Southwest Goes To Federal Court To Keep From Having To Share Love Field Gates With Delta

Feb. 18, 2015
Delta, meanwhile, has been engaged in a months-long battle to remain at Love Field, and in early January cut a deal with United to remain at Love through July 6.

On January 30 Southwest Airlines announced that it was taking United Airlines’ two gates at Dallas Love Field, giving it 18 out of the 20 gates at the city-owned airport. But as it turns out, the Love Field-based carrier will likely have to accommodate Delta Air Lines beyond a previously agreed-to July 6 deadline.

That’s according to a letter U.S. Department of Transportation General Counsel Kathryn Thomson sent in December to Dallas City Attorney Warren Ernst, which says any carrier currently operating out of Dallas Love Field gets to keep flying out of the airport “as long as the carrier continues to operate the accommodated flights.” Southwest vehemently disagrees.

On Friday the carrier filed documents in a federal appeals court in Washington, D.C., that blast Thomson’s letter as “arbitrary and capricious, an abuse of discretion, and otherwise not in accordance with law, in excess of statutory authority, and without observance of procedure by law.”

More details here.