1964

The seeds of the current Wright Amendment conflict were planted in September, 1964 when the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) ordered Dallas and Ft. Worth to work together and build a giant new airport to serve the entire region. The CAB ordered the two cities to pick a mutually agreeable site for the facility and were given 180 days to do so; otherwise the federal government would choose the site itself.

Both cities agreed to end virtually all commercial airline service at their individual airports once DFW was completed, however Love Field, Meacham and Redbird would remain open to general aviation.

A 1968 Bond Ordinance stipulated that the two cities shall take such steps as may be necessary, appropriate, and legally permissible (without violating presently outstanding legal commitments or covenants prohibiting such action), to provide for the orderly, efficient and effective phase-out at Love Field, Redbird, GSIA and Meacham Field, of any and all Certificated Air Carrier Services, and to transfer such activities to the Regional Airport effective upon the beginning of operations at the Regional Airport.

In December, 1969, the eight airlines then serving Love Field signed a letter of agreement, and later a user agreement to move all their operations to DFW when it opened. Southwest was not yet in existence and signed neither of those agreements.

Southwest finally took off June 18, 1971 after fighting off regulatory appeals and lawsuits initiated by Braniff International Airways, Continental Airlines and Texas International Airlines.

Since Southwest planned to fly only within Texas, initially serving Houston and San Antonio from Dallas Love Field, it operated under the jurisdiction of the Texas Aeronautics Commission. (TAC)

When Southwest first started, they operated six roundtrips beween Love Field and San Antonio and twelve roundtrips between Love Field and Houston's Intercontinental Airport. (IAH)

By November 1971, with their DAL-IAH flights failing miserably, they shifted most of their Houston operation to Hobby Airport. Like Love Field, Hobby had been Houston's original commercial airport, but passenger service there had ended in 1969 when Intercontinental opened. Hobby was older but much more convenient to downtown and as a result, business passengers began flocking to Southwest's flights there. Southwest quickly moved it's remaining Intercontinental flights to Hobby and had great success. They wouldn't return to Intercontinental Airport until 1980.

It was also in November of 1971 that M. Lamar Muse, Southwest's president notified Dallas that they wished to remain at Love Field. They said their sole purpose was to serve the local commuter and to do that they needed to stay at Love Field.

Dallas and Ft. Worth were afraid that if Southwest were allowed to remain at Love Field, other airlines would too, and passenger traffic at DFW would slowly migrate back to Dallas as it had with Greater Southwest International Airport. Dallas and Ft. Worth had spent too much time and money and endured a lot of blood, sweat and tears, for some little upstart airline with a fleet of three planes to start the ball rolling towards DFW's eventual demise.

Shortly thereafter in June 1972, Dallas and Ft. Worth filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court seeking to evict Southwest from Love Field.

The case was heard in March 1973, less than a year before DFW was to open.

In that case the district court held on several grounds that Dallas could not block Southwest from using Love Field. Among other things, Dallas' efforts to stop Southwest's service violated its obligation under federal law not to discriminate among airport users. While the Bond Ordinance prohibited intrastate flights by airlines like Southwest operating under state authority, it allowed airlines operating under federal certificate authority to operate intrastate flights and allowed non-certificated commuter airlines to operate at Love Field.

Source

(Note: Today, there are many on the pro-Wright side that claim that Dallas Love Field was supposed to be either shut down completely, or closed to all commercial traffic. The fact that the 1968 Bond Ordinance specifically allowed intrastate flights by the CAB carriers and also allowed commercial air taxis would seem to dispute these claims.)

The court additionally held that Dallas could not block Southwest from using Love Field when the Texas Aeronautics Commission had authorized Southwest to operate intrastate flights specifically from Love Field. The court further ruled that while the City of Dallas was not obligated to provide Love Field as an airport for Southwest, as long as it remained open and operational, Southwest could not be excluded from flying there.

The Dallas-Ft. Worth Regional Airport or DFW for short opened on January 13, 1974 and all the CAB certificated carriers moved their operations to the new airport.

Despite the court's decision concerning Southwest at Love Field, Dallas wasn't about to give up so easily. The Dallas City Council passed an ordinance closing Love Field to all commercial traffic and imposing a $200 fine for each take-off and landing by a commercial airline at Love Field effective May 1, 1974. The district court intervened and stopped Dallas from enforcing this ordinance, saying the city's actions were in "open defiance" of its earlier ruling.

Next, several airlines that used DFW and competed with Southwest created a third round of litigation.

After the Fifth Circuit held that Southwest was entitled to use Love Field, these airlines asked a state court to end Southwest's use of the airport. The district court stepped in saying the state court didn't have jurisdiction over the matter and entered an injunction barring any further litigation that sought to overturn the court's decision that Southwest had the right to operate at Love Field.

Today the Ft. Worth parties insist that Dallas did not keep their part of the "deal." They are mistaken. The only way to evict Southwest would have been for the City of Dallas to completely shut down Love Field to all air traffic - even general aviation. Dallas wasn't about to do that.

Closing Love Field completely was never part of the "deal." The deal was that Dallas would phase out all commercial air service at Love Field to the extent that it was legally permissible.

Back then, the court's decision should have put an end to the fighting, but this is North Texas and some folks here don't like taking "no" for an answer.

The DFW War dragged on.