The Wright Amendment Reform Act of 2006 took effect on October 13, 2014, and it is already showing its age.  This so-called repeal of the original Wright Amendment of 1979 is, in fact, merely a revision of the same sorts of anti-competitive regulations that have kept Dallas Love Field in a choke hold since the opening of DFW Airport.  It is not the federal government's job to single out and limit a single city-owned airport facility in terms of gate capacity, and the notion that legislators could call this progress is laughable when it's arguably illegal.

Furthermore, it is inconceivable for Love Field to pose any threat to the continued survival of DFW--physical limitations on the Love Field site would make that impossible, while DFW Airport was planned to accommodate up to 13 airside terminals.  DFW is home to the headquarters of the world's largest airline, American Airlines, and it continues to receive new service, particularly in the international arena, from a number of different carriers.  Its future is bright, and it will continue to serve the entire metroplex for many years into the future.  Its primary role has always been and will continue to be as a connecting hub for passengers neither originating from nor bound for the metroplex.  For this reason, its remote and inconvenient location is not a significant problem.

For passengers beginning or ending their travels in Dallas and the suburbs to the east of Dallas, Love Field is a more convenient airport to reach, and its facilities are less daunting.  For airlines seeking to serve the citizens and businesses of Dallas, Love Field forms an important part of local air transportation infrastructure.  Despite this, the limitation of Love Field to only 20 gates has already created a conflict between airlines that has prevented the expansion of services by Delta Airlines and Southwest Airlines, both of whom are scrambling for gate space.  United Airlines has already sought to capitalize on this by stacking flights using the smallest available aircraft and the longest possible turnaround times to fill up gate space and create a premature shortage.  Additional carriers, including JetBlue, have expressed a desire to serve the airport, but the lack of available space has made this impossible.  By opening up the airport to expansion, the airlines serving the metro area via Love Field will be subject to greater competition, which can only benefit consumers as airlines compete for their business.  Furthermore, Love Field's strategic plan, in light of its restrictions, has been to actively discourage direct competition on the same routes between the two airports, which is the worst possible outcome for consumers.

The Wright Amendment Reform Act also places limitations on residents of Fort Worth.  This amendment prohibits commercial passenger service all to other airports in the metroplex, including both Meacham and Alliance airports.  Although major service to either of these airports is unlikely in the near future, it should be a matter of free market economics that determines where and how the metroplex is served by airlines.  The current legislation prohibits additional services in perpetuity, and this is not an appropriate measure on the federal level.  DFW is forecasted to surpass Chicago as the third largest metro area in the United States (after New York and Los Angeles), and this continued growth will lead to an increase in air travel demand.  Now is as good a time as any to do away with all of the overreaching and anti-competitive legislation that has been imposed upon the DFW metroplex in order to prepare for the future as well as address present capacity problems.

The Wright Amendment Reform Act includes an indefinite prohibition against attempts to appeal it by American Airlines, Southwest Airlines, or the cities of Dallas and Fort Worth, despite this being a clearly illegal limitation on these entities.  They should never have agreed to these limitations, but now that they have, it is up to others to ensure that competition continues at Love Field.  As such, we have decided to appeal to both Delta Airlines and JetBlue Airways for help in this fight to make Love Field truly open and competitive for the first time since 1979.  Delta has displayed a continued commitment to increasing service to the airport in spite of continued roadblocks from the federal government, the airport authority, and other airlines.  JetBlue has indicated an interest in serving the airport, either in addition to or in place of DFW, where it currently operates only two daily flights to its Boston hub, in large part because of the choke hold that American Airlines has on DFW (which is precisely why Virgin America moved its operations to Love Field in order to expand).  Neither Delta nor JetBlue is not prohibited from bringing challenge to the offending legislation, and with an increase in gate capacity at Love Field, both airlines would be able to offer competitive services from Love Field, as would other potential newcomers, thanks to the cost advantage afforded by the airport's substantially lower fees.