for funding federal
agencies while legislative committees examine and shape policy. Hutchison
has maintained that the economic impact on North Texas needs to be examined
beyond the benefit of lower fares to include the impact on DFW and the
region.

The Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, chaired by Sen.
Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, is preparing a day of hearings in early November,
with Southwest founder Ed Kelleher and American Airlines president Ed Arpey
expected to testify.

"Chairman Stevens has committed to holding hearings on this legislation in
the Commerce Committee, which is good news," said Bond, who added, "I have
put my colleagues on notice. If no action is taken, I will not hesitate to
revisit this issue on a larger scale at my next opportunity."

A bill introduced by Sen. John Ensign, R-Nevada, that exempts every state in
the country from the Wright Amendment has seven co-sponsors, and a House
bill introduced by Rep. Jeb Hensarling, R-Dallas, to repeal the law has 40
co-sponsors.

American Airlines' spokesman Tim Wagner said the expected Senate action on
Missouri would have no immediate impact.

"It's nothing imminent," said Wagner. "We have to keep doing what we've been
doing. We have said all along that we don't think the Wright Amendment
should be encroached upon in any way."

Southwest Airlines' spokesman Ed Stewart said that the expected approval was
a "good first step but our ultimate goal is repeal of the Wright Amendment."
Stewart suggested that Bond's desire to bring low-cost service to his home
state would be rewarded.

"If the senator is successful in his efforts, the people of Kansas City and
St. Louis will be well pleased by the results of the senator's action," said
Stewart.


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