Friday Afternoon Breaking News- Dallas

[Flopgut]

V1Cutt: A 50/50 deal huh? You only use 14 gates at Love. Here you go...read:


AP
Officials Near Agreement on Love Field
Friday June 9, 9:29 pm ET
By David Koenig, AP Business Writer Officials Near Deal That May Slowly End Restrictions on Long Flights at Love Field in Dallas
DALLAS (AP) -- Local officials are close to a deal that could gradually end restrictions on long flights at a scaled-down Love Field, where Southwest Airlines Co. and American Airlines are pitted in a battle for travelers.
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The mayors of Dallas and Fort Worth have agreed to seek a 9-year phase-out of restrictions on long-haul flights and allow immediate through-ticketing at Love Field, according to a Dallas official close to the negotiation.
The official, who spoke Friday on condition of anonymity because of the stakes involved between the two airlines, said the agreement would also reduce Love Field from 32 gates to 20 gates. Other details, including whether Fort Worth-based American will be asked to leave Love Field, have not been settled, the official said.
A spokesman for Dallas Mayor Laura Miller said there was no deal yet, and declined to comment further.
An American Airlines spokesman was adamant Friday that the nation's largest airline isn't interested in leaving Love Field, where it resumed flights in March to cities in Texas and Missouri.
"We cannot imagine American moving out of Love Field under any circumstances, short of the Wright Amendment remaining fully in place," said American spokesman Tim Wagner.
American would be forced to give up its best Dallas customers to Southwest if it exited Love Field, Wagner said.
Dallas-based Southwest is lobbying Congress to repeal a 1979 law, called the Wright Amendment, that limits most commercial flights from Love Field to Texas and nearby states. American, a unit of AMR Corp., and DFW Airport officials oppose repealing the law, which could result in more travelers and flights shifting to Love Field.
Miller and Fort Worth Mayor Michael Moncrief hope to complete a deal before they are scheduled to meet Wednesday at a Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport hotel.
A spokeswoman for Southwest declined to say whether Southwest would agree to the deal being negotiated by the mayors.
"It's obvious that the momentum is moving in the direction of repealing the Wright Amendment, but not a lot of light has been shed on the details, so there's a lot of conjecture swirling," said Southwest spokeswoman Ginger Hardage.
Southwest has indicated willingness to accept at least one portion of a possible deal -- a smaller Love Field.
Southwest Chief Executive Gary Kelly has said his airline would be willing to give up some of its seven unused gates at Love Field if the Wright Amendment is repealed. Love Field has 32 gates. Southwest has 14 active gates besides the seven it isn't using. American has three that it refurbished and began using in March. Continental Airlines Inc. has two, and six on the other side of the field have been idle for more than five years, since startup Legend Airlines failed.

 

[Flopgut]

Dallas reassigns aviation chief


[SIZE=+1]Official says she needs him elsewhere; others point to Love finances
[/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1]12:00 AM CDT on Saturday, June 10, 2006

[/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1]By KATIE FAIRBANK and EMILY RAMSHAW / The Dallas Morning News [/SIZE]

Love Field aviation director Kenneth Gwyn said Friday that he is leaving the airport to head the city's customer service division – a reassignment City Manager Mary Suhm said comes after a "good, 10-year run" with the airport.
The decision comes just days before Dallas is expected to unveil a compromise with Fort Worth on lifting the Wright amendment, which limits most commercial service from Love to a nine-state region.
Assistant Parks Director Carolyn Bray will run the Aviation Department in the interim.
Mr. Gwyn told staffers at the airport of his reassignment on Friday morning. He did not give a start date and did not return calls requesting comment.
Ms. Suhm said Friday that she asked Mr. Gwyn to take the customer-service job because it is one of her most critical posts, and because the Dallas City Council has placed such a high premium on customer service. There's no other motive, she said.
"Ken has a long history with this organization, and I need his skill set in that position," she said.
But some people close to the issue say they believe the move is occurring because of unfavorable attention about accounting problems at the airport during a bitter fight about whether to open Love Field up for additional flights. They say that news stories showing financial problems at the airport have made a touchy issue even harder to deal with.
The airport is run by the city's Aviation Department, a stand-alone business entity that has historically broken even or run surpluses.
But for fiscal year 2003 and fiscal year 2004, there was a $20 million combined shortfall. The Dallas Morning News reported in January that the Aviation Department was relying on a cash balance to meet both the shortfall and the requirements of a $59 million loan taken to build a parking garage at Love Field. The shortfall also prompted internal auditors to look into the books, and the airport's bond rating dipped.
A week after the story ran, the City Council decided to increase landing fees at the airport by 57 percent.
In February, The News reported that outside auditor KPMG was reviewing questions about balances at the Aviation Department. The results of that review should become public as part of the 2005 audit, which hasn't been completed and is more than a month late.
Another issue at the Aviation Department that garnered attention involved a $2.3 million loan made to the city's 911 fund, which was created from emergency-service fees to support the 911 phone system. That loan was made without the City Council's approval and also was the focus of an internal audit. The loan has not been approved to date.

