Southwest Airlines, which acquired AirTran on May 2, plans to continue its scheduled service at Dallas/Fort Worth Airport until Nov. 21 to avoid inconveniencing passengers who have already bought tickets on those flights, the Dallas-based carrier has told the airport.
The Dallas-based airline must stop D/FW service or give up gates at its home base at Dallas Love Field under terms of the Wright Amendment compromise agreement forged in 2006."The best accommodation of all AirTran customers traveling through D/FW International Airport, both those originating from the D/FW area and those choosing to visit, is to honor the reservations that have been previously been made," Southwest Vice President Bob Montgomery wrote in a letter sent to the airport Wednesday. "This avoids the additional and unplanned expense to customers of changing travel plans, and it avoids the dilution to the regional economy that could result from travelers simply canceling their trips as a result of those hassles and expenses."But taking six months to shut down operations may be longer than local politicians are willing to accept.Fort Worth Mayor Mike Moncrief voiced concerns at the May airport board meeting that allowing Southwest to wait until the end of the year to stop service was "not acceptable." He said he was willing to give Southwest a "reasonable amount of time," but under a strict interpretation of the agreement, Southwest would have had to end AirTran's D/FW service the day its acquisition of the carrier closed.Under the Wright agreement, Southwest must give up one gate at Love Field for every gate it uses at D/FW. AirTran uses two gates at D/FW for nine daily flights to Orlando, Fla., Atlanta and Baltimore. However, the agreement does not say what should occur in the event of an acquisition.D/FW CEO Jeff Fegan said Thursday morning at the airport board meeting that the airport's lawyers had not had a chance to review the information and whether or not Southwest's six-month stay would trigger the agreement's gate clause."I have not had the chance to talk to anybody on the board, or the airlines or the cities," Fegan said, declining to comment on how the mayors of Fort Worth and Dallas might react to the news.Neither Moncrief nor Dallas Mayor Dwaine Caraway was at the airport board meeting Thursday; both were out of town and could not be reached for comment. Caraway had agreed that a reasonable amount of time should be given to Southwest to leave but that six months was too long.American Airlines, which was also part of the Wright Amendment compromise agreement, declined to comment.In other business, D/FW staff told board members that 4.62 million passengers passed through the airport in April, down 0.9 percent from the same month last year. The slight drop was due to cutbacks in capacity by American on routes to Japan after the earthquake and tsunami disaster.Passenger estimates for May are also expected to be down 1.6 percent compared with last year because of carrier cutbacks.Andrea Ahles, 817-390-7613Have more to add? News tip? Tell us
