Tuesday, December 20, 2005

Love's financial state disputed

Southwest, city deny claims of unfair fees
10:12 PM CST on Monday, December 19, 2005
By ERIC TORBENSON / The Dallas Morning News

Now, the neighbors are getting into the Wright Amendment scrap. Boo hoo hoo.

Does Southwest get a sweet deal at Love? Only if you ignore the improvements made by the airline and the substantial restrictions imposed by Wright.

There is a really neat Herb Kelleher quote in this story, which is linked by the headline.

Comments:
Wow. Maybe this explains why Southwest never wanted to move to DFW. I guess the whole time instead of going head-to-head, they prefered to fight to protect sweetheart deals on their landing fees.
 
If you go on to read the Dallas Morning News article, what it appears to say is that the allegations were false and merely trumped up by this supposed neighborhood organization. Not a single dollar from city funds has gone into the airport for years.

As an aside, the organization which supposedly represents "the neighbors" only has four documented members.
 
For all the people proclaiming that "everyone" thinks Wright should be lifted, it is notable that there certainly are some community groups who are afraid that Southwest's fight will threaten the Master Plan and throw out the window years of effort to consolidate air travel at DFW.
 
I'm not aware of any legitimate community organization who believe the Master Plan will be threatened if the Wright Amendment is repealed. Perhaps that is because a close reading of the Master Plan indicates that repeal would have no impact. Moreover, the pending repeal bill explicitly states that the Master Plan would remain in place.
 
It doesn't seem fair to decide what is or isn't a "legitimate" community organization. A number of individuals, including a fmr. City Council woman, according to this article, are opposing Wright's repeal as bad for the neighborhood around Love. Seems like a perfectly valid argument for them to make.
 
The "former City Councilwoman" moved out of Dallas years ago and now lives roughly 40 miles from the airport. At least one of the other five, yes... only five, community activists similarly lives far away from the Airport.

As a neighborhood resident, myself, I've tried and tried to contact these folks (who were elected by no one but themselves) to no avail. Evidently, American Airlines knows how to contact them, however... they seem to be on the same side of virtually every issue relating to Love Field and frequently attend events together... how nice and cozy for them!
 
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