Let it go, swaamt. You never said it. I did. There was no way that the City was going to force WN to share when Skywest's leasehold is grossly underused.
The only thing I've recognized about DL is they'll be able to maintain the level of service they have now.
Five years from now, all the hand wringing over the Wright Amendment will be forgotten, and the pattern of service offered by everyone except for WN will revert back to what it was before. I don't see Virgin's experiment working out too well for them in the long run, and when nobody else wants to jump in, you'll see WN expand into their unused gates...
except even that interpretation and what swamt has repeatedly posted defies the following which are part of the 2006 agreement that removed the Wright amendment restrictions on longhaul domestic flying -
1. There are no longer ANY exclusive use gates at DAL for any airline including Southwest. Southwest has no claim to the 16 gates it has sat on for decades. None. All gates at DAL are on a preferential use basis.
2. The City of Dallas properly recognizes in the lease that they are required by federal law to accommodate new entrant airlines and as such the airline leases specifically state that DAL will voluntarily seek accommodation of new entrants via gate leaseholders but if no volunteers are found, the city will require the sharing of preferential use gates.
3. There is no distinction in the airline leases or the 2006 agreement between low fare carriers or legacy carriers nor is there is any limit on the number of flights that are considered the maximum which a new entrant carrier can operate and expect to be accommodated.
4. Any gates which revert to the City of Dallas become common use gates.
If DL does not have access sufficient for what it seeks to do, it becomes a new entrant and must be accommodated based on the 2006 agreement, the airline leases, and federal airport access laws.
The UA gates may well accommodate part of DL's schedule but there is nothing that says that DL cannot insist on operating its entire proposed schedule with UA, Virgin, and WN all having to provide access as necessary to allow DL to operate its schedule.
The very reason why the City of Dallas has not approved the lease is because they know full well that they have legal requirements to satisfy and they will have to accommodate DL's schedule.
Further, the City of Dallas also recognizes that DL could well be the first of many airlines that become interested in serving DAL if service by WN is half as successful as WN and I believe it will be.
There have been a number of people who have repeatedly tried to argue that the situation between DAL and DFW will be the same as between ORD and MDW or IAH and HOU but even on that basis there are very real reasons why DL has every intention to seek DAL service.
First, DL is the 2nd largest airline at both MDW and HOU even though it also serves IAH and ORD. DL is also the largest airline from the combined MDW/ORD market to each of its 3 major hubs which it serves from both airports - ATL, DTW, and MSP.
DL does not fly MDW-SLC but is still the largest airline in the local CHI-SLC market based on its service from ORD; DL does not fly HOU-DTW,MSP,or SLC but is still the largest airline from the combined IAH/HOU based on its service from IAH.
DL is also the largest revenue carrier from DFW to ATL/DTW/MSP/SLC.
DL's execs made a statement recently that those on here would do well to remember as well as understand the significance to this DAL discussion. DL said that it is the dominant carrier in all of its hubs and it is precisely for that reason that DL generates the revenue premiums to the industry that it does.
If WN wasn't interested in flying to any of DL's hubs, including LGA, DL might well be willing to let DAL go.
But DL has demonstrated at both HOU and MDW that they are not going to allow WN or any other carrier to fly from any one of WN's heavily monopolistic hubs/focus cities to a DL hub without DL operating on the same route.
The law is on DL's side that WN will not be able to set up shop at DAL flying to DL's hubs without DL being able to offer its own service.
swamt can wring his hands all he wants but unless the schedule DL wants to operate from DAL can be accommodate on existing available gates, and it is doubtful that their 22 flight schedule can fit into the space left over at UA's gates, then DL aircraft will very likely be operating at WN and Virgin gates at DAL.
And it is also very possible that further new entrants could choose to show up at DAL and will have to be accommodated as well, further reducing the size of WN's operation.
