An Editorial...The Wright Amendment Should Go
Many years ago when Southwest Air Lines went to court for the privilege of flying from Love Field in Dallas, American Airlines persuaded Congressman Jim Wright of Fort Worth to legislate air fare protection via the Wright Amendment, attached to an obscure bill. It was passed and has been in effect ever since.
The little airline that once flew only within Texas has now grown to one of the country's largest and now wants to fly from Love Field to anywhere, instead of being restricted mostly to the states that surround Texas. It is working the halls of Congress to get the Wright Amendment repealed and American Airlines is fighting tooth and nail against it.
American hired a consulting company to justify what might happen if the amendment is repealed and all sorts of bad things come out. Like, American will have to switch a lot of flights to Love Field, and thus service to Tulsa and other places like London would suffer.
American has three unused gates at Love Field and has made sporadic flights from there long enough to put upstarts like Legend Air and Muse Air out of business. And more than 65% of American's business at DFW takes care of connecting, not originating, passengers.
The only thing that will happen if the Wright Amendment is repealed is that American will have to offer lower airfares from DFW, fares which have been proven to be among the highest in the country since there is virtually no competition from the low fare carriers. Even Delta has left DFW mostly to American.
People going to Memphis from DFW fly to Little Rock, which has low fares competing with Southwest, and then take what is called "the Betty Bus" on to Memphis for a two hour ride across the Interstate. This is just to get a decent price.
People going from DFW to say, LAX, have been known to drive to Austin, get on the same plane that flies through DFW to LAX, and save lots of money because the Austin-LAX fare is much cheaper than the DFW-LAX fare.
It is time for the fun and games to end. Congress should act to repeal this outdated, price-fixing piece of legislative junk and allow those who must fly from DFW the opportunity to do so at a reasonable price.
The little airline that once flew only within Texas has now grown to one of the country's largest and now wants to fly from Love Field to anywhere, instead of being restricted mostly to the states that surround Texas. It is working the halls of Congress to get the Wright Amendment repealed and American Airlines is fighting tooth and nail against it.
American hired a consulting company to justify what might happen if the amendment is repealed and all sorts of bad things come out. Like, American will have to switch a lot of flights to Love Field, and thus service to Tulsa and other places like London would suffer.
American has three unused gates at Love Field and has made sporadic flights from there long enough to put upstarts like Legend Air and Muse Air out of business. And more than 65% of American's business at DFW takes care of connecting, not originating, passengers.
The only thing that will happen if the Wright Amendment is repealed is that American will have to offer lower airfares from DFW, fares which have been proven to be among the highest in the country since there is virtually no competition from the low fare carriers. Even Delta has left DFW mostly to American.
People going to Memphis from DFW fly to Little Rock, which has low fares competing with Southwest, and then take what is called "the Betty Bus" on to Memphis for a two hour ride across the Interstate. This is just to get a decent price.
People going from DFW to say, LAX, have been known to drive to Austin, get on the same plane that flies through DFW to LAX, and save lots of money because the Austin-LAX fare is much cheaper than the DFW-LAX fare.
It is time for the fun and games to end. Congress should act to repeal this outdated, price-fixing piece of legislative junk and allow those who must fly from DFW the opportunity to do so at a reasonable price.
posted by Editor | 1:45 AM
8 Comments:
Very well reasoned and articulated. Nearly 30 years after the passage of the Airline Deregulation Act, it shocks me that American Airlines has been allowed to the continued benefits associated with this deregulation "exemption."
Moreover, I was shocked and appalled when our own Sen. Inhofe actually sponsored a bill to close Southwest's home airport as some sort of retribution for attempting to free itself from this yoke. If Inhofe were to be successful, over 20,000 people would likely lose their jobs in Dallas, alone.
I agree with you, it's time to get rid of this anachronistic, protectionist law that does nothing but artificially restrain competition and inhibit innovation.
If anyone saw the latest Southwest profit numbers, this is not an airline hurting in anyway. Yet they seem intent on changing the rules for their benefit instead of simply moving operations to DFW, which they are free to do at anytime. The local Chamber of Commerce as well as other local officials want them to move to DFW because they know that one strong airport is better for the local economy. Southwest is free to fly wherever they want from DFW, they should take advantage of it.
Telling Southwest to go to DFW is kind of like telling Kerr-McGee where they should drill for oil. Just because they have figured out how to make money doesn't mean they should be punished.
I called a friend of mine down in Dallas to get the local feel. He told me that actually the North Dallas Chamber of Commerce is solidly behind Southwest and that the Mayor of Dallas has become extremely irritated at the "bullying threats" by American Airlines. I'm not sure what Chamber of Commerce you're referring to... the Dallas Chamber said that it hasn't taken a stance.
"Telling Southwest to go to DFW is kind of like telling Kerr-McGee where they should drill for oil."
Isn't regulating drilling for oil a good idea? We can't just let them drill wherever they want.
The bottom line is Southwest is free to fly from Dallas to anywhere in the country, they just refuse to use the airport that allows them to do so.
The problem with DFW Airport is that it has been effectively taken over by American Airlines, who appears to have used a combination of predatory pricing and ability to sway airport policies to drive a whole host of low cost carriers into bankruptcy (Sun Country, Western Pacific, Vanguard, Legend, etc., etc.).
Just last week, AirTran announced it was pulling out of the LAX-DFW market. After AirTran introduced low fares on two flights to LAX, American's response was to temporarily lower fares on 39 flights to the entire LA basis. After a few months of this, AirTran cried uncle. Once their gone, AA will no doubt raise its fares higher than ever, tightening its monopolistic chokehold even further.
I think I understand the writer's point about Kerr-McGee. What I believe he/she is saying is that one company (American Airlines) shouldn't be allowed to dictate where another country (Southwest Airlines) should be allowed to operate.
Ok, y'all are gonna have to bear with me because I'm only learning about the Wright Amendment recently. From what I've read though, I don't understand these complaints about the competition at DFW. Southwest isn't anything like Airtran. They're the most profitable and succesful airline in all of North America. They could easily compete with American at DFW if they wanted. The fact they don't want too says to me they care more about their profits then what's best for the economy of the Dallas-Ft. Worth community.
Truth is, Southwest runs on a different model than AA (the 10 minute turnaround, snacks only, friendly flight attendants, no pre-reserved seating, one kind of aircraft--the 737, etc.
If it moved to DFW it would take longer to taxi to the gate than it now takes to completely turn around the aircraft. The Editor.
What connection does Southwest moving to DFW Airport have to "caring" about the economy of the community.
I can't see that forcing Southwest to move just because American says so would be could for anyone but American. Hundreds (if not thousands) of people would be thrown out of work, several hundred million dollars in assets would simply be abandoned. Just doesn't make any sense.
I'd like to have a fancy P.F. Chang's restaurant here in Grove. Just because one doesn't exist doesn't mean that they don't care about me. I'm also not going to go running to Sen. Inhofe to try to force them to open a restaurant here.
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