LOVE FIELD

When Lt. Moss Lee Love climbed into his flimsy flight trainer in a field near San Diego on a September day in 1913, he never imagined it would be his last flight. When his plane crashed dial day he left a legacy that would later become one of Dallas’ greatest economic assets. Of course that legacy is Love Field, an economic generator that annually pumps more than $3 billion into Dallas and its suburbs.

There is no record that Moss Lee Love ever even set foot in Dallas. The airport thai bears his name was pastureland until four years after Love died in his trainer.

Love, a young U.S. Army officer from Virginia, had transferred to the Army’s new aviation branch four months before his final flight. Four years and one month later, the Army honored him by naming a muddy field northwest of Dallas in his name.

The Army wanted a field to train pilots for World War I and had negotiated the lease and subsequent purchase of some farm land near Bachman Lake through a group of Dallas businessmen. Love Field was born as a training field.

Today, Love Field is an economic jewel providing convenient passenger air service to more than five million people a year. It is also a major industrial complex bringing in customers from every corner of the world for services to their aircraft. Everything from overnight tie-down and refueling to major engine overhauls and completion of “green’” airplanes right out of the factory goes on at Love Field.

“We are really two airports: one for the airline passenger with Southwest (Airlines) and the improvements we have made there,’’ said Director of Aviation Danny L. Bruce, speaking of a recent $14 million parking garage and terminal building facelift program thai brought the city’s close-in airport up to dale. “The other one is a major industrial complex with some of the finest work in the world going on here in maintenance and finishing work,” he said. “People literally come here from all over the world because of the quality of work that is done here.’”

Unlike an automobile which arrives at the dealer complete with upholstery, factory extras and other amenities, airplanes rolling off the assembly lines of the world’s corporate aviation airframe manufacturers for the most part come “green.” They are completed airframes with engines integrated into the system. But amenities such as paint, interiors and much of the equip-ment have usually not been installed.

Companies like KC Aviation, Jet East and others take green airframes and turn them into the flying corporate offices that make up the fleet of airplanes used by some of the country’s most prosperous businesses.

And, while Love Field has enjoyed a level of success in commercial passenger airline service few dreamed possible after D/FW Airport opened 15 years ago, Love Field’s less visible strength is as a corporate and general aviation airport.

When most people think of Love Field, they think of Southwest Airlines, Bruce said. For an obvious reason: Southwest brings nearly three million people to the city’s ’”front” door at Love Field every year. Bui there’s more to Love Field than meets the eye.

A recent airport tenant list contains a total of 82 companies doing business on the field. Space does not permit mentioning all of them, but some of the larger ones include the following:

Aviall is a Dallas-based corporation engaged in repair and overhaul services of turbine engines used in commercial airlines, government and business aircraft and worldwide distribution of aircraft parts and supplies. It also provides “fixed base operator” (FBO) services – fuel, repair, hangar and tiedown, etc , for the business aircraft market.

KC Aviation, a division of Dallas-based Kimberly- Clark Corporation, is a completion center for all heavy jet aircraft and a turbine-engine maintenance and overhaul facility. Administration for both the Dallas and Wisconsin activities are handled in Dallas.

Associated Air Center provides customizing and maintenance for ’’transport category” aircraft “from Gulfstreams to Boeings.”’ and helicopters. Services include interiors, avionics repair and airframe services.

Jet East began life with a single charier airplane in 1975 and today provides charter services, airframe and engine parts, fuel and hangar services and heavy maintenance including avionics repair. It also serves as a major completion center and has an active sales and leasing program dealing in resale of used aircraft.

Dalfort Aviation provides airframe repair, overhaul and modification for narrowbody commercial aircraft. It also provides fueling, components and simulator training for Boeing 727 and 747 aircraft.

Daljet is a full-service FBO providing fueling, tiedown and hangar services for the airplane and complete itinerant services for the flight crew and their passengers including pilots lounge and office facilities. Aircraft maintenance includes turbine overhaul and avionics repair.

Citijet provides ground handling and fueling for transient aircraft and hangar, storage, office and shop space for tenant aviation departments of other companies. Citijet also provides aircraft catering for inflight food and beverage service, has a public restaurant and bar and has recently gone in the business of brokering the sale ol’ new and used aircraft.

AOA stands for Aviation Office of America, one of the world’s major insurance companies and the second largest tenant of the terminal building after Southwest Airlines. It provides hull physical damage insurance, passenger liability coverage and insurance for airlines, airports and aviation products.

Texas Aero Tech is an FAA and VA approved training facility which turns out fully qualified A&P (airframe and powerplant) mechanics for the major and commuter airlines, corporate and general aviation in a school accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and the Texas Education Association. The school, which currently enrolls some 650 students, also provides die facility for all FAA A&P testing.

Dobbs House operates all general merchandise retail stores and pit shops in the passenger terminal and all food and beverage service including one restraurant. a buffet, two snack bars and the cocktail lounge. It also operates a game room in the terminal building.

Braniff Airways is the corporate headquarters for the airline that rose from the ashes of its predecessor’s bankruptcy. While an announcement is expected soon on a relocation of the executive offices to another city, the reservations and accounting activities will remain at Love Field.

History of Aviation Collection is the largest repository of aviation research material outside the Smithsonian Institution^ Air and Space Museum in Washington. D.C., currently located at the University of Texas al Dallas in Richardson. A fund drive is underway to move me artifacts portion of the collection to the mezzanine in the Love Field lobby.

Southwest Airlines was left to last, not because it is least but because it is the tenant nearly everyone thinks about. And with good reason. In 1974, there were widespread predictions of doom for Love Field. If all airlines except for a tiny upstart called Southwest Airlines were going to move to D/FW, what future could there be for Love Field? Should we make it into a junior college? some mused, Maybe a shopping center would be nice. It certainly can’t be an airport without airlines, right?

Wrong! Not only was the airport already one of die top corporate aviation airports in the world, but Southwest Airlines took off like few outside the corporate offices of the new carrier could possibly imagine. Southwest had found a niche in the market consisting of business travelers who wanted fast, frequent connections in short-haul markets. The airline was almost immediately cited as an example of the success of the new startup airlines spawned by airline deregulation. Deregulation, of course, came along seven years after Southwest began service but in the debate over its passage. Southwest was frequently cited as an example of what could be accomplished by getting the government out of business s corporate offices.

Southwest rapidly grew to become one of the nation’s premier commuter airlines with its well-deserved reputation for rapid turnarounds, on-time departures and reduced-rate air travel in the markets if serves. It’s commit-ment to Love Field was manifest in its recent announcement that it is building a $16 million. 250.000-square-fool corporate headquarters on the northwest coiner of the airport near its training and maintenance facilities.

While there has been a reduction m Love Field’s business over the past couple of years, Bruce feels certain the tide is changing. “I see us coming back to when’ we were in 1985,” says the 44-year old director of aviation who a year ago jumped piggy-back by parachute to deliver a pair of scissors to Mayor Annette Strauss for the ribbon-cutting ceremony on the terminal improvements.

“We are working with D/FW, COG (the North Central Texas Council of Governments) and the city of Fort Worth on a study of whether there is a demand for another airport as a reliever to D/FW” he said. “Hien the site selection will he in Phase II. That will he 15 years away if it is going to happen.”

Bruce said the worldwide growth in passenger travel in recent years, in-chiding that at D/FW, indicates an upward trend in passengers but Love Field is limited in the growth it can expect.

“With the Wright Amendment, the only way for Southwest to grow is with its existing markets.’ he said. “Southwest has no plans, so far as I know, to add any cities. They pretty much serve all the cities within the five stales that they likely would serve so the only growth in passengers would be what growth occurs in those cities.”

The Wright Amendment was negotiated among U.S. House Speaker Jim Wright of Fort Worth and officiate at D/FW Airport and the two cities. It was agreed that no airline from Love Field would be able to fly beyond Texas and the four contiguous states, New Mexico. Oklahoma. Arkansas and Louisiana, and would not engage in interlining with other airlines. (Interlining is an agreement that allows a passenger to travel on more than one carrier on a single transaction.)

Southwest Chairman Herb Kelleher said the amendment limits new markets the airline might serve and that m order tor Love Field to grow, “substantial” improvements in the economy must be made. But he said there are some tentative signs thai is beginning to happen.

’”We saw the first helpful telltale signs last August when for the first time in quite a while the traffic was up year to year over the preceding August,” he said. “The future for Love Field is good but it won’t be the meteoric growth that it has had in the past.”

He said a study of another new airport to relieve D/FW is a good idea and is hopeful the airline will be allowed to provide input for the study because that input will be helpful.

With D/FW seemingly bulging at the seams with more traffic than it really wants, is there any need for the Wright Amendment to continue in existence.?

“We have talked about it occasionally,” Bruce said. “It is a very sensitive area. But I don’t believe it is as sensitive with D/FW as it used to be. It looks like with the success of D/FW and the growth they have had, I don’t think there is any capacity issue with them.”

Bruce said the environmental issue at Love Field is somewhat more sensitive but Love Field has been recognized as an international example ol’ what can be accomplished in community relations as a result of its voluntary noise abatement program.



People agree that the noise level has dropped significantly in recent years, due largely to the incorporation of so-called “stage-three,, aircraft into the fleet.

One of the happy spinoffs of modem technology occurs inside a jet engine. As newer engines have gotten more powerful and more fuel-efficient making them attractive to aircraft operators, they have also gotten noticeably quieter. No one who has watched the new Boeing 737-300 pass overhead could argue that it is not quieter by far than its earlier version, the 737-200.

Similar advances are being made in the corporate fleet and Love Field is becoming a better neighbor every day.

And who knows its true worth to the community it serves? An economic impact study was made in 1983 which revealed that the airport contributed some $2.9 billion – that’s billion with a “B” – to the community.



It could be argued thai the recession has cut into thai figure and the impact could be a bit less than $2.9 billion. Bui it could be argued just as forcefully thai airport economic impact studies have shown ever-increasing values and with the development thai has occurred at the airport the figures should be considerably higher. A new economic impact statement is due to be released in January covering all the airports in the metroplex, a joint project of the North Central Texas Council of Governments, the FÀA and local authorities. While the results could not be released al this writing, the figures relating to Love Field, at least, were expected to be “consistent1’ with the 1983 figures, a source close to the study said.

One tiling is for sure: Love Field will continue to play a vital role in die economic growth and importance of Dallas as one of the world’s greatest cities. It is an economic gem in the already-brilliant tiara that adonis the east bank of the Trinity River.