Moving into a new region means learning what the major political issues are in that area. As a career aviator and an inveterate free-market capitalist, it is fascinating to observe the battle in Dallas over the Wright Amendment. OK, time for a quick review of history to put the issue in some sort of perspective.
Commercial aviation changed in a big way in the late fifties. The introduction of the first generation of jet airliners caused a lot of the nation’s municipal airports to suddenly become inadequate if not quite dangerous. The future of air travel was going to require long runways and open spaces that wouldn’t be filled with folks griping about the noise. That meant new airports and the decline of some landmarks like Midway, LaGuardia and Dallas’ Love Field. Big thinkers with an eye to the future built the airline hubs that we know today. O’Hare, JFK and DFW became the future. The old airports became ghost towns. I recall flying practice instrument approaches to Chicago-Midway in a Piper Super Cub in 1964 without seeing another airplane in the area as I meandered down final approach at a dazzling 85 miles an hour.
Don’t think for a minute that projects like these super-airports come cheap. There’s big bucks invested and it takes a while to recoup the up-front costs. That’s where we see the genesis of the Wright Amendment.
Jim Wright was a congressman from Texas, or more precisely the Fort Worth area. He was a powerful congress-critter; Speaker of the House with all that it implies. As an Air Force fighter type, I remember Wright as the guy who kept stuffing another bunch of F-111s into the Defense budget year after year so that General Dynamics’ plant would keep fueling the Fort Worth economy. We didn’t want those airplanes because they never quite did the job that they were supposed to do. They were technological nightmares that simply didn’t meet our idea of what a fighter was supposed to do—drop bombs on target and fly many sorties per day without fail. The F-111 was what we called a “sea-gull”—a bird that you have to throw rocks at to get it to fly.
Eventually, of course, General Dynamics gave us the F-16 which turned out to be an exponential improvement in fighter aviation. And, eventually, Wright went a bit too far and was driven from his seat. But, before all of that happened we have the question of DFW and his amendment.
It wouldn’t do for Dallas and Fort Worth to build this mega-airport out in the country between the two cities if people wouldn’t want to drive out there to use it. They would have to make sure that Love Field, the convenient downtown airport would be unable to compete. Not a real problem initially, but then came that upstart Southwest Airlines with that pushy entrepreneur, Herb Kelleher. What a concept he had—convenient, no-frills, low-cost travel from the uncongested, largely abandoned inner city airports like Midway, Houston Hobby and Love Field. Low landing fees, easy access to business centers, and no hassle for the customers. Surprise! People loved it and Herb continues to make money as one of the few airlines with a positive number in the bottom line.
Old Jim Wright couldn’t have that. It would be way too draconian to simply deny Southwest the right to fly from Love Field. It was a municipal airport, taxpayer supported and still open. Operations could be conducted safely, so there was no justification for denying permits. What to do?
Well, how about a restriction on where you would be franchised to fly from Love. Let’s limit your destinations out of Love to only those states adjacent to Texas. You can only fly to places like Louisiana, New Mexico, and Oklahoma from Dallas. If you want to serve other destinations you’ll have to split your operation and fly out of DFW. Initially, Wright limited Southwest to four states. In 1996, three more states were added to the permitted list. Surprisingly, with one wing figuratively tied behind their back, Southwest thrived.
Meanwhile, out at DFW, traffic was growing by leaps and congested bounds. No longer out in the country, DFW is now imbedded in a complex of towns and communities. The area is huge. Fed by limited access highways and Interstates, the complexity of which confounds my car’s navigation system, the airport is definitely a success. But, that’s not enough for American Airlines which is the hub’s principal client. Continental airline once hubbed here as well, but they’ve withdrawn leaving the majority of the gates to American. So, what’s not to like?
Apparently American doesn’t like competition. Oh, they claim they do. They continually advertise an invitation for Southwest to join them at DFW and really “compete”. Southwest seems to be quite happy right where they are, but would really like to have the Wright Amendment go away.
Politics being what it is Wright won’t die all at once. This last fall, a chip got knocked off of Wright. Another state was added to the approved destination list for Southwest from Love Field. They could fly to Missouri now. Two major destinations appeared on the menu, St. Louis and Kansas City. Doesn’t seem like a lot, does it?
But from the point of view of the traveling consumer, what did it mean? Southwest offered the route for a typical fare for a short leg flight in a 737, just $49 one-way. Not unusual if you are familiar with Southwest’s pricing and their Sunday newspaper ads. What was noteworthy, was that American Airlines from DFW was flying those routes at a one-way tariff of $350-500. Ahhh, do we see a value for free-market competition?
What’s in the fall-out from this? American says they must compete. So, they have slashed their price. They have started flying from the gates they already owned but didn’t use at Love. They have tightened the economic screws on a number of small towns which they had served from DFW which had not supported their battle in Congress against modification of Wright. They claim that they need the airplanes which served Tyler and Austin and San Antonio to meet the demand to fly out of Love. But, the real message is don’t vote with American’s wishes and you lose your airline service. That’s politics in America.
And, several congress-members and Senators from other states are beginning to see an advantage for their constituents if Southwest is allowed to serve their communities from Love Field. Ain’t the free-market wonderful?
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