Whole New Era: Southwest Airlines Expected To Announce DFW Service Next Month, Up To 23 Flights

by Gary Leff

airport
Mar 29 2024

The airline’s founding was all about its refusal to fly out of DFW airport. Their intra-Texas model depended on short commutes to the airport. The DFW Metroplex has evolved substantially over the past 50 years, and Dallas – Fort Worth it itself a closer airport to much of the population.

And Southwest can’t grow at Love Field anymore, in part because no one can given the reduction in gates there that handed the carrier a near-monopoly. So DFW growth now makes sense, and they’re likely to jump in just as soon as they’re able.

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Small City Air Subsidies Were Supposed To End In 1988. Instead, Congress Is About To Triple Them.

by Gary Leff

Mar 29 2024

The Essential Air Service program was created in the late 1970s as a temporary measure to soften the blow of deregulation. It provided for a ’10 year transition’ period in which small community service could receive subsidies. And it’s the perfect example of the old axiom that there’s nothing as permanent in life as a temporary government program. The program was supposed to end in 1988.

Instead, the Senate’s FAA reauthorization bill includes a tripling of funding for the program going forward.

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