DAL

[Ch. 12]

Dont forget when in 1971 Braniff AA and WN were all at Love competing. AA has been paying for unused gatespace for years. There are still empty gates at Main terminal and Legend terminal

There is no sense polluting Formeraa's case with FACTS. That would just be ridiculous. Please stick to the non-factual so as to not weaken Formeraa's stance.

 

[corl737]

Well, if you want revisionist history, I guess you're correct. If you want the truth, WN AT THAT TIME wanted the WA to protect its little monopoly at LOVE Field. It absolutely would have been put out of business if AA, Braniff, and Delta had all put substantial numbers of flights into Love Field.

FormerAA --

I originally read your message with the interpretation that you meant SWA wanted the Wright Amendment, period. After re-reading your post in its literal sense, I can understand that yes, you're probably wright (!) that SWA desired whatever legislation was to be forced upon them to be so impractical, cumbersome, and restrictive that the competition wouldn't even get involved.

Thus, by being so unweildy, none of the carriers you mentioned (Braniff, Delta, or AA) wanted to mess with competing at Love Field even though the Wright Amendment did not prevent their being there. SWA was left basically untouched and able to grow its geographically-challenged market at Dallas. Similarly, the airlines flying from DFW were not challenged by the low-fare competition offered by SWA and could command premium prices for their service as DFW held the long-haul monopoly. It was a short-term win-win that lasted until the rest of the country discovered the shenanigans in North Texas were costing them money!

(Of course, there's still that nasty little matter of the 1968 agreement that those other airlines signed committing to moving all their passenger flights to DFW when it opened in 1974!)

-- C