This month marks the 46th anniversary of Dallas/Love Field being subject to restrictions through a series of federal laws. The chance of big changes occurring that would enable further growth seems extremely unlikely, and that’s being generous. Yet in the airport’s latest use and lease agreement, it lays out some plans to do just that. I doubt that we’ll ever see this happen, but it sure is fun to ponder.
In 1979, the US Congress passed the mythical Wright Amendment which blocked airlines from using Love Field to fly anywhere but within Texas or to the four neighboring states. The idea was to support the use of Dallas/Fort Worth which opened five years earlier. Love was so much closer to Dallas that they should have really just shut the airport down. But since all the airlines then operating agreed to move over to DFW, it must not have seemed all that important to close just to inconvenience some private jets. It wasn’t until upstart Southwest decided to stay at Love that the outrage grew. That led us to the Wright Amendment.
The Wright Amendment was shockingly heavy-handed. Not only could airlines not fly beyond those states, but they couldn’t even sell tickets with a connection beyond. (There was an exception for aircraft with 56 seats or less, and that’s how a Legend was born.) The Shelby Amendment to the Wright Amendment was added in 1997 to add a couple of new states, including Missouri, but it wasn’t until the 2000s when Southwest decided it was time to blow the whole thing up. It wanted to be able to do more, so it started to push hard.
It was 2006 when the legendary Five-Party Agreement was signed between Southwest, American, Dallas, Fort Worth, and DFW Airport which would make sweeping changes once Congress passed it. This allowed through-ticketing and set the stage for all the restrictions to be abolished in 2014 after an eight-year wait. But there were tradeoffs.
- DFW would remain the only commercial airport with international service in the Metroplex
- Love would be “limited permanently to a maximum of 20 gates” which couldn’t be creatively subdivided to increase capacity
- Southwest would get 16 gates, American 2 gates, and Expressjet 2 gates
- Love would have a voluntary noise curfew from 11pm to 6am every night
- Southwest could not fly or codeshare from another airport within 80 miles of Love without relinquishing gates at Love until 2025 when this provision expires
- American had the same restriction as Southwest, though it could obviously keep flying to DFW without losing Love gates
- The five parties involved agreed to “oppose any legislative effort that is inconsistent with the terms” of the agreement
With that, it would seem pretty iron-clad, no? Yes, this year marks the end of the restriction on flying to other airports in the Metroplex. Southwest has been expected to go into DFW at some point, and other airports have hoped to woo service away from the main airports in the region. Perhaps that is why Love Field is feeling a little bolder than it might otherwise be.
In the new Airline Use and Lease Agreement (AULA) which officially goes into effect on October 1, 2028, Love starts to sound pretty aggressive. It is already talking about the Love Field Expansion Airport Program (LEAP) which is in the “conceptual planning stage.” In this project, it will build a new headhouse on top of the existing garage A. (Think of it kind of like what they did at Midway back in the day when they moved the headhouse further outside the existing footprint to give more space, so get ready for a long walk to the gates.) The lease says that it can spend up to $800 million that will hit the airline rate base without any further airline approval.
Other than the new headhouse (shown as T1 below), there is also a project to expand the concourse by 50 feet to the north (T2) to make more room for existing gates and for an airline lounge. T3 expands the central utility plant, and A1 and A2 both create more ramp space for aircraft parking overnight. (The other projects are not airline-related.)
Beyond all the usual rental terms, we find in 4.12(b) some interesting language.
In the event that the City determines, in its sole and absolute discretion to seek, support, or not oppose, a change to federal law eliminating such Gate limits, Airline agrees that it will not take any action to oppose or hinder (or support an opposition to) such change.
It goes on to say that, if the laws change to allow it, Southwest (it is the only airline that qualifies as a “Majority-in-Interest” or “MII” at the airport) will allow the airport to build either 4, 8, or 12 additional gates without any further approval as long as the cost stays under $50 million per gate. If the airport builds 4 gates, Southwest gets 3. If it builds 8 gates, Southwest gets 6. And if it builds 12 gates, Southwest gets 8.
What the heck is Dallas thinking here? This seems to go against the whole Five-Party Agreement. I asked Southwest for a statement on this, and it was predictably non-committal but certainly not interested in pushing for expansion.
Southwest is not involved in any efforts to change the provisions of the current law, which caps the number of gates at Love Field at 20. We will continue to engage with the City of Dallas as it plans for the long-term future of the airport to ensure a positive experience for Southwest Customers.
I don’t doubt that the time is right if someone wanted to try and overturn it. I can’t imagine this Congress would have any objections (to anything, really). And Texas is in this current regime’s good graces. So if there was ever a time to push something through, this would probably be it.
But it seems pretty clear to me that the current Five-Party Agreement requires each party to fight against any overturning of the 20 gate limit. If Dallas is going to buck that, then this is just going to sit in court forever. It hardly seems worth the fight, but clearly the airport is cooking up plans in case it’s feeling spicy.
