Tweaks Made to Love Accord

WASHINGTON - A group of North Texas officials, including members of Congress and the mayors of Dallas and Fort Worth, scrambled Wednesday to extinguish a brushfire of opposition to their plan to repeal the Wright amendment.

Legislative aides were working into the night to tweak the local compromise to relieve concerns from McKinney and other North Texas communities that the deal to bring long-haul flights to Dallas Love Field might someday stymie the launch of commercial flights at their airports.

North Texas leaders said they were hopeful that slight modifications to their deal would sweep away resistance and unify the region's splintered congressional delegation.

Leaders acknowledged they probably will not get 100 percent support from their colleagues, but they were pushing ahead with a plan to bring the proposal to the House and Senate floors in coming weeks.

Dallas Mayor Laura Miller and Fort Worth Mayor Mike Moncrief started working to reassure McKinney officials even before they were to appear before an Aviation Subcommittee of the House Transportation Committee to promote their June 15 agreement.

But the efforts, which also included contributions from Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, did not head off an open attack by Reps. Sam Johnson, R-Plano, and Ralph Hall, R-Rockwall, who were representing the concerns of McKinney officials.

"The last thing we need is Congress giving any city a competitive advantage over another," Mr. Johnson said.

And Mr. Hall said concerns about other airports were preventing him from supporting the proposal: "It's an overall agreement that I desperately want to support."

The flare-up of opposition complicated efforts to quickly move the proposal through the House and Senate before Congress is scheduled to adjourn by early October.

Even so, lawmakers leading the effort, including Reps. Joe Barton, R-Ennis, and Kay Granger, R-Fort Worth, had to react quickly to reach an accord with the dissident lawmakers. And Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, worked the phones to ease the concerns of Mr. Johnson and Mr. Hall as she prepared to introduce the proposal in the Senate today.

Ms. Granger said the House version would be introduced late this week or early next week.

In the end, Mr. Barton predicted North Texas would be viewed as having one superairport with terminals at D/FW Airport and Love Field that are only eight miles apart.

"By Texas standards, I know people who have bigger back yards," he said.

For all their optimism, Mr. Barton, Ms. Granger and Ms. Hutchison had to work to keep the opposition of Mr. Johnson and Mr. Hall from derailing the momentum they believe was created when the cities, D/FW Airport, American Airlines and Southwest Airlines announced their historic agreement.

The local compromise would immediately allow passengers to fly anywhere in the U.S. from Love, as long as they first stopped in one of the nine Wright states. After eight years, airlines could fly nonstop nationwide. The deal also would reduce the number of gates at Love from 32 to 20.

Despite the dustup Wednesday, those three key aspects of the compromise appear intact.

Effect on other airports

Mr. Johnson and Mr. Hall are concerned the proposed legislation would work against the development of airports up to 80 miles away, such as the Collin County Regional Airport. They want to make sure the bill does not place into federal law the separate legal agreement between Dallas and Fort Worth that implements much of the overall plan.

Among those concerns is a provision that requires Dallas and Fort Worth to mutually work to bring new air service for North Texas to D/FW Airport.

In a meeting before the hearing, and in side conversations throughout the 3 1/2-hour session, legislative aides and lawyers worked with officials from McKinney to craft a deal that would relieve the concerns raised by Mr. Johnson and Mr. Hall.

The discussions late Wednesday centered on how to insert language into the proposed legislation that would specify that restrictions placed on Love were specific to that facility.

The revised language would also seek to make clear that the legal agreement between the five parties would not become federal law.

"That is a contractual agreement between the city of Dallas and the city of Fort Worth that says we will put all of our eggs into the D/FW basket," said Kevin Cox, the chief operating officer of D/FW Airport. "That agreement will stand on its own."

Damage control

The row raised concerns that the delegation's discord would damage chances for the proposal on Capitol Hill. Those concerns prompted Ms. Hutchison to intervene, placing calls to Mr. Johnson and Mr. Hall to reassure them that their interests would be addressed.

"We never intended for the federal government to have any position about these airports," said Ms. Hutchison, who also met this week with McKinney officials.

Referring to her discussions with Mr. Johnson and Mr. Hall, Ms. Hutchison said: "Both of them were positive, but they did not make a commitment."

Mr. Cox testified: "It was never our intent... to undermine other airports. It has led to a lot of confusion."

McKinney Mayor Bill Whitfield, who attended the hearing, indicated he was pleased with the progress but wanted to see the final language. Mr. Hall also said he was encouraged but wanted to make sure that the legal contract between Dallas and Fort Worth is not in the proposed legislation.

Lawmakers from other states also raised concerns about the plan. Many were worried that other airlines would be locked out of Love Field because American, Southwest and Continental Airlines control all the remaining gates.

"If the agreement entered into the communities is ratified in law, we will for the first time in the country have legislated the number of operations at an airport," said Rep. James Oberstar of Minnesota, the ranking Democrat on the transportation committee.

'Major problem'

And Rep. Vernon Ehlers, R-Mich., called the agreement a "major problem" that "favors some airlines over other airlines."

"Never interfere with free enterprise unless you can do it in a totally fair way" for all parties, Mr. Ehlers said.

JetBlue Airways, among other carriers, has raised concerns that it would not have access to Love under the local compromise.

But the mayors and Mr. Cox argued that there is plenty of unused gate capacity at Love and that entrant airlines could sublease from the existing carriers.

And they noted there also is plenty of room at D/FW for airlines wanting to start service to North Texas.

"New entrants are welcome under Dallas's existing sharing provisions, and that does not change under this agreement," Ms. Miller said.

Mr. Oberstar also has raised questions about whether flight operations will be safe.

Lawmakers are working to add language that would address his concerns. An official from the Federal Aviation Administration testified Wednesday that the agency sees no safety problems being generated by the agreement.

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