Airlines Say Wright Deal Would Lock Them out of Love

With several outside airlines wondering whether a Wright Amendment compromise could lock them out of Dallas Love Field, some North Texas officials concede that there might be no extra room at the inner-city airport if Congress turns the local deal into law.

And a study released last month that was commissioned by the city of Dallas to update its Love Field master plan seems to back that up. It projects that an average of more than 10 flights per day could go out of each gate, which industry people say is close to the standard for a gate's capacity at any airport.

That could mean any interested carriers would have to look eight miles down the road to the larger Dallas/Fort Worth Airport if they want to enter the local market.

Fort Worth Mayor Mike Moncrief and Dallas Mayor Laura Miller are quick to point out that the local agreement doesn't bar any carrier from Love Field. But Moncrief added in an interview that it won't be easy for a new airline to offer service there.

"They would have to share a gate, and they'd have to deal with scheduling, but there's nothing in our agreement that prohibits them from coming," he said.

As it stands now, leases for all of the 32 gates at Love Field allow for sharing if needed, said Terry Mitchell, assistant director of aviation for the city of Dallas.

Only 19 of the gates are in operation: 14 by Southwest Airlines, three by American Airlines and two by Continental Airlines.

The Wright Amendment compromise, announced last month by the two mayors and officials for American, Southwest and D/FW Airport, would reduce the number of gates at Love to 20.

That would give 16 to Southwest, two to American and two to Continental. It would extend the Wright Amendment restrictions, which limit long-haul flying from Love, until 2015 but allow immediate connecting and one-stop ticketing. Congress would have to pass the law, and the president would have to sign it, before it would go into effect.

Two weeks ago, JetBlue Airways, Northwest Airlines and an industry association representing several other discount airlines raised concerns with the deal, saying it is anti-competitive.

The local politicians and airline and airport executives who crafted the compromise are again headed to Washington to lobby for the law's repeal. They'll testify before a House subcommittee Wednesday.

If an outside airline, such as JetBlue Airways or Northwest Airlines, wanted to enter Love Field, it would have to work it out with one of the three tenant airlines at Love Field, Mitchell said.

"Failing that, it may come down to the point where the director of aviation may have to make a decision on the case to make sure they could operate here," Mitchell said. "It may come down to it that if all of the gates are fully utilized, then we just may have to direct a new entrant to D/FW or somewhere like that because we're full up."

The agreement was designed to encourage the cities to direct interested new airlines to D/FW.

Already, two to three airlines have expressed new interest in coming to D/FW Airport, said Moncrief, an airport board member. He declined to name them.

Kevin Cox, chief operating officer for D/FW Airport, could not confirm that number but said some interest is serious while the rest is in the initial stages.

"Literally the day that we announced the Wright Amendment compromise, we had at least one carrier contact us to ascertain exactly what that landscape was," Cox said. "Since then, we've had additional conversations."

Ultimately, it would be up to the airlines to prove that they were using all of their leased gates to the fullest potential to avoid having to share a gate with an outside airline, Mitchell said.

"If they cannot satisfactorily demonstrate that, then that is excess capacity and there may be an opportunity there to direct them to share that gate," Mitchell said.

DMJM Aviation, a Tampa, Fla.-based industry consultant, projected that Love Field would see the number of "turns," or arrivals that turn around and depart from the same gate, grow 32 percent to an average of 10.4 per gate by 2020.

Today, there are 7.9 average daily turns per gate, according to the study, commissioned by the city of Dallas.

With that projection, Mitchell said, "I think a case could be made that we are full."

On June 15, the same day the compromise was announced, JetBlue fired off a letter to Kenneth Gwyn, who was Dallas' aviation director at the time, requesting two gates for its exclusive use at Love Field.

"Should the Amendment be repealed in whole or in part, please contact me as soon as possible so we can discuss a proposed start date," according to the letter written by James Smith, JetBlue's director of properties. The Star-Telegram obtained a copy of the letter.

The city is drafting a response letter, Mitchell said.

But Michael Boyd, a Colorado-based aviation consultant, questioned the sincerity of JetBlue's interest.

"It's not a case of whether the room is there or not, it's a case of whether anybody wants to" come to Love Field, Boyd said. "If I'm an airline and I want to enter the Metroplex, if I go to D/FW, I access all the Metroplex. If I go to Love Field, I don't get that west side of the Metroplex."

He added that JetBlue only recently talked about wanting to come to Love.

"Love Field's a dog," he said. "The political dynamics have changed dramatically with this agreement. But let's remember prior to this agreement, did you hear JetBlue ever scream and yell that they wanted to come into Love Field? No."

For their part, none of the three existing airlines at Love, or officials for Love Field or D/FW Airport, have said the DMJM projections of more than 10 turns per gate is too high.

The study does not forecast which airlines would operate at the airport by 2020, but it does offer assumptions that point-to-point carriers, such as Southwest, could do as many as 10 to 11 departures per day at a gate. It also said hub-and-spoke airlines, such as American and Continental, could likely do eight departures per gate.

If anything, American said it might be able to do more than just the projected eight flights per day.

"I think we could probably get pretty close to what any other airline could do there," said Tim Wagner, an American spokesman. However, he added that it's hard to tell exactly what American's schedule would be that far in advance.

Southwest agreed.

"Long-term planning in the airline business is two to three days," said Ed Stewart, a Southwest spokesman. "It's just hard to pinpoint what the future holds."

Neither airline could say whether it would or wouldn't be willing to share a gate if it had room for another interested airline to enter.

Boyd questions how long American will want to be around Love Field.

"That is just a lot of empty posturing," Boyd said. "They really don't want Southwest to expand there."

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