Late March - 2006

A mentioned, one of the issues the Dallas City Council had to tackle was the number of gates permitted in a post-Wright World. The common goal was to be able to control the growth at the airport, while still allowing for fair competition between airlines.

One possibility included reducing the number of gates at Dallas Love Field as a way to limit traffic

Since the six gates at the Legend terminal weren't considered usable by larger aircraft, Mayor Miller favored reducing the maximum number of gates at Love Field to 26 from 32 and wanted to have Legend's former terminal demolished.

The terminal's landlord said that it would need to be bought out for that to happen and that independent studies had valued the facility at more than $100 million, assuming it was a going concern.

Alan Naul, asset manager for Love Terminal Partners, said he'd been getting a lot of interest from airlines interested in serving Love Field since last fall.

"It's the only place a new airline could come in and fly today from Love Field if there's no Wright amendment,"

City Attorney Tom Perkins. briefed the council on the legal issues regarding Love Field's terminal gate space and the Wright Amendment.

Through a spokesman, the North Dallas Chamber, said they were concerned that if the city tried to reduce the number of available gates at Love, it would limit the airport's economic impact and draw attention from the Federal Aviation Administration. If more airlines want to serve the airport than there are gates, it could prompt action from the FAA

American called the idea of reducing gates an "interesting" one but a spokesman added, "We're not the ones offering solutions, because we're not the ones who thought anything needed to change."

Friends of Love Field issued a press release which said:

Friends of Love Field, a citizen action group working with residents and small business owners seeking repeal of the Wright Amendment, today condemned the preliminary Dallas City Council proposal to acquire and destroy a portion of Dallas Love Field owned by Love Terminal Partners (Dallas Morning News, March 28, 2006).

"We are gratified that Mayor Miller and the Dallas City Council have at long last decided that its citizens should finally be afforded the right to enjoy the full benefits of the Airline Deregulation Act of 1978--- a right granted to the rest of the United States nearly 30 years ago," said Anthony R. Page, official spokesperson for the Friends of Love Field.

"However, we are baffled at the City Council's continued predilection towards economic self-destruction. Spending in excess of one hundred million dollars in scarce city tax dollars to condemn and destroy a luxurious, virtually brand-new airline terminal is beyond bizarre.

We assume that the City Council, as a matter of fairness also intends to require the City of Fort Worth to simultaneously acquire and destroy one hundred million dollars of property at Alliance Airport, since it appears to have been constructed and operated in violation of the 1968 Concurrent Bond Ordinance."

Another possibility talked about was the legality of taking leased gates away from Dallas-based Southwest Airlines and redistributing them to other airlines such as American or JetBlue.

If the Wright Amendment, were to be lifted by Congress, American said It wanted to be able to fly out of more than the 3 gates it currently had at Love Field. Earlier, JetBlue had said it might be interested in flying out of Love if the Wright Amendment is lifted.

Love Field leased it's gates on a preferential-use basis with gate-sharing provisions that could be invoked by the airport firector. Because all of Love's gates were leased, any airline that wanted more space would have 30 days to try to get space from another carrier at the airport, under the terms of Love Field's current competition plan.

If that didn't work, the airport would then look at airline schedules on each gate and determine where new flights might fit. If Southwest didn't use all 21 of its gates at least as frequently as the remaining five gates, then the airport director could invoke the gate-sharing provisions which would result in Southwest either losing some of their gates or being forced to share with other carriers.

Southwest meanwhile, indicated it would fight any attempts to take awa its gates. Southwest spokesman Ed Stewart said, "For those to go away, that defeats the purpose of what customers have been telling us. In order to offer more low-fare flights to and from North Texas, you'd have to have adequate facilities."

Although Southwest might not have minded sharing or sub-letting space to other airlines, they clearly weren't happy about the propects of those gates being totally taken away from them.

Unspoken was the fact that not only was Southwest frustrated at Love Field, earlier media reports indicated they'd been in talks with other cities such as Chicago, Albuquerque and Phoenix regarding the possibility of relocating their headquarters.

Although Southwest executives said they had no desire to relocate from Dallas and were listening to Phoenix's proposal as a professional couresy, they'd hinted for more than a year that they might consider a move if the Wright Amendment remained in place.

Southwest spokesman Ed Stewart said, "We have a limited ability to grow [in Dallas] because of the Wright Amendment, The good people in Phoenix are very aware of that."

Over the past year, several cities had approached Southwest about a corporate relocation, but the Phoenix meeting was the first time Southwest officials agreed to hear a formal presentation.

With 3,000 employees at its headquarters and a total of 5,400 in North Texas, the loss of Southwest would be a blow to the city.

The Dallas City Council had a lot to think about.

Tune - Respect
Aretha Franklin

(Sung by AA and Southwest)

(Instrumental intro)

(oo) - If Love Field opens
(oo) - To long-haul flights
(oo) - We'll need more gates
(oo) - We'll scream and fight
(oo) - We plan to get our way -
Because our name's AA

You really made us mad
Now we're declarin' war
So don't you try and mess with us
We've played this game before

(oo) - Baby you've got
(oo) - What we need
(oo) - We want more gates
(oo) - And we'll succeed
(oo) - We always get our way
Because our name's AA!

We'll take away your gates
We'll tell 'em we need more
And don't think we won't try it
'Cause we've pulled this stunt before

(oo) - So Stop and Think, now
(oo) - Just understand
(oo) - If Wright is ended
(oo) - The master plan
(oo) - Is null and void we say
Because our name's AA.

You dared to challenge Wright
Re-alities are stark
We hope you like more airplanes
Flyin' over Highland Park

What you - gonna do - N-O-O-O-W?