United leaves Dallas Love Field and gates going to SWA.
 

Wow! Delta has been trying to get gates at DAL. United just announced they are leaving Love Field and have sub-leased their 2 gates to Southwest in a long term deal.

Article says the DOJ and City of Dallas have approved. I can't believe they would allow SWA to control 2 more gates.

http://aviationblog.dallasnews.com/2...-service.html/

LOL I'd better start hearing some apologies from the UA fanboys. They swore that DAL was going to be an important station to UA.

UA finally found a profitable way to use the gates at LUV--by renting them out to WN. :)

I find it absolutely perplexing that somehow WN as the largest domestic carrier in the US could be in a better position to argue that they deserve those gates as opposed to DL. Boggles the mind.

DL was not party to the Wright Amendment agreement so they had/have no right to any gates---end of story. The two gates are UA's to use or sublease and WN was probably willing to pay a price UA could not refuse.

The entire situation at DAL is so obviously illegal I am surprised that someone hasn't filed a lawsuit yet.

There is nothing at all illegal about it. That is the way the agreement was drafted and approved by all parties involved.

WN is allowing DL to use a few slots and may continue to do so but that is up to WN to decide. DL has no legal or other standing at DAL airport.

The slightest threat of a lawsuit was apparently enough to cause a mad scramble to find room for Delta. UA fanboys said similar things "end of story" "UA is expanding" at that time as well. Wouldn't be surprised to find that this entire "agreement" is one day overturned by a court.

Of course- they could always just wait for Virgin America to go bankrupt..

The fact that an agreement was drafted and approved has nothing to do with the legality of it.

Even that fact that the DOJ is involved is not a guarantee of anything other than absurd complexity and political double dealing and ulterior motives.

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics...ort-concludes/

http://observer.com/2014/10/fed-up-w...uclear-option/

I've said it before, but slot-controlled or gate-controlled airports should put the slots and gates up for bid on a regular basis. There is no reason that WN should have a monopoly at DAL (or DL should have slots at JFK) simply due to first-mover advantage. If the asset is valuable, and clearly it is if UA is leasing them, then put them up for auction and let the public benefit. There is no reason UA should benefit from something they won't use.

No, I think I've made my point here. :D

Good for MEM. Its world will be reopened.

MEM, you once again will be able to move about the country, and not have to connect in ATL.

It's the big picture, folks.

What boggles the mind is that someone from Chicago doesn't quite get the market dynamics created by two metro area airports.

What was MDW before WN but a moribund airport, and Chicagoans benefit everyday from a healthy, vital airfare marketplace, with many choices.

This whole thing at DAL seems like a mess. You have one airline that will control 90% of the gates there in 1.5 months and the second airline that is not exactly the country's most well run airline getting handed the remaining gates.

This leaves DL in a position to sue again I guess.

I'm not sure I understand the need for such a rude response.

The situation between DAL and MDW are different. In DAL all but a couple of the gates are controlled by one airline and they have created an essential monopoly that prohibits anyone else from serving the market. As for MDW, There are multiple gates available for and capacity to accommodate new carriers.

The issues is not what the airports were before, but what they are now and while one might think that two airports in a market means you can look holistically about competition across all airports in the market you're wrong. If that were the case everyone would not be fighting for slots at DCA or LGA and would be happy to increase service at the more distant airports like IAD, BWI and the like.