Editorial...The Wright Amendment May Be Modified
Congress has before it a measure which will continue to restrict flights from Love Field for the next eight years; after that, Southwest Airlines or any other can fly to whatever city it wishes, unless another restriction is place on the airport at that time.
OU President David Boren is all excited about this, as is American Airlines, chief opponent of relaxation of rules or repealing the Wright Amendment. Boren serves on the Board of Directors of AA.
While the rest of the country was de-regulated in 1979, politicians tacked on the Wright Amendment requiring Southwest to fly only to the five adjoining states, supposedly to protect DFW from competition.
Since then poor little DFW has managed quite well, dominated by American Airlines.
American says that if the Wright Amendment were repealed Tulsa would suffer with reduced flights.
So why is AA continuing to downsize its aircraft flying from Tulsa, while Southwest continues to fly 737's? Why does AA operate 16 flights a day from Tulsa compared with 20 on Southwest?
AA also says thousands of jobs are being preserved in Oklahoma as a result of the Wright Amendment being kept in place. We see no relationship between aircraft maintenance in Tulsa and Southwest's ability to fly from Love Field to Chicago.
The big results would be that AA would have to reduce its airfares from DFW on routes where it competes with Southwest and the traveler would be the beneficiary.
In another eight years Southwest can fly anywhere it wants but in the meantime, the current nine states rule remains in effect. If the legislation passes, Southwest could issue one ticket from Love Field to the final destination, rather than two separate tickets as currently.
Senator Jim Inhofe has introduced a bill to close Love Field completely, backed by Boren.
We wonder what Inhofe would say if a Texas senator introduced a bill to close Tulsa International.
It is amazing what a pile of lobby money will do to politicians' brains. We continue to believe that de-regulation means all airlines, rather than all but one. Inhofe and Boren should stay out of this issue.
OU President David Boren is all excited about this, as is American Airlines, chief opponent of relaxation of rules or repealing the Wright Amendment. Boren serves on the Board of Directors of AA.
While the rest of the country was de-regulated in 1979, politicians tacked on the Wright Amendment requiring Southwest to fly only to the five adjoining states, supposedly to protect DFW from competition.
Since then poor little DFW has managed quite well, dominated by American Airlines.
American says that if the Wright Amendment were repealed Tulsa would suffer with reduced flights.
So why is AA continuing to downsize its aircraft flying from Tulsa, while Southwest continues to fly 737's? Why does AA operate 16 flights a day from Tulsa compared with 20 on Southwest?
AA also says thousands of jobs are being preserved in Oklahoma as a result of the Wright Amendment being kept in place. We see no relationship between aircraft maintenance in Tulsa and Southwest's ability to fly from Love Field to Chicago.
The big results would be that AA would have to reduce its airfares from DFW on routes where it competes with Southwest and the traveler would be the beneficiary.
In another eight years Southwest can fly anywhere it wants but in the meantime, the current nine states rule remains in effect. If the legislation passes, Southwest could issue one ticket from Love Field to the final destination, rather than two separate tickets as currently.
Senator Jim Inhofe has introduced a bill to close Love Field completely, backed by Boren.
We wonder what Inhofe would say if a Texas senator introduced a bill to close Tulsa International.
It is amazing what a pile of lobby money will do to politicians' brains. We continue to believe that de-regulation means all airlines, rather than all but one. Inhofe and Boren should stay out of this issue.
posted by Editor | 2:00 AM
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