By Marla Crockett, KERA 90.1 reporter
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/kera/local-kera-477965.mp3
Wright Amendment Debate Has Long History
Dallas, TX –
Marla Crockett, KERA 90.1 reporter: In the late 1960s, North Texas had two main airports - Greater Southwest in Fort Worth and Love Field in Dallas. The Civil Aeronautics Board strictly regulated air traffic in those days, and the federal agency didn't want to keep pouring money into both airports. So, the C.A.B. ordered Dallas and Fort Worth to consolidate all commercial air traffic at one regional airport. Jim Wright, his speech now impaired from cancer operations, was then a congressman from Fort Worth.
Jim Wright, former House Speaker: Both sides agreed to abandon private fields. They closed them officially, passed city ordinances and even made codicils in the bonds people were buying.
Crockett: This agreement, called the 1968 Concurrent Bond Ordinance, is central to Southwest and D/FW's arguments before Congress. The deal said that the cities should take "necessary, appropriate and legally permissible" steps to get carriers to move to the new regional airport. For Kevin Cox, Chief Operating Officer at D/FW Airport, that agreement is still alive. It gets attached every time new bonds are issued, including $2.7 billion last month.
Kevin Cox, Chief Operating Officer, D/FW Airport: This airport has relied on that commitment. In fact, we've just invested $2.7 billion in this facility on the basis of the status quo. Only recently has Southwest tried to revise the history and the underlying agreement.
Ron Ricks, Senior Vice President for Law, Airports and Public Affairs, Southwest Airlines: We were never asked nor did we ever agree to move our service to DFW Airport.
Crockett: Ron Ricks, Southwest's Senior Vice President for Law, Airports and Public Affairs says the airline didn't exist in 1968, so it never signed the agreement to move that eight other carriers did. Kent Krause, an aviation law expert in Dallas, says that's accurate. Southwest's flights from Love didn't begin until 1971, and only after the U.S. Supreme Court backed up their right to fly intrastate. And Krause says in 1974, when every airline but Southwest finally moved to the new airport, the litigation continued. There were eight attempts to evict Southwest from Love Field in three years.
Kent Krause, Dallas aviation attorney: Either dealing with the city versus Southwest or other airlines versus Southwest, ultimately resulting in a federal decision by one of the federal judges here in Dallas who said in effect that everyone needs to leave Southwest alone, that they were within their right to fly. They'd been given the right by the Texas Aeronautics Commission, and the state is a higher authority than the city, and it overrode that.
Crockett: About the same time, a move was growing in the country to deregulate the airline industry. When the act passed in 1978, Southwest saw an opportunity to expand its service beyond Texas. But Dallas and Fort Worth officials, again worried about protecting D/FW Airport, went to see Jim Wright, who by now had become Majority Leader in the House.
Wright: What we did was bring all the interested people together, including all the airlines and Southwest.
Crockett: What came out of those and other negotiations was the Wright Amendment. Its main provision was to limit flights from Love Field to Texas and four neighboring states - Louisiana, Arkansas, Oklahoma and New Mexico. Jim Wright says no one was happier with the compromise than Herb Kelleher, the founder of Southwest Airlines.
Wright: Because they got something they didn't have before. That ruling of the Texas Aeronautics Commission gave them no inherent authority to fly anywhere but in Texas, and we expanded their capacity to fly to each of the adjoining states. And they felt like they'd died and gone to heaven. They were happy, they really were.
Crockett: Southwest vigorously disputes Wright's account, saying on their web site that the amendment was approved with very little input and that Herb Kelleher's seemingly favorable statements in the past have been taken out of context. Ron Ricks -
Ricks: We lost, they won. Southwest was opposed to the Wright Amendment in any form. We spent three months lobbying against it in Congress. So there's a difference between supporting the Wright Amendment and acquiescing to what the most powerful member of the House of Representatives was cramming down our throats.
Crockett: Ricks says Southwest adopted the phrase "passionately neutral" as shorthand for how they felt about the Wright Amendment, but Kent Krause says that doesn't ring true.
Krause: I think you have to live with what you said before. I think history speaks for itself. Passionately neutral - what does that mean? They were very happy with the Wright Amendment in place as it was for a number of years, because it protected their market. No one wanted to come in to Dallas or Love Field and compete with them. I think 9/11 may be a factor.
Crockett: In fact, what happened to the airline industry after 9-11 may have everything to do with Southwest's current campaign to overturn the Wright Amendment. The airline may enjoy a virtual monopoly at Love Field and be the country's most profitable carrier, but Ron Ricks says their business is off by 20% in Dallas since 9/11. Customers are driving more instead of taking their shorthaul flights. Kevin Cox says Southwest's business needs and model shouldn't drive public policy. For him, the only policy that counts is that original bond covenant, and if the Wright Amendment goes away, he contends, that original deal would kick back in.
Cox: Look at every court case out there. It says as long as Love Field remains open, Southwest has the right to operate, but the moment the Wright Amendment no longer is in place that argument no longer exists, because you default to the bond covenants. And the bond covenants say thou shalt close down Love Field.
Crockett: Kent Krause disagrees.
Krause: The thing is, the federal law trumps the bond covenant every day, and that's the ultimate issue and answer to that. The federal law and deregulation act prevent them from fully implementing those bond covenants.
Crockett: And so, the issue is back in Congress. It might die there, but if lawmakers ultimately lift the Wright Amendment, shut down Love Field or do something in between, history indicates the issue will likely find its way back into court. For KERA 90.1, I'm Marla Crockett.
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