During the recent Texas International Airlines strike, the Texas Aeronautics Commission has been scratching its bureaucratic head wondering what to do about a little Dallas-based outfit named Apollo Airlines. While TI was on strike, Apollo, whose principal owner is Dallas Cowboy Bob Hayes, appeared out of nowhere, leased several airplanes and began hauling former TI passengers between D-FW and Abilene-San Angelo.
The problem boils down to this: the Texas Aeronautics Commission is charged with regulating intrastate, scheduled airlines. Clearly Apollo operates intrastate; but is it a scheduled airline? If Apollo is a scheduled airline, it must go before the TAC for certification – something the airline hasn’t done.
The TAC ever-so-slowly began looking into the matter of whether Apollo was operating illegally. The commission has defended to the death the principle of public convenience, by standing up for Southwest Airlines’ right to fly out of Love Field, while the cities of Dallas and Fort Worth, plus a whole host of major airlines, tried to force Southwest out of Love Field. How could the TAC, in the name of public convenience, shut down Apollo’s ad hoc operation and leave Permian Basin passengers stranded with no air service to D-FW? So the TAC wheels turned at a snail’s pace, in hopes the TI strike would be settled before long.
Meanwhile Apollo was doing its part in this political minuet by making sure it didn’t look too much like a scheduled airline. Apollo didn’t publish schedules, although anyone could telephone and find out when flights departed for Abilene or San Angelo. Since Apollo couldn’t advertise, Hayes spent a couple of days a week out at D-FW making sure the major air carriers knew that their passengers could fly Apollo from D-FW to Abilene or San Angelo.
Texas International found itself in the odd position of not really wanting to challenge Apollo’s operation, because if TI did, then Apollo might just go get certificated and then TI would have some competition in West Texas. (The TAC recently granted Southwest Airlines routes into South Texas, breaking a TI monopoly there, so the commission’s position on monopoly breaking seems clear.)
Apollo incorporated several years ago, after Hayes purchased a small aircraft for his personal use, and began leasing it occasionally to other Cowboy players. After the TI strike began last December, Apollo really got off the ground by leasing three more aircraft, making four runs daily to Abilene and three a day to San Angelo. The route is potentially lucrative – the latest available Civil Aeronautics Board figures report 63,000 passengers made the Abilene – D-FW run in a year. Three-quarters of those passengers flew on from D-FW, so the major carriers appreciate Apollo’s feeder service.
Apollo has been operating with TI pilots, maintenance men and ground crews, after making a gentlemen’s agreement with TI that when the strike ended, Apollo would vanish. The TAC is counting on Apollo’s vanishing too.
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