 

[J3CubCapt]

Always staring at it, touching up your mascara.

Typical "Liberal" [SIZE=-1]rhetoric[/SIZE]. If you can't debate the facts [SIZE=-1]successfully[/SIZE], attack the other side personally.

AA Statement
Officials Near Agreement on Love Field
Friday June 9, 9:29 pm ET
"We cannot imagine American moving out of Love Field under any circumstances, short of the Wright Amendment remaining fully in place," said American spokesman Tim Wagner.
American would be forced to give up its best Dallas customers to Southwest if it exited Love Field, Wagner said.

AA only came back to Love recently, were the "Best Dallas Customers" of less importance before AA come back to Love? Seems like this Wright Fight has hightend AA's awareness of thier customers.

J3

 

[Coool Hand Luke]

V1Cutt: A 50/50 deal huh? You only use 14 gates at Love. Here you go...read:


AP
Officials Near Agreement on Love Field
Friday June 9, 9:29 pm ET
By David Koenig, AP Business Writer Officials Near Deal That May Slowly End Restrictions on Long Flights at Love Field in Dallas
DALLAS (AP) -- Local officials are close to a deal that could gradually end restrictions on long flights at a scaled-down Love Field, where Southwest Airlines Co. and American Airlines are pitted in a battle for travelers.
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The official, who spoke Friday on condition of anonymity because of the stakes involved between the two airlines, said the agreement would also reduce Love Field from 32 gates to 20 gates. Other details, including whether Fort Worth-based American will be asked to leave Love Field, have not been settled, the official said.
A spokesman for Dallas Mayor Laura Miller said there was no deal yet, and declined to comment further.
An American Airlines spokesman was adamant Friday that the nation's largest airline isn't interested in leaving Love Field, where it resumed flights in March to cities in Texas and Missouri.
"We cannot imagine American moving out of Love Field under any circumstances, short of the Wright Amendment remaining fully in place," said American spokesman Tim Wagner.
American would be forced to give up its best Dallas customers to Southwest if it exited Love Field, Wagner said.
Dallas-based Southwest is lobbying Congress to repeal a 1979 law, called the Wright Amendment, that limits most commercial flights from Love Field to Texas and nearby states. American, a unit of AMR Corp., and DFW Airport officials oppose repealing the law, which could result in more travelers and flights shifting to Love Field.
Miller and Fort Worth Mayor Michael Moncrief hope to complete a deal before they are scheduled to meet Wednesday at a Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport hotel.
A spokeswoman for Southwest declined to say whether Southwest would agree to the deal being negotiated by the mayors.
"It's obvious that the momentum is moving in the direction of repealing the Wright Amendment, but not a lot of light has been shed on the details, so there's a lot of conjecture swirling," said Southwest spokeswoman Ginger Hardage.
Southwest has indicated willingness to accept at least one portion of a possible deal -- a smaller Love Field.
Southwest Chief Executive Gary Kelly has said his airline would be willing to give up some of its seven unused gates at Love Field if the Wright Amendment is repealed. Love Field has 32 gates. Southwest has 14 active gates besides the seven it isn't using. American has three that it refurbished and began using in March. Continental Airlines Inc. has two, and six on the other side of the field have been idle for more than five years, since startup Legend Airlines failed.

AA's response:

We've seen a whirlwind of Wright-related activity during the past few
days, and it's important that you are aware of the latest news.


In the next few weeks, we expect to see some major developments in
the Wright Amendment battle, and your help will be critical. The
Mayors of Dallas and Fort Worth are in the final stages of
discussions about the Wright Amendment and we expect a possible
announcement in the next week.


In March, American agreed to participate in these discussions -
despite believing it was unnecessary to reverse sound public policy
that's served the region well for more than twenty five years. Acting
in good faith, CEO Gerard Arpey personally participated in the
process and encouraged leaders in Dallas and Fort Worth to consider
the full range of options in order to solve this debate.


For your review, we've attached several news articles summarizing
recent events. It's important to note that nothing about the expected
Wright Amendment proposal is certain, and to date, much of what is
being reported in the press is pure speculation.


American Airlines will not allow city officials to dictate our
operating decisions. We have no plans to abandon our gates at Love
Field. No one should assume we would willingly move our operation and
give up some of our best customers to Southwest.


We will keep you posted as events unfold in the days to come. We
continue to work to ensure that long-term interests of American, its
customers, its 80,000 employees and our partners in small and mid-
sized communities across the country are considered.

 

[V1Cutt]

V1Cutt: A 50/50 deal huh? You only use 14 gates at Love. Here you go...read:


Other details, including whether Fort Worth-based American will be asked to leave Love Field, have not been settled, the official said.
A spokesman for Dallas Mayor Laura Miller said there was no deal yet, and declined to comment further.
An American Airlines spokesman was adamant Friday that the nation's largest airline isn't interested in leaving Love Field, where it resumed flights in March to cities in Texas and Missouri.
"We cannot imagine American moving out of Love Field under any circumstances, short of the Wright Amendment remaining fully in place," said American spokesman Tim Wagner.

ZZZZZZZ .... wake me when something actually happens.

 

[Flopgut]

Seems to me that AA had no problem with going into Love to cut the throat of Legend. They flew the same routes and undercut Legend so they could not ever get started. They lasted about five months. Now they want a "fair solution" for the Wright Amendment. Tell us AA employees, how fair was your treatment of Legend?

I don't work for AA, but I got the gospel truth for you: it was abundantly fair! That's competition in the free market. If Legend had been properly capitalized, better managed with a better plan they would still be in business. They latched on to the most immediate ingredient in SWA success recipe and ran with it: Love Field. They HAD to know AA was going to do what they did and been ready for it with either a ton of money, or SWA's special ingredient: the political savvy to have their competition forced off the airport. After all, that is the ONLY reason SWA is around today. Braniff was going to crush them, but before they could they were forced to leave Love Field. No differently than it appears now will be done to AA.

SWA employees don't like this talk, naturally, but they refuse to look big picture. Perhaps if the industry had been deregulated differently, if a free market were a reality in the airline business, we might all be better off. There might be two or three US carriers, with multinational brands, solvent pensions care of huge revenues and an overall better standard of living for airline workers. That would be great for ALL of us. It certainly is not stretch of the imagination when you look closely at air cargo (FDX & UPS).

Incidentally, Legend was a good idea. Just went to the wrong airport. If they had gone to DFW they would have had access to more premium passengers, maybe be codesharing with, or acquired by AA. Ultimately, they had to be holding the same hand Herb was holding and they weren't

 

[Flopgut]

V1Cutt: A 50/50 deal huh? You only use 14 gates at Love. Here you go...read:


Other details, including whether Fort Worth-based American will be asked to leave Love Field, have not been settled, the official said.
A spokesman for Dallas Mayor Laura Miller said there was no deal yet, and declined to comment further.
An American Airlines spokesman was adamant Friday that the nation's largest airline isn't interested in leaving Love Field, where it resumed flights in March to cities in Texas and Missouri.
"We cannot imagine American moving out of Love Field under any circumstances, short of the Wright Amendment remaining fully in place," said American spokesman Tim Wagner.

ZZZZZZZ .... wake me when something actually happens.

The fact that this sort of deal is even being speculated reflects poorly on SWA IMHO. Figuratively speaking: a bloody glove.

 

[Flopgut]

Typical "Liberal" [SIZE=-1]rhetoric[/SIZE]. If you can't debate the facts [SIZE=-1]successfully[/SIZE], attack the other side personally.J3

Typical neo-conservative, systemite who can't discuss facts and wants to spin politics.

 

[Double Shot]

Last time I checked it was AA who put the final nail into Braniffs coffin. At least that is what history has recorded.

 

[TexaSWA]

The only way AA could be kicked out of Love is if they agreed to it (or asked for it).

Not a bad move really. That way they can abandon an unprofitable business decision and still get to point fingers.