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Cities Will Offer Wright Plan: Compromise Delayed As Mayors, Airlines Weigh Tradeoffs

Posted on: Thursday, 15 June 2006, 03:00 CDT

By Emily Ramshaw and Suzanne Marta, The Dallas Morning News

Jun. 15--Dallas' deadline for reaching a joint-city agreement on the Wright amendment came and went Wednesday, with no formal announcement from the Dallas and Fort Worth mayors, or the cities' respective airlines.

But Dallas Mayor Laura Miller and Fort Worth Mayor Mike Moncrief appeared to have a compromise, one that seems to have the fragile support of both Fort Worth-based American Airlines Inc. and Dallas' Southwest Airlines Co.

That agreement is scheduled to be announced at noon today at a news conference at the Grand Hyatt Hotel at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport.

For Southwest, sources close to the negotiations said, agreeing to a compromise represents a balancing act to free Dallas Love Field from long-haul flight restrictions without getting boxed in with overly restrictive terms.

For American, they said, the sticking point is whether it can trust that Southwest and members of Congress will be bound by the agreement. It wants to make sure that Southwest and its friends in Congress don't try to pick apart the deal in the coming years.

In March, North Texas lawmakers asked Dallas and Fort Worth to craft a local solution to the 1979 Wright law, which limits commercial service at Love to a nine-state region.

But whatever the cities decide, the airlines can continue their appeals on Capitol Hill. And lawmakers, who will make the final verdict on the Wright law, have already expressed doubts about the reported terms of the compromise, which include capping the airport's gates at 20 and lifting the bulk of Love Field's flight restrictions in 2014.

The current terms would also allow immediate through-ticketing, letting Love Field passengers fly anywhere in the country if they first stop in a Wright state.

While American and Southwest's chief executives, speaking before analysts at a transportation conference in New York, both declined to discuss the compromise in detail, they indicated that they were still vetting the mayors' compromise -- while looking at the bigger congressional picture.

"I'm keeping my fingers crossed that, indeed, the anti-competitive, anti-consumer, antiquated Wright amendment is finally repealed here," said Southwest's Gary Kelly.

"In the end, this won't be decided by either American or Southwest," said American's Gerard Arpey. "It will be decided by the politicians. So we'll make the best case that we can and the politicians will decide where it ends up."

On Wednesday evening, a senior American official said that negotiations were "going swimmingly," and that airline officials will attend the news conference if invited. Southwest also plans to attend, officials said.

When asked if Fort Worth officials would be at the news conference, Mayor Moncrief said, "We'll see you tomorrow."

The day began with what looked like bad news: Ms. Miller canceled a noon news conference to unveil a joint-city Wright agreement and postponed a scheduled Dallas City Council vote on the compromise.

But her office soon confirmed that a resolution was close. City officials said the two mayors and two airlines were in agreement but wanted to give attorneys time to vet the details.

Ms. Miller and other key negotiators spent Wednesday meeting with senior airline officials to fine-tune the details of the compromise -- one that sources say has evolved slightly in the last two days.

Under the agreement, most flight restrictions at Love Field would be left in place for eight years, a city official said.

That moratorium was originally set at nine years -- a timetable, a city official said, that was seen as a win for American. It was changed to eight years to try to appease Southwest, the official said.

Southwest would get 16 gates, and American and Continental Airlines Inc. would each get two. The remaining 12 gates would be demolished, sources close to the negotiations said.

An individual deeply involved in the negotiations said Tuesday that although the terms don't force American to leave the city airport, "they give them a graceful way to bow out of Love." If American were to leave, one official said, its two gates would be shared between other airlines.

For Southwest, these terms would represent a victory in its long-term goal of seeing Wright repealed -- even if it takes eight years.

The discounter maintained throughout the debate that its ultimate goal was to jettison the law.

The mayors' proposal puts both American and Southwest in difficult positions. Both assert they have momentum on their side on Capitol Hill. But a locally crafted bill, even one that neither side embraces, could close the door on the issue.

And for Southwest, failing to reach a compromise could give the carrier a label it has lobbed at rival American during the last few weeks: obstructionist.

A city official said Wednesday that American has made "significant strides" toward embracing the mayors' Wright compromise.

"We've been meeting with the mayors in an ongoing fashion, and today is no exception," said American spokesman Roger Frizzell, who declined to discuss specifics.

Meanwhile, Southwest spent Wednesday hunkered down in negotiations and was unusually quiet.

Southwest spokesman Ed Stewart said that's because there's "nothing decided yet."

Two other potential terms were in flux on Wednesday evening.

One city official briefed on the mayors' compromise said the agreement will probably include development or demolition projects at Love Field that would force the city to raise landing fees.

A source close to the negotiations said Mayor Miller warned senior Southwest officials that landing fees will be raised no matter what the compromise stipulates.

Meanwhile, another source close to the negotiations said there were terms being discussed that would limit Southwest to 16 gates across the region -- and force the airline to give up its gates at Love if it ever chose to operate out of other local airports, including D/FW or Fort Worth's Meacham and Alliance. The official said these terms would be in effect until 2025.

Staff writers Robert Dodge in Washington and Terry Maxon in Dallas contributed to this report.

E-mail eramshaw@dallasnews.com and smarta@dallasnews.com

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Copyright (c) 2006, The Dallas Morning News

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Source: The Dallas Morning News

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