ON FEB. 3, SOUTHWEST AIRLINES ANNOUNCED THAT
starting this fall, it would offer nonstop service between Dallas’s
Love Field and 15 cities, including Chicago, Atlanta, and San Diego.
This was a front-page story in many newspapers in the South and
West. So what’s the big deal? Airlines add and eliminate flights all
the time to a lot less fanfare (except possibly in the cities directly
affected). It turns out, this was a special case, and it’s no coincidence
that the launch of this new service will coincide with the expiration
of the 34-year-old “Wright amendment” to the Federal Aviation
Act of 1958.
To understand the significance of the timing, you need to know
a little about the Wright amendment and the
circumstances that led to its enactment in 1980.
Back in the 1960s, concerns about the ability
of local airports in Dallas and Fort Worth to
handle a growing volume of traffic led the Civil
Aeronautics Board to order the construction of
a new regional airport. In December 1968, the
local governments broke ground on the Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport (DFW), which
opened in 1974. The plan was to eliminate the
existing Dallas and Fort Worth airports, and all
airlines serving the area agreed to move their
operations to DFW.
In the meantime, a newly formed entity, Southwest Airlines, had
begun intrastate operations from Dallas’s Love Field and had no
desire to move. Since it didn’t even exist when the other airlines
agreed to relocate to DFW (Southwest was launched in 1971), it was
not a party to the agreement and ultimately filed suit to continue
operations at Love Field. In 1973, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in
its favor.
After the passage of the Airline Deregulation Act of 1978,
Southwest announced plans to offer interstate service from Love
Field. To say that made DFW and the other airlines very unhappy
would be an understatement. Love Field is only minutes away from
downtown Dallas, and since only Southwest would be operating
there, it would enjoy such advantages as less congestion, more
convenient parking, and other traveler conveniences. DFW and the
airline interests took their complaint to Jim Wright, representative
from the 12th congressional district (which includes Fort Worth)
and arguably one of the most powerful congressmen at the time.
Wright sponsored an amendment that prohibited Love Field-based
airlines with large or mid-sized planes (those with more than 56
BY CLIFFORD F. LYNCH fastlane
Righting a Wright wrong
seats) from serving destinations outside of
Texas or the contiguous states of Arkansas,
Louisiana, Oklahoma, and New Mexico. In
other words, a passenger flying from, say, Dallas
to Phoenix would have to change planes in one
of the contiguous states, actually buying two
tickets and claiming and rechecking baggage at
the intermediate city. Obviously, this was not
an attractive alternative to flying out of DFW.
Despite these restrictions, Southwest contin-
ued to grow and became a very viable airline.
DFW by now had become
congested, and in 1997, the
law was amended to allow
Southwest to serve several
additional states—Alabama,
Kansas, and Mississippi—
from Love Field. Flights to
Missouri were added the next
year. Still, DFW opposed any
further erosion of the Wright
amendment. Finally, in 2004,
Southwest began a full-court
press to have the amendment
repealed. In 2006, an agreement was reached
among all parties that would lift the restric-
tions in eight years’ time—on Oct. 13, 2014.
(Through ticketing was allowed immediately,
but passengers have still been forced to change
planes.)
Thus, the simple announcement of new
flights brings to an end what many consider to
be one of the more onerous constraints to free
competition in the airline industry, with most
of the responsibility falling on the shoulders of
influential lobbying interests and one powerful
congressman.
Clifford F. Lynch is principal of C.F. Lynch & Associates, a provider
of logistics management advisory services, and author of Logistics
Outsourcing – A Management Guide and co-author of The Role of
Transportation in the Supply Chain. He can be reached at cliff@
cflynch.com.
