What a roller coaster of anticipation, disappointment, and elation the past two years have been (not to mention all the sleepless nights). Almost two years ago, our CEO, Gary Kelly, told the North Dallas Chamber of Commerce that we were no longer "passionately neutral" on the Wright Amendment, a federal law that has been the albatross around the neck of our Dallas service since 1979. In those ensuing two years, we mobilized our Employees, our Customers, our supporters, and those who believe in airline competition into a huge grass roots effort. Those efforts have included a petition drive, the establishment of our web site SetLoveFree.com, and a lot of hard (but enjoyable!) work of meeting and corresponding with individuals from all over the country.
Along the way, I have held my breath as almost every stage of this battle has seemed to come down to the last minute. If my hair wasn't already gray, it would be by now! But the late nights have been worth it because we can now, on a one-stop basis, connect our home, Dallas Love Field, with many of your favorite locations on our system. For details, please go here. As you look at our initial new service to outside what was the "Berlin Wall" of the Wright Amendment, please keep in mind that this is just the beginning. Even though Dallas is one of our three original cities, it is also a "new" city thanks to this legislation! Because we wanted to take immediate advantage of our new ability to serve the nation, we had to modify and tweak our existing service to be ready to go on "day one." In the near future, we will be able to start from scratch in writing our Dallas schedules to take better advantage of this new Freedom to Fly. Some of our unsung heroes are the folks in our Schedule Planning Department who have been working nonstop for several months to make this happen, and one of those heroes, Bill Owen (who is a wonderful writer and I know a favorite of yours), outlines those details below.
I also want to take this minute of my time in the "blogosphere" to answer those who feel we could and should have rejected this compromise in favor of pushing for immediate total repeal instead of the phased plan that was adopted by Congress. Given our druthers, while we would have LUVed to have gotten rid of the entire Wright Amendment all at once and sooner than later, each of the five parties (Dallas, Fort Worth, the DFW Airport, American, and Southwest) to the local agreement upon which this legislation is based had to cede some longheld positions. We also had to face the political reality that it is much easier to block legislation than pass it. (For proof of that, the bill that was passed had almost universal Congressional support, but it only passed in the waning minutes of the Congressional session prior to recessing for the November campaigns.)
Bottomline, we are hugely excited that we can now spread our wings from Love to far beyond the Wright Amendment's restrictions. I am eternally grateful to each of you who took time to pen a letter, sign a petition, or tell a friend about this important issue. Without you, this would never have happened-you have my profound thanks and LUV. You also have my personal invitation to fly to our newest and oldest city-please visit southwest.com and book your travel for flights beginning October 19 to and from Big D.
Comments
Way to go SWA! Just in time for the nba to start! Now I can fly to dallas to watch kobe and the lakers beat up on the mavericks!!!!
CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!!!!!
Colleen,
Now that we have your invitation to the Big D, how about a tour of HQ? :)
Congratulations to all involved in getting this accomplished, both legislatively and operationally.
While Wright is not only wrong, itÃ
Finally! LUV is FREE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Colleen,
Now it is time to "officially" say CONGRATULATIONS to you and all of my good friends at SWA. After many hard-fought battles that began when 'Air Southwest' and then 'Southwest Air' struggled to even get CAB approval to have the first wheels-up event, through the legal system to and from the U. S. Supreme Court and now finally, through the halls of Congress, Southwest and each of its Employees has been courageous, diligent and determined to exercise the full scope of what we know as the "free enterprise system". The opportunity to start a company and nurture it and reap the benefits of its success is a given in the American capitalistic society, and Southwest deserves the reward of having created a business that does an outstanding job of serving its Customers!
My kudos go to ALL of your Employees for their many years of putting up with onerous restrictions that have caused so many people to have to make so many gyrations in their travel itineraries with the assistance of your helpful folks. I can't imagine how many times SWA Employees all over the system have had to try to explain the Wright Amendment in person or over the phone to someone who didn't understand why they couldn't fly directly from Dallas Love Field to the majority of the cities in your route structure.
You've also stated very eloquently something that I've blogged about several times in the last few weeks. An elephant is much easier to eat one bite at a time. Yes, it would have been wonderful if all of the aspects of the Wright Amendment were to disappear on Thursday, but people in politics, as well as those of us in sales, have learned the adage of "be happy with what you can get." Compromise is not a word that folks like to embrace, but sometimes we take our journeys in a series of moves and not one giant step. I applaud the SWA management for being wise enough to settle for the agreement as it was carefully crafted. Eight years is a tough pill to swallow, but considering how long you've been operating under this restriction, I can say that I can now see a light at the end of the tunnel, and it is not an American Airlines plane barreling towards us!
As a stockholder, a Customer and an always interested observer of all things SWA, please accept my thank you as well, for having fought the good fight!
Kim :-)
Congradulations! It has been a long time coming.
As a former Res Agent for SWA I know how much SWA snd their customers
have wanted and needed for this to happen. It is so great!
I only wish that I was still an employee when it happened, maybe someday.
Well, I suppose it can be construed as a victory, but it still smells bad.
Since we don't want to wait any more for nonstop flights from Omaha to Dallas, we're just going to move to Kansas City. No, we aren't kidding.
Omaha's been a backwater city for Southwest since LUV came here, while KC has seen huge growth in both frequency and cities served.
So, as they say "Goin to Kansas City, Kansas City here we come"
Congratulations on all of the hard work and I cannot wait until I can start taking my favorite airline from DAL to destinations outside of the Wright 9!!! You are why I fly!
WOW!.......... Hallelujah!!!!!!!!!!!!!~
Finally the Wright amendment is GONE! Wright was so very WRONG!
As a business person who travels extensively and frequently to NYC and LA, I wish the 8 year plan (ridiculous) was not in place, but, I understand the importance of compromise and getting this terrible amendment abolished!
I have flown on SWA for vacations for years and have always LOVED the experience-from the moment I book the flight -it is a JOY! Printing out my boarding pass in advance (love that! and LOVE the A,B,C seating-don't change!).....to the marvelous employees who make the trip a pleasure....to the superb baggage handlers who HAVE NEVER LOST one of my bags (unlike another carrier!).....
Additionally, I live about 10 minutes from LOVE and LUV that I can get there in a cab for $10 vs. $50 a ride to DFW. I penned a rather lengthy letter to congress about how ludicrous it is to be in a city the size/sophistication of Dallas and to be forced to fly out of one airport. Additionally, for those of us who "bid" for projects - I became expert at explaining the WRIGHT amendment ........ imagine how embarrassing it is to try to explain to clients why the "Dallas" person on our staff costs more to travel to their destinations than our LA/NY people!
Finally the boss can go on SWA!!!!!!!! Yippee!!!!!!!!!!!!Pass the nuts!
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