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Deregulation delayed is deregulation denied: appealing the Wright Amendment.

Article Excerpt
Academics and historians trace the beginnings of deregulation to the 1961 Doyle Report. On June 26, 1961, the United States Senate Committee on Commerce issued a staff report on National Transportation Policy, commonly known as the Doyle Report, which concluded that regulatory policy "has produced a general program of preserving the status quo which is in direct opposition to the overall objective of a dynamic transportation system which can best serve the economy and defense of the country."

The financial plight of air carriers and consolidation within the industry occasionally opens renewed discussion of re-regulating the industry. However, a segment of the industry has remained regulated under the Wright Amendment. The debate regarding the repeal of the Wright Amendment and proposed replacement legislation provides a unique microcosm for examining the effects of regulating air passenger transportation. The proposed legislation would place even greater restrictions on competition between the nation's largest and third largest air carriers (Air Transport Association 2005) and affect passenger traffic at the sixth largest airport in the world (Airports Council International 2006).

WRIGHT AMENDMENT BACKGROUND

In 1968 the cities of Dallas and Fort Worth agreed to build a regional airport to replace Love Field and adopted measures to phase out other local airports in order to transfer activity to the new airport, which was later named Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport (DFWIA). The airlines serving Love Field at the time pledged to move to the new airport. Southwest Airlines had only begun efforts to receive approval to initiate regional service using Love Field in 1967. Following a Texas Supreme Court decision, and affirmed by the U.S. Supreme Court, Southwest Airlines began service on June 18, 1971, operating flights between Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio using four planes out of Love Field while DFWIA was being constructed.

The Airline Deregulation Act of 1978 (Pub. L. No. 95-504) established a national policy favoring competition over regulation as the means of determining where an airline could operate. Congress acknowledged that open competition was the best means for determining air routes and fares. In 1979 Southwest Airlines began "interstate" service to New Orleans out of Love Field over the objections of the cities of Dallas and Fort Worth, DFWIA, other related constituent groups, and competing airlines. Southwest Airlines received a ruling from the U.S. Civil Aeronautics Board that decreed it could operate from Love Field for intrastate and interstate flights (Farris and Swartz, Transportation Journal 2006).

Despite a national trend toward deregulation, several actions were set in motion to ensure operations at Love Field remained regulated. An amendment to H.R.5481, the International Air Transportation...

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