You can thank Jim Wright, former speaker of the house from Fort Worth, for attaching the Wright Amendment to the International Air Transportation Act of 1979 to protect D/FW from losing business. Wright pushed through the Amendment, limiting Love to non-stop flights within Texas and to Louisiana, Arkansas, Oklahoma and New Mexico