Kevin Cox seems a little unbalanced in this article, and RUDE for using a cellphone during a speech. <_<
Southwest sowed seeds of Wright fight
Bombshell before N. Dallas chamber got ball rolling last fall
Friday, May 27, 2005
By ERIC TORBENSON / The Dallas Morning News
Along with the eggs and fried potatoes, Gary Kelly served up a shocker at a chamber of commerce breakfast last fall.
Southwest Airlines Co.'s new chief executive attacked the Wright amendment, which limits carriers at Dallas Love Field to flying only short routes.
It was anti-competitive, he said, and wrong.
Mr. Kelly's abrupt departure from a quarter-century of "passionate neutrality" generated considerable buzz, though many wondered whether Southwest would actually champion the cause. And even if it did, why would this drive succeed when others had failed?
Now, six months later, it's clear that Mr. Kelly's remarks unleashed pent-up passion among North Texans who want access to Southwest's nationwide low-fare network from Love Field.
For the first time, a major effort is under way to nix the law named for former House Speaker Jim Wright. It's not from out-of-state lawmakers trying to get new service here, but from two local congressmen, Sam Johnson of Plano and Jeb Hensarling of Dallas.
Filing the bill on Thursday, they "decided to strike while the iron was hot," Mr. Johnson said.
Southwest had been quietly stoking the fire for months. Executives dropped in for coffee with editorial writers. They called on airport officials from Florida to California. And while Southwest's flamboyant chairman, Herb Kelleher, kept a low public profile, he was busy lobbying in Washington.
Officials at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, which the Wright law is designed to protect, and at American Airlines Inc. say the new bill would damage two of the region's top economic engines.
By fighting for the law's repeal, D/FW says, Southwest has broken a decades-old promise, scared off airlines that might fill gates vacated in January by Delta Air Lines Inc., and threatened the airport's financial footing just as it's unveiling a nearly $3 billion expansion.
But for those in the Southwest camp, the argument is simpler: Plane tickets would be cheaper.
Golden opportunity
On Sept. 8, Delta announced it would slash its D/FW operations by 92 percent in a restructuring. The news presented a golden opportunity for Southwest.
"But we didn't have any way to get at those customers," said Ed Stewart, the carrier's spokesman.
Executives held a strategy session at Southwest's Love Field headquarters. Attending the meeting were Mr. Kelleher, Mr. Kelly, president Colleen Barrett and Ron Ricks, the carrier's top lobbyist as senior vice president for law, airports and public affairs.
Southwest had studied moving some of its flights to D/FW before and took another look in the fall.
According to Mr. Kelleher, the airline concluded it would have to raise fares by as much as 50 percent to make up for lost time its planes would spend on the ground at the sprawling regional facility.
In early November, Southwest told D/FW it wouldn't go there.
D/FW chief operating officer Kevin Cox pleaded with Southwest officials on the phone, asking how he could get them on board.
About that time, Mr. Kelly asked his staff to ditch the "passionately neutral" line that the carrier had stood by for years in response to Wright questions.
The opportunity to drop the bomb came on Nov. 12, when Mr. Kelly was speaking at a breakfast with the North Dallas Chamber of Commerce. Mr. Cox attended and sat in the back row.
Even before Mr. Kelly finished speaking, Mr. Cox started calling elected officials on his mobile phone. "It was the most shocking day of my life," Mr. Cox recalled.
The sides began to draw battle lines.
In public, D/FW officials dismissed Mr. Kelly's comments as a smokescreen intended to keep rival low-cost carriers out of North Texas.
'Educating' public
Southwest crafted a strategy of "educating" lawmakers, newspapers and airport executives, starting first in Texas and moving quickly to Florida, California and other Western states.
Many regional papers knew nothing of the Wright law; several didn't even realize that Southwest, now the nation's largest domestic carrier in terms of passengers, flies from coast to coast, Mr. Stewart said. "We had one person ask us, 'Why do you care about this if the farthest you fly is to New Orleans?' "
For Southwest, a visit to Tampa, Fla., marked a turning point.
The director of Tampa International Airport accompanied Mr. Ricks and Mr. Stewart to local papers with the airport's own slideshow showing how the Wright law was affecting the west-central Florida economy.
"That's the passion you want to see," Mr. Stewart said.
Southwest tracked anti-Wright newspaper editorials in daily e-mail tallies. But getting congressional backers to sponsor a bill was another story.
For that, Southwest dispatched Mr. Kelleher, an industry icon who says he's been energized working Capitol Hill. "I feel like a wild mustang in spring," he said this week.
Southwest was significantly outspent and out-staffed in the Wright battle, Mr. Kelleher said.
D/FW's Mr. Cox walked into the fight with verbal guns blazing, repeating his contention that Southwest didn't really intend to add long-haul service from Love. He grew intense in Wright discussions, his voice shaking. Once, at a news conference, he bit down hard on his finger while listening to a question he didn't like.
D/FW officials sent letters to other airports asking them to stay out of North Texas affairs. They portrayed Southwest as backing out of a "deal" that Mr. Kelleher promised never to touch.
And mostly, D/FW and Fort Worth-based American framed their keep-Wright argument around a longstanding vision for a regional airport designed to power the North Texas economy.
D/FW commissioned a study that showed the airport could lose up to 35 percent of its passenger traffic and 204 daily flights if Love Field were opened to long-haul flights. The consultants also concluded that lifting Wright would mean lower airfares for the region.
American kept quiet on the issue at first, using its lobbying muscle to solidify support and parry Southwest's efforts.
The world's largest airline has tried to reframe the Wright debate. At an aviation symposium in Phoenix in late April, American Chairman Gerard Arpey said everything should be on the table in the Wright debate, including closing Love Field. "We should be looking at the entire spectrum of options," he told reporters.
An influential ally
Earlier this month, while visiting New York newspapers, Mr. Kelly and Mr. Stewart found themselves in the lobby of Dow Jones & Co., with a few extra minutes on their hands.
On a whim, Mr. Stewart phoned The Wall Street Journal editorial page, even though the pair hadn't scheduled an appointment. It turned into a nearly hour-long conversation over coffee.
On May 19, the influential business publication ran an editorial, calling Wright "an arcane law that serves no purpose other than to restrict low-cost Southwest Airlines from competing against its more traditional rivals."
Over at the North Dallas chamber, the group that had hosted Mr. Kelly in November, a six-month examination of the Wright issue had come to a similar conclusion.
The chamber, which studied airfares and the role of airports in the region's economy, determined Dallas was at a disadvantage to other cities because of higher ticket prices.
Bill brought forth
The confluence of the chamber study and the mounting editorials was enough for Mr. Johnson and Mr. Hensarling, both Republicans, to announce their bill.
"I guess we were a little more disappointed than surprised," said Dan Garton, American's executive vice president of marketing.
Officials for D/FW and American say the bill remains a long way from becoming law, and the congressmen sponsoring the bill admit they've got an uphill fight on their hands.
"Our strategy now is to find a lot more advocates for our position," Mr. Garton said.
Some Texas lawmakers are taking sides, while others are staying on the fence.
Joe Barton, the powerful Ennis Republican who serves as chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, has vowed to kill the bill.
But Mr. Kelleher, in a rare news conference, said the carrier may have succeeded at least in framing the issue in its own way.
The Southwest team "showed results that are much more successful than you might expect," he said. "All they have on their side is truth, right and justice."
Staff writers Robert Dodge in Washington and Suzanne Marta in Dallas contributed to this report
