Wednesday, March 08, 2006
Making a Wright/Right play on words is too easy
When Victor and I went to Austin last weekend, we took advantage of the new service to Austin that American is offering out of Love Field. Due to increased pressure from Southwest on lawmakers to repeal the Wright Amendment, American has begun daily flights to Austin, San Antonio, St. Louis, and Kansas City from Love. For those of you who aren't familiar with the Wright Amendment, it's a law that controls the destinations available for flights from Love Field. It was basically put into place when DFW Airport was built, because Southwest refused to move to DFW. American is offering these new flights from Love in order to remain competitive with Southwest.
I had only been to Love Field on one other trip, not counting the time we dropped Mark off there. Spring Break 1999, or possibly 1997, I flew down to visit Ryan in Dallas on Southwest. I really don’t remember much about the flying part of the trip, and I really didn’t have any memory of the airport. So I was pretty shocked to see how old Love Field looked. The architecture reminded me of airports in India – low ceilings, long corridors. Love was much, much cleaner than Indian airports, but it had some of the same run-down atmosphere.
The American gates are one end of the airport, but there is only one security checkpoint, so you end up walking a long time before you enter the American section. Once you’re through security, the only place you have to eat is a tiny sandwich stand (unless you wander to the Southwest side of the airport; I’m sure there are plenty of food options there). Luckily they serve beer there, and you can kind of just walk around the terminal with your beer. Out of necessity, I even took my Shiner into the bathroom.
Love is much closer to home, and the Parking Spot is right by the terminal, so there are some definite advantages to flying from there. However, I love DFW Airport. The fact that there are so many security checkpoints, so many exits and entrances to each terminal, and such a huge number of shops and services there is fantastic. Don’t even get me started on the new international terminal, which is probably my favorite airport terminal in the world. DFW looks newer, cleaner, and sparklier (that’s not even a word) than Love, and somehow that really means a lot to me.
Southwest has been lobbying to have the Wright Amendment repealed for a couple of years now, complete with an aggressive media campaign and catchy slogans. Now Southwest is pushing for a decision on the Wright Amendment by April 10. That doesn’t give lawmakers much time to decide on this issue, so I hope that the anti-repeal folks are ready with good arguments. I really hope they don’t repeal the Wright amendment. Love isn’t set up to be a big airport, and I'm not really excited about hearing a bunch more planes over my house. If Southwest wants to fly more long-haul flights out of Dallas, let them give DFW a try. It’s a much better airport.
For more information on why the Wright Amendment is a good thing, check out Keep DFW Strong.
When Victor and I went to Austin last weekend, we took advantage of the new service to Austin that American is offering out of Love Field. Due to increased pressure from Southwest on lawmakers to repeal the Wright Amendment, American has begun daily flights to Austin, San Antonio, St. Louis, and Kansas City from Love. For those of you who aren't familiar with the Wright Amendment, it's a law that controls the destinations available for flights from Love Field. It was basically put into place when DFW Airport was built, because Southwest refused to move to DFW. American is offering these new flights from Love in order to remain competitive with Southwest.
I had only been to Love Field on one other trip, not counting the time we dropped Mark off there. Spring Break 1999, or possibly 1997, I flew down to visit Ryan in Dallas on Southwest. I really don’t remember much about the flying part of the trip, and I really didn’t have any memory of the airport. So I was pretty shocked to see how old Love Field looked. The architecture reminded me of airports in India – low ceilings, long corridors. Love was much, much cleaner than Indian airports, but it had some of the same run-down atmosphere.
The American gates are one end of the airport, but there is only one security checkpoint, so you end up walking a long time before you enter the American section. Once you’re through security, the only place you have to eat is a tiny sandwich stand (unless you wander to the Southwest side of the airport; I’m sure there are plenty of food options there). Luckily they serve beer there, and you can kind of just walk around the terminal with your beer. Out of necessity, I even took my Shiner into the bathroom.
Love is much closer to home, and the Parking Spot is right by the terminal, so there are some definite advantages to flying from there. However, I love DFW Airport. The fact that there are so many security checkpoints, so many exits and entrances to each terminal, and such a huge number of shops and services there is fantastic. Don’t even get me started on the new international terminal, which is probably my favorite airport terminal in the world. DFW looks newer, cleaner, and sparklier (that’s not even a word) than Love, and somehow that really means a lot to me.
Southwest has been lobbying to have the Wright Amendment repealed for a couple of years now, complete with an aggressive media campaign and catchy slogans. Now Southwest is pushing for a decision on the Wright Amendment by April 10. That doesn’t give lawmakers much time to decide on this issue, so I hope that the anti-repeal folks are ready with good arguments. I really hope they don’t repeal the Wright amendment. Love isn’t set up to be a big airport, and I'm not really excited about hearing a bunch more planes over my house. If Southwest wants to fly more long-haul flights out of Dallas, let them give DFW a try. It’s a much better airport.
For more information on why the Wright Amendment is a good thing, check out Keep DFW Strong.
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