1997

In 1997, taking advantage of a loophole in the Wright Amendment,a Dallas-based upstart named Legend Airlnes planned to offer flights in DC-9s outfitted with 56 first class seats, charging coach fare and also carrying cargo to make the flights profitable. Legend was warned by a former Dallas City Councilman, "American Airlines will end up torturing you. They play really dirty."

(Note: Read The (W)right to Fly -- a Dallas Observer feature story from October 1997 -- to learn more about Legend and its struggle to begin operations at Love Field.)

The U.S. Department of Transportation blocked Legend's proposal, ruling that the 56-seat limit applied to a plane's design capacity, not actual seats. Within days of the final ruling, American made large contributions to several national Democratic warchests.

While Legend appealed that ruling in federal court, they simultaneously lobbied Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) to write legislation stipulating that the 56-seat limit in the Wright amendment applied only to actual seats. The bill would also add Alabama, Mississippi and Kansas to the list of states that could be legally served from Love Field.

American's CEO Robert Crandall claimed that Legend would destroy DFW Airport and the economy of the entire Metroplex, and threatened "to sue everyone in America to close Love Field" if the Wright rule was altered in any way.

If that didn't work, he threatened to split American's hub between Love and D/FW if the Wright Amendment is ever fully repealed. As the Dallas Observer pointed out,

The same argument was made in 1979 when there was a fight to reopen Midway Airport in Chicago, says Brian Campbell, one of the founders of the now-defunct Midway Airlines. Almost 20 years later, Midway Airport is thriving and O'Hare is still the No. 1 airport in the country in terms of flights. And neither American nor United, the two dominant carriers at O'Hare, split their hubs, as they threatened they would.

Various elected officials--from Dallas Mayor Ron Kirk to U.S. Rep. Dick Armey and Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison -- protested, claiming that Legend's flights would disrupt the "peace and harmony" between Dallas and Fort Worth by violating an agreement the cities made to build D/FW airport 30 years ago. Fort Worth also threatened to sue if Legend was successful.

U.S. Rep. Kay Granger, Fort Worth's former mayor, persuaded a high-ranking legislator to send a letter to Newt Gingrich questioning the safety of Love Field if restrictions were removed.

In spite of the DFW parties' efforts, Congress passed the Shelby Amendment on October 9, 1997, and the next day, with help from AA, Ft. Worth made good on their promise, by suing the City of Dallas, Legend Airlines and Continental Airlines in a Fort Worth state district court, to block additional service at Love Field.

The State court ruled that Dallas was obligated by the 1968 Bond Ordinance to bar airlines from operating services authorized by the Shelby Amendment and that federal law did not override the cities' agreement restricting Love Field service.

The City of Dallas then sued the U.S. Department of Transportation and the City of Fort Worth to obtain a declaratory judgement that Dallas could not bar airlines from operating service authorized by the Shelby Amendment.

With lawsuits pending between Dallas and Fort Worth, both were at an impasse to resolve the feud. Fort Worth wanted Dallas to block the expanded flights, while Dallas said it couldn't argue with a federal law.

Many in Dallas were livid over Ft. Worth's lawsuit and still felt Dallas should countersue Ft. Worth over its construction of Alliance Airport without a waiver from the DFW Airport Board.

An editorial published in the Dallas Business Journal noted:

Fort Worth's mayor, without restraint or scruple, intones the Sanctity of Status Quo: "Fort Worth's lawsuit is to preserve the basic arrangement of our two cities over the past three decades ... It is solely to protect our joint investment in D/FW."

It will disquiet Hizzoner to discover Status Quo's virginity has long since been defiled. Worse yet, by the Tarrant County Posse:

Fort Worth's endless promotion, participation and subsidization of the massive Alliance Airport project has apparently been concealed from Mayor Barr; not so with former Mayor Granger.

Fort Worth wooed Federal Express from D/FW with a fast $250 million signing bonus. Maybe Mayor Barr missed that meeting.

If Ft. Worth's lawsuits weren't enough to discourage Legend, the lease rights to Love Field's East Concourse were acquired by AMR Services, a corporate affiliate of American. � Legend had also been in negotiations with Love Field for the gate space in Braniff's abandoned concourse.

AMR company officials said publicly that the concourse would be converted into offices, but privately, sources at American said that one benefit of the deal was to control one-third of Love's terminal capacity. Tying up the available gates at Love Field would make it harder for Legend to begin operations.

If that weren't enough, the Love Field Citizens Action Committee, the neighborhood group that was most opposed to expanded flights at Love Field, ran radio ads voicing opposition to changes at Love Field. According to Dallas city hall documents, American Airlines picked up the $2,500 tab for the ads.

The Dallas Observer article quoted Bernard Weinstein, director of the Center for Economic Development at the University of North Texas. as saying:

"Every story the politicians tell about the need to preserve the Wright Amendment--protecting the bond holders, keeping the peace between Dallas and Fort Worth, noise, safety--they are all code words used to protect American Airline's monopoly."

It is important to note once again that the Wright Amendment never was -- and never will be -- connected to safety concerns. It's only purpose is to regulate the markets that can be served with large jets out of Love Field in order to protect DFW Airport.