EmailKid

Many, many airports like that, including IAH @:-)

Did not know DL overtook WN as largest domestic carrier.

Perhaps, if true, will get a chance to try my first Virgin flight

Beckles

I don't think anything happening at DAL can be applied to any other airport, DAL is governed by specific and unique legal agreements that are not applicable to any other airport, and conversely those same agreements quite severely limit WN's ability to grow in the Dallas market (i.e., the number of gates at Love is fixed, and they aren't allowed to get gates at any other airport in the vicinity without giving up gates at Love).

As for the gates in question DL wanted, given the parameters laid out by the federal government, and VX, WN, and DL being the three bidders I'm aware of, VX was the only choice to be made unless they changed the rules after the fact (i.e., eliminated preference for LCC that didn't have a major presence already). DL and WN did their best to make a compelling case despite those rules, but in the end VX fit the bill.

SOBE ER DOC

As much as a flaming liberal as I am, this kind of regulation is exactly the problem and what sets up unfair competition. All airlines should be permitted to operate at either airport WITHOUT perimeter restrictions and without being forced to operate at one or the other. I can understand slot controls due to capacity issues but I do not agree with perimeter and other rules intended to force artificial constraints into the market. It irritates me at LGA and DCA and irritates me at DAL as well.

I do not wish to be forced to fly any airline or type of airline nor do I wish to be forced into a connection just to have the benefit of using a close-in airport. This is one instance where I would argue that the government (and many administrations both red and blue) has totally screwed things up.

Beckles

And that's the type of regulation Southwest fought for years, and it is now being eliminated. The situation being discussed in this thread was who would be allowed to buy AA's two gates at Love that they were required to give up. The thing is that in my opinion they should have been forced to give them up long ago since they weren't using them, but rather subleasing them to other airlines, which itself could lead to anti-competitive market behavior (i.e., AA was not necessarily motivated to obtain the highest lease rate for use of their gates, but was motivated to lease them to whoever posed the least threat to their DFW hub).

One approach would have been to simply sell them to the highest bidder ... instead the feds laid out rules for who would get them, and within the confine of those rules it's pretty clear who was going to get them between VX, DL, and WN in my opinion, unless DL or WN convinced the feds to change the rules (which I did not expect they would do ... but they gave it a try anyway!).

tvnwz

Good ole Jim Wright. Nothing like a little Texas politics to help the boys. His work lives on.