"Dallas will move quickly to destroy Love Field gates"

Tuesday, October 3, 2006

Dallas will move quickly to destroy Love Field gates
By Margaret Allen
The Dallas (TX) Business Journal


Now that the Wright Amendment compromise bill has passed in Congress, Dallas
Mayor Laura Miller said the city will move quickly to use eminent domain to
demolish a privately owned passenger terminal at Love Field. 

The bill, which passed the House and Senate Friday, calls for a repeal of
the Wright Amendment restrictions in eight years, as well as the destruction
of gates at Love Field, reducing the gates to 20 from 32. The bill also
allows for through ticketing, which involves making a layover stop when
traveling to destinations from Love Field to places outside the eight-state
perimeter governed by the Wright Amendment. 
 
"Were going to be very aggressive and start that process once the bill is
signed," Miller said at a press conference held Tuesday by the Texas
congressional delegation at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport. 

Miller said the improvements to the terminal would be done by the time the
eight-year phase out of Wright Amendment restrictions concludes. She also
said she has already talked to the city manager about condemning the gates. 

When asked how soon the condemnation would occur, Miller responded, "Soon,
as soon as I can get it." 

Hutchison said the bill was on President Bush's desk awaiting his signature.
Hutchison said the signing of the bill could be done in 10 days or longer. 

"I would love for him to do it right here, but I don't know if that's
possible," Hutchison said, adding that the president would be in Texas next
month. 

Rep. Pete Sessions, a Dallas Republican, said the bill has an advantage
because Bush, being from Texas, is familiar with the Wright Amendment. The
delegation members said while fighting to get the bill passed they
repeatedly had to explain whole convoluted Wright Amendment issue to
everyone in Congress because if they weren't from Texas they didn't
understand it. 

"The president of the United States will not ask what this is about. He
won't have to make one call," Sessions said. 

Members of the delegation boasted that the bill would bring competition to
the North Texas Aviation market, add service and lower fares. 

Rep. Joe Barton, an Ennis Republican, who initially was opposed to the bill,
said, "I'm as happy as a pig in mud to be here." Barton said he could have
killed the bill if he wanted to, but he decided to go along with the rest of
the delegation. 

Similarly, Johnson said it all came down to compromise and the rest of the
delegation thought the compromise bill would be best for the region. 
 
"It's hard to believe we're about to put an end to the debate about the
Wright Amendment," Fort Worth Mayor Mike Moncrief said. 

However, the passage of the legislation could signal the beginning of legal
battles over the bill. 

"I feel sure that there will be a lawsuit," Hutchison said. She said there
are at least two already, including a suit filed by Love Terminal Partners,
the owners of some of the gates slated for destruction at Love Field 

The Wright Amendment is a 1979 federal law that limits trips from Dallas
Love Field to short-haul flights to Texas and eight surrounding or nearby
states. Southwest Airlines began a battle to repeal the amendment, but later
joined American Airlines, the cities of Dallas and Fort Worth and the D/FW
Airport Board in a local compromise agreement that served as the basis for
the Wright compromise bill. 

Neither Southwest nor American was represented at the press conference.

 Do you have an opinion about this story?
Share it with other readers in our CAA Discussion Forums

http://www.californiaaviation.org/dcfp/dcboard.php


*****************************************