WN wants to expand HOU with international ops against UA at IAH
Apr 9, 2012, 5:58 pm
#17
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jan 2003
Location: Brooklyn, NY, USA
Programs: DL SM Plat, B6 TrueBlue, UA MP, AAdvantage
Posts: 10,008
At least the City of Houston sounds open to Southwest, The City of Dallas has treated Southwest like a red headed step child. If I was Southwest I would have given the City of Dallas the bird and move the headquarters out of town a long time ago. It's a shame how our city has treated Southwest over the years.
When DFW was planned, one of its great backers was Jim Wright, then Speaker of the House, whose district was Fort Worth.
His agenda was bringing the "goods" to Ft Worth. Of course, AMR saw a good thing and together they allied to create federal legislation to restrict competition from DAL.
It's been many decades since Wright skadooled with his stripper girlfriend, but since then the Texas congressional delegation, led by that ultimate free-market advocate Senator Hutchison, have fought tooth and nail to maintain the restraint of trade features of the Wright Amendment.
Obviously, Hutchison and others were generously taken care of by AMR, but there is, of course, no connection...
At least Wright was an old-school democrat in the vein of Honey Fitz or Tommy Pendergast. They were all unabashed champions of using the public treasure, and a little legislative muscle (when needed), to "oil" the wheels of progress. If their pals got taken care of in the process, well, all the better.
But Wright's successors are all self-avowed free-marketeers, preaching the benefits of competition, less regulation, decrying the intrusion of government in the affairs of commerce.
Oh well...
