So what?
You were still wrong.
only in whether it was 5 or 6 flights....the principle is what is at stake, not a single flight or two
and the reason why you are right about DL being allowed to keep at least 5 flights (or a mid single digit level of flights to ATL) but DAL won't do it because if they do, they are acknowledging that the DAL is right in even the slightest part and if DL and the DOT is right in any part, then DAL and WN have to acknowledge the DOT is right in EVERY part. WN is trying to protect its ability to build out DAL beyond what is protected by WARA and push antitrust limits and if they start giving up gatespace to anyone for any reason, then it could - and will - become a reverse path of shrinkage.
What would Delta have done if AA had not been forced to give up it's gate?
They were subleasing from AA, and AA had indicated that they would have re-entered the market if they had not been forced to divest.
This is like trying to evict a bad tenant that refuses to leave.
and what you and everyone else doesn't understand or chooses to ignore is that the DOT"s regulations are independent of who holds the lease and are specifically designed to NOT allow carriers to hoard slights and then not use them OR use them frivolously in order to keep competitors out.
DAL, as a recipient of federal airport dollars, MUST accommodate carriers that have served an airport and wish to stay, EVEN IF LEASES by other carriers CHANGE HANDS AND if another carrier wishes to expand and a lease holding carrier is not fully utilizing its gates, the AIRPORT has to accommodate the requesting carrier.
DL qualifies to retain space for its 5 flights (or 4 or 6) to ATL because it has continuously retained service AND it also qualifies to expand its service to the level it operated at its accommodation request BECAUSE THERE WAS OPEN GATE SPACE from UA, AA's, and WN"s gates at the time of DL's accommodation request.
WN chose to acquire additional gates beyond what it held at the time of DL's accommodation requests, fill those gates, and then say "we knew we would fill those gates and couldn't accommodate DL"
The DOT has specifically said that what WN did and DAL allowed is completely contrary to the DOT"s airport access laws which are designed to increase competition and not squash it.
The WARA is NOT a protection for WN to acquire gates above what it held at the time of 2006 which was also the same number it held at the time WA longhaul domestic restrictions ended in Oct 2014.
the DOT says that WN would have been required to accommodate a carrier EVEN ON ITS OWN 16 GATES because they were being used at the time of DL's accommodation request.
It is not necessary to argue the conflict between WN's WARA protections and DL's accommodation request because what DL wants can be accommodated on the 2 UA gates which on a combined basis were unused to the level of what DL sought
If the DOT tells DAL they have violated airport access laws, they have to withhold funds. There is a very specific reason why DOT has been speaking in generalities and opinions to avoid forcing a funding cut which they could do based ón DAL's unwillingness to apply DOT guidelines WHICH ARE NOT IN CONFLICT WITH WARA AND APPLY TO EVERY OTHER AIRPORT.
DL started the process of requesting accommodation before WN announced its own schedule and well before the longhaul domestic restrictions fell.
AA and UA"s gates at the time had space.
and the DOJ SPECIFICALLY agreed to the transfer of the UA gates to WN CONDITIONED UPON DL's sublease which they said had to be maintained in some form going forward, in full agreement with what DOT has said. They did not say that the exact sublease had to continue but that something that protected DL's right to remain at DAL be preserved. On that part there is no conflict between what DOT and DOJ said regarding the DAL gates.
There is no defensible reason why DL's request cannot be filled.
Since DL's request is the only one that predated WN's actual flight build out, it is not likely that any other carrier, including AA that decides to ask for accommodation now can be granted unless some other carrier - most likely VX reduces its own schedule because it can't profitably use the gates the two gates it holds - and precisely why the DOJ's logic was flawed in awarding the gates to a single carrier = esp an LCC - because they aren't equipped to add two gates worth of flying in another carrier's strength market.
I predict as I have before that DL will remain at DAL, DAL is trying to push the limits of being hit by the DOT with sanctions in the form of cuts to airport funds but will eventually comply, WN will be forced to reduce its schedule at least for DL's five flights and potentially a dozen or more to multiple destinations, and VX will eventually pull its schedule down and other carriers will enter DAL. It is doubtful that AA can legally argue to overturn the DOJ settlement agreement fast enough to add flights before other carriers can and that DAL will be forced to convert the 2 ex-UA gates back to common use with DL predominantly using them.
again the completely hypocrisy of what WN has done is that it argued to get slots at DCA and LGA which were being used by legacy carriers (AA/US) in the name of supposedly increasing competition but thinks it can ignore those very same principles to dominate an airport where a large chunk of the capacity wasn't even being used at the time DL requested gate space.
DL in part undoubtedly has pushed the case to make the legal point of airport access be codified and to show that WN cannot do something in one place and then hide behind another law which they want to believe gives them the right to ignore airport access laws which have worked all around the US and are part of the DOT's airport funding requirements and which DAL agreed to.
However, DL can make DFW and DAL work to the same destinations which is exactly what they have done at multiple other cities where other carriers have chosen only one airport in that city to focus their flying.
WN will figure out how to live within 16 gates and the damages that come to DL will be the ones that DAL and WN might be forced to pay.
