Set Love Free

I've just spent some time really studying the Wright Amendment. For those of you who aren't total dorks like me, I'll explain a little bit about it. This is a piece of Federal legislation that restricts commercial flights of over more than 56 seats from flying from Dallas Love Field to any state that is not touching Texas (with three exceptions). If you want to fly from (to) Texas to (from) anywhere that matters, (sorry Gulf states) you have to use Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport and presumably fly American Airlines who operates 84% of the flights from this airport. AA is the largest airline in the world and has no competition at D/FW--Braniff is out of buisness and Delta left a few years ago.

Opponents say this legislation artifically restricts competion. There are tons of bad things that result from restricting competitions. Mainly, D/FW and AA have no incentive to operate as efficently as they possibly could.

Proponents say airlines can move to D/FW and not deal with the restrictions at DAL. That's harder for smaller companies to do when landing fees and other associated costs are kept artifically high due to anti-competitve legislation. Southwest is the principle private entity in favor of the repeal of Wright. AA and D/FW are whining that a repeal will help Southwest create a monopoly at DAL. Gee, that's an interesting argument considering they are enjoying a monopoly set up by the US goverment!!

There's something else I don't get. The proponents say that if airlines are allowed to fly out of DAL airlines will gradually vacate DFW because DAL is closer to the flying public. Yet, the two airports are only 7 miles apart? What's up with THAT?

Lenny has always complained that airfare from Denver to San Antonio is pretty high. With Southwest moving into Denver in Januaury, I assumed fares would come down. They haven't because a flight from DEN to SAT on WN would require a trip through DAL. And, you guessed it, Colorado is outside the list of states accessible from DAL.

Why can't we lift restrictions and let the airlines duke it out on their own? The flying public will reward who can get them from point A to point B even if it means driving an extra 7 miles to the airport. Get real people.

Texas gets more annoying by the second.

Anyway as Madonna says...

If you don't like my attitude, then f-off
Just go to Texas
Isn't that where they golf?

Here are some links:

Anti-Wright: www.setlovefree.com

Pro-Wright: www.wrightalert.com