Dear FrontBurnervians, my in-box is flooded with emails on both sides of the issue. I can’t post them all, but here’s one that explains why the author wants the Wright Amendment repealed. The subject line? “Why I want the Wright Amendment repealed.”
Ever try to get to Vegas from Dallas for cheap? I just logged on to Southwest’s web site and Expedia.com and priced a five-day airfare to Vegas from Dallas and Houston. Here are the results:
$238 — Continental roundtrip from IAH (Intercontinental)
$324 — Airtran roundtrip from DFW
$379 — Southwest roundtrip from Hobby
$424 — American roundtrip from DFW
$501 — American roundtrip from IAH with 1-stop (no directs from Houston)
My first thoughts: Who in their right mind would spend $501 to fly AA from Houston to Vegas via DFW when you can fly Continental, direct for less than half the price? Why is Southwest not competitive with Continental? Why is American not competitive with Airtran, or anyone else for that matter? This doesn’t guarantee that Southwest would be cheaper to Vegas, but at least they’d be competitive. As it stands right now, American doesn’t want to be competitive because they don’t have to be competitive.
The logical solution involves some type of sharing agreement between all interested airlines. Southwest would have to give up a few gates at Love and take on a few gates at DFW.
