By Bill Zeeble, KERA reporter
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/kera/local-kera-493622.mp3
Dallas, TX – Bill Zeeble, KERA 90.1 reporter: Since last week, Southwest Airlines has been sending 4 daily non-stop flights to Kansas City and St. Louis, Missouri. It's the carrier's first direct, out of state addition from Love Field in more than 2 decades
Ram Rodriquez, Southwest Marketing Manager, Dallas/Fort Worth: St. Louis and Kansas City flights are doing well. Bookings are looking really strong
Zeeble: Ram Rodriguez is Southwest's marketing manager for Dallas and Fort Worth
Rodriquez: I can't tell you exact numbers - our competition would love to have that number
Zeeble: The competition is American Airlines, which on March 2nd will launch 16 flights in all from Love Field to Kansas City, St. Louis, San Antonio and Austin. To staff those routes, Tim Wagner, with American, says the carrier cut DFW service from 31 other markets - 6 of them permanently
Tim Wagner, spokesperson, American Airlines: About 65 percent of our best travelers live & work closer to Love than Dallas/Fort Worth We don't think people will drive past that airport to get to Dallas/Fort Worth, all things being equal. Like any good business we must provide what customers want
Zeeble: That's what American said 5 years ago, the last time it invested in Love Field. The catalyst then was Legend Airlines, whose 56-seat jets flew 1st class, non-stop to New York, sidestepping Wright Amendment restrictions. Legend folded in less than a year, as American Airlines lost money and pulled out after 9-11. This time American says it'll make money, and stay at Love Field as long as necessary. That's because customers still want direct flights for low fares. The Wright Amendment restricts them from Love to just 9 states, which is why Southwest wants the amendment lifted completely.
Fares to Kansas City and St. Louis dropped to a half or even a quarter of going rates as soon as Southwest started service. But while a some passengers benefit from fares lowered by new competition, Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport's Chief Operating Officer Kevin Cox warns the change to the Wright amendment will have a big, negative affect locally
Kevin Cox, Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport COO: One state - We lost 31 departures. Simple math says you're dealing with serious economic consequences and we hope people appreciate that. We have this economic engine that'll be significantly crippled and anticipate it could set us back years where we are today and could be tomorrow. We're playing with serious fire
Zeeble: Aviation consultant Scott Hamilton does not buy Cox's assessment.
Scott Hamilton, Aviation industry consultant: To a large degree there's some Chicken Little going on at DFW they don't want the competition.
Zeeble: Other experts share that view, saying competition's almost always good, whether it's between airlines, retailers, or airports. But Cox is not swayed
Cox: Competition between airports that are basically public infrastructure, that are 8 miles apart, that'll cannibalize each other, is absolutely ridiculous
Zeeble: Cox has tried and failed to lure Southwest to DFW, where the Wright amendment doesn't apply. But Colorado-based Michael Boyd, who runs an aviation consulting firm, is tired of Cox throwing what he calls a tempest in a terminal
Michael Boyd, Aviation consultant: The folks at Dallas/Fort Worth have taken the low road. The high road would be to say, you can get here from Weatherford, if you're in Fort Worth, in the Alliance quadrangle, we're you're airport. In fact, if you're in Mesquite we're your airport cause it's easier to get to us than to Love and we've got more flights. Instead of hyping why they're so good, they're acting as if this warn-out old facility on Lemmon Avenue is a threat to society as we know it.
Zeeble: Statistics also show the North Texas population is growing to the North and West, further bolstering Boyd's view that DFW - fed by major hwys, unlike Love Field - is the regional airport for the future. And in the past week, DFW got some good news. Low-cost carrier AirTran announced flights from DFW to Chicago's Midway, a week after ATA and Southwest announced a code sharing agreement for ATA's flights to Midway. In a statement that seems to contradict his gloomy assessment, Kevin Cox agrees that DFW can accommodate all kinds of airlines.
Cox: That's the beauty of the size of this airport. We can take point to point carriers flying on a shoe string budget to big markets and we can take larger legacy carriers that have secondary and tertiary markets that they want to serve.There'll always be somebody needing to get from Ames Iowa to Austin Texas. And we want to be that hub.
Zeeble: Ultimately, any Wright amendment change must occur in Congress. Southwest officials are hoping Tennessee will be the next state lifted from restrictions - in an effort led by Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, who represents that state. Meanwhile, American remains committed to an intact Wright amendment for its bottom line and the health, it says, of its hub, DFW Airport. The company also may challenge the Missouri allowance in Congress next year. For KERA 90.1 I'm Bill Zeeble.
Bzeeble@kera.org