The repeal of the Wright Amendment marked a turning point for Dallas Love Field and Southwest Airlines, reshaping the airline’s route network and operational strategy. A recent study published in Manufacturing & Service Operations Management by Vishal Ahuja, Yasin Alan, and Mazhar Arıkan finds that it was hugely beneficial for consumers.

New Non-stop Flights Reduced Travel Times

The Wright Amendment, enacted in 1979, restricted nonstop flights from Love Field to most U.S. destinations, effectively channeling long-haul traffic to Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport.

When Southwest Airlines launched, a key element of its strategy to pull traffic from the roads and onto its planes was use of the close-in Dallas airport. Existing carriers had agreed to shift their operations tot he new DFW airport, however Southwest was bound by no such agreement. Other airlines sued to stop them, but couldn’t, so they turned to Congress to competition.

Initially Southwest could fly only to contiguous states, but that was relaxed over time. The eventual repeal allowed Southwest Airlines to introduce nonstop service to major destinations, slashing travel times for local passengers by an average of 79 minutes for new destinations.

That also meant fewer long delays (roughly speaking, reducing from two flights to one to reach a destination cuts in half the risk of delay and cancellation). However, as Love Field traffic grew, passengers traveling to previously-allowable short haul non-stop destinations were made slightly worse off from the congestion.

The authors developed innovative metrics—”route inefficiency” and “route resilience”—to analyze the impact of route changes. These metrics revealed how factors like travel distance, airport congestion, and itinerary structure shaped the outcomes of the repeal. For example, introducing nonstop flights not only benefited direct passengers but also improved connections to other destinations by optimizing layover patterns.

New Anti-Competitive Barriers Were Erected

The authors’ conclusion about the benefits of Wright Amendment repeal areundoubtedly correct, but the situation at Dallas Love Field is a bit more complicated.

• As part of the 2006 five party agreement that led to phasing out Wright Amendment restrictions by 2014, the number of gates at Love Field was legally reduced from 32 to 20. That’s left Southwest with a virtual monopoly at the airport, controlling 18 of 20 gates. (Southwest loved the increased control of Love Field, while American Airlines loved that Love Field flights would compete less with their own DFW service.)
  
• Southwest has also been unable to expand to DFW airport, because under the agreement starting new service at DFW would require relinquishing gates at Love Field.

On net, we’ve seen significant passenger growth at Love Field since the repeal of Wright Amendment restrictions, despite reduced airport capacity. At the same time, we’ve also seen even greater growth at DFW airport (in number of passengers, but not in percentage terms), where there were no such restrictions. Some of the Love Field passenger growth would likely have happened anyway.

The legally mandated reduction in Love Field capacity led to an interesting takings case. The old Legend Airlines 6-gate terminal on Lemmon Avenue was leased from the city. They evicted the leaseholders and demolished the terminal, turning part of the land into a Lincoln dealership.

• The taking was interesting in the first instance because it was land already owned by the city – eminent domain was used to cancel a lease.
  
• A court awarded $133.5 million to Love Terminal Partners for the taking of their property.
  
• However, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit overturned the award. Since the gates weren’t being used (given the reduction from 32 to 20 allowed at the airport), they weren’t making money on the gates and would only become profitable with a change in law allowing expansion. They held that future changes in law shouldn’t be taken into account when valuing a property. Therefore, with no profit lost, there was no compensation due — property owners aren’t entitled to compensation for worthless property.
  
• Richard Epstein pointed out in 2019 that the Lemmon Avenue terminal had value which is precisely why American and Southwest wanted it destroyed. And at the time Love Terminal Partners was in negotiations with Pinnacle Airlines (now a subsidiary of Delta) to sell the facility. Other economic actors saw its potential value as well.

Unfortunately, the Supreme Court denied cert in that case. It shocks the conscience, I think, that the ‘public purpose’ for which six gates at Love Field were taken by the government was… Planet Lincoln.