AA wants out of Love Field lease

[LoneStarMike]

From WFAA Channel 8, the local ABC affiliate in Dallas/Ft.Worth:

American wants out of Love Field lease
Airline''s gates were completed but never used after 9/11
06/25/2003

http://www.wfaa.com/localnews/news8/storie...e.259833dd.html

Personally, I think the City of Dallas should tell AA that their lease is highly restricted and any amendments to it will incur a $3.2 million change fee.

 

[LaBradford22]

Or, instead of getting into a lengthy and costly legal pissing contest, they could just lease the gates to Southwest.

 

[JS]

Does Southwest need the gates? My guess is no.

 

[LaBradford22]

----------------
On 6/26/2003 10:15:57 AM JS wrote:

Does Southwest need the gates? My guess is no.

----------------​

Right now, they probably don''t need the gates, otherwise they would have been pushing for more gates at DAL themselves. However, if they keep growing, at some point it stands to reason that they will.

The point is, even if AA backs out of their prior lease commitment to these gates, the city of Dallas still has an asset that is (or at least, eventually will be) marketable.

 

[KCFlyer]

----------------
On 6/26/2003 12:35:57 PM Ch. 12 wrote:




Thanks to the Wright Ammendment (created thanks to AA), WN cannot grow more out of DAL unless they choose smaller markets within TX and the surrounding states. Also thanks to the Wright Ammendment, Love Field is not much of a marketable asset.
----------------​

On the other hand, since the City of Fort Worth is so fond of the Wrong Amendment, I wonder if they''d be willing to "deal" with the city of Dallas - you drop efforts to keep the WA in place and we''ll drop this obligation from one of your larger corporate constituants.

 

[Ch. 12]

----------------
On 6/26/2003 10:40:49 AM LaBradford22 wrote:

----------------
On 6/26/2003 10:15:57 AM JS wrote:

Does Southwest need the gates? My guess is no.

----------------​

Right now, they probably don''t need the gates, otherwise they would have been pushing for more gates at DAL themselves. However, if they keep growing, at some point it stands to reason that they will.

The point is, even if AA backs out of their prior lease commitment to these gates, the city of Dallas still has an asset that is (or at least, eventually will be) marketable.


----------------​

Thanks to the Wright Ammendment (created thanks to AA), WN cannot grow more out of DAL unless they choose smaller markets within TX and the surrounding states. Also thanks to the Wright Ammendment, Love Field is not much of a marketable asset.

 

[Ch. 12]

----------------
On 6/26/2003 12:46:21 PM KCFlyer wrote:

​

On the other hand, since the City of Fort Worth is so fond of the Wrong Amendment, I wonder if they''d be willing to "deal" with the city of Dallas - you drop efforts to keep the WA in place and we''ll drop this obligation from one of your larger corporate constituants.

----------------​

Wouldn''t that be a novel idea? I have my doubts that the WA will ever be fully repealed until DFW maxes out its capacity. I think that may not be an issue for quite some time...especially since air travel is down significantly...but I am only making an assumption.

It''s time for Dallas/Ft. Worth to join the ranks of other large metro areas (LAX/SNA/ONT/LGB, ORD/MDW, JFK/EWR/LGA, OAK/SFO, MIA/FLL, IAH/HOU, IAD/DCA/BWI to name a few) and allow full competition between its airports.

 

[LaBradford22]

Of all the stupid things AA has done in recent years - and there have been a bunch of them - probably the STUPIDEST was deciding to jump through all the legal hoops of entering Love Field in response to Legend. d-u-M duM with a capital M.

 

[mrman]

Plenty of empty gates at Love. A whole empty former Legend airline terminal that these gates help perpetuate. WN has some empty unrenovated gate space as well.
Delta has left Love and word on the street is Continental is leaving. (Ironic is that DFW is just about filled and taxpayers are paying for new gates). In my opinion the city should force AA to pay considering they took them to court to get the space incurring legal bills, and took them to court when Legend tried to fly. You soe what you reap.
MrMan

 

[Ch. 12]

Seeing how the economy turned sour, Legend would have done itself in with its business plan. I know that hind-sight is 20/20 but I''m sure that AMR is definitely no happy to have wasted so much time and effort only to speed the inevitable (Legend''s demise) by a few months.

 

[BDLDFW]

----------------
It''s time for Dallas/Ft. Worth to join the ranks of other large metro areas (LAX/SNA/ONT/LGB, ORD/MDW, JFK/EWR/LGA, OAK/SFO, MIA/FLL, IAH/HOU, IAD/DCA/BWI to name a few) and allow full competition between its airports
----------------​

Full competition between it''s airports? Hardly.
o LAX/SNA/ONT/LGB SNA & LGB are slot restricted.
o JFK/EWR/LGA LGA is perimeter & slot restricted, JFK is slot restricted.
o IAD/DCA/BWI DCA is perimeter & slot restricted.

Looks like DAL isn''t the only airport in a multi-airport area with artificial limitations.

 

[mga707]

----------------
On 6/26/2003 12:35:57 PM Ch. 12 wrote:


Thanks to the Wright Ammendment (created thanks to AA), WN cannot grow more out of DAL unless they choose smaller markets within TX and the surrounding states.  Also thanks to the Wright Ammendment, Love Field is not much of a marketable asset.

----------------​

There are a few more existing WN markets that they could add DAL nonstops to if they so chose: Even though the Wrong Amendment has been loosened to include AL and MS (and KS), WN has chosen not to fly DAL-JAN/BHM nonstop.
Also, they could reintroduce DAL nonstops to CRP and HRL, both of which were flown back in the intrastate days.
For whatever reason, WN''s DAL schedule has been static at right about 140 weekday departures for quite a few years now.

 

[Ch. 12]

----------------
On 6/26/2003 4:48:06 PM BDLDFW wrote:


Full competition between it''s airports? Hardly.
o LAX/SNA/ONT/LGB SNA & LGB are slot restricted.
o JFK/EWR/LGA LGA is perimeter & slot restricted, JFK is slot restricted.
o IAD/DCA/BWI DCA is perimeter & slot restricted.

Looks like DAL isn''t the only airport in a multi-airport area with artificial limitations.



----------------​

You''re right...it''s not perfect competition, but at least it is viable in the other cities. Of all of the airports listed above, SNA is perhaps the most restricted with slots and extreme time of day limitatioins. There is no perimiter, however, and that allows travel to other respectfully sized cities. Ture...DCA and LGA are perimiter restricted but it is a vast perimiter and exceptions are constantly made...especially in DCA. You can also argue that even if it was a much smaller perimiter in these cities, it still would be better situated than DAL due to the abundance of large markets within closer vicinity of LGA and DCA. The location of Dallas isn''t very condusive to close-range (1 state...sometimes 2 with the recent changes) perimiters.

----------------------------------------------------------
mga707:
There are a few more existing WN markets that they could add DAL nonstops to if they so chose: Even though the Wrong Amendment has been loosened to include AL and MS (and KS), WN has chosen not to fly DAL-JAN/BHM nonstop.
Also, they could reintroduce DAL nonstops to CRP and HRL, both of which were flown back in the intrastate days.
For whatever reason, WN''s DAL schedule has been static at right about 140 weekday departures for quite a few years now.
-----------------------------------------

The fact is markets such as JAN, BHM, CRP, and HRL to DAL aren''t sufficient enough to capture WN''s interest and most likely wouldn''t be extremely profitable. If the WA were repealed, WN could connect the dots and fly DAL-LAX/PHX/MDW/ISP/FLL/PVD/MHT....etc. Far bigger markets. WN will not expand much beyond their current schedule at DAL until they can fly into better markets. The WA is only a deal that allows near monopolization of the best routes by AA. Why do you think that the only changes to it have been to add states such as AL and MS with relatively small metros and extremely small airline markets?

 

[BDLDFW]

----------------

The WA is only a deal that allows near monopolization of the best routes by AA
----------------
​

Really? WN is free to fly from DFW to compete w/ AA.

 

[KCFlyer]

----------------
On 6/27/2003 10:16:55 AM BDLDFW wrote:

----------------

The WA is only a deal that allows near monopolization of the best routes by AA
----------------
​

Really? WN is free to fly from DFW to compete w/ AA.

----------------​

And if you thought AA fought hard to get gates at Love to fight legend, watch the battle should LUV decide to take a couple of gates at DFW for flights to places like BWI, LAX, MDW, LAX, and OAK. If SW ever exercised that "freedom", AA execs would find their sphincters puckering terribly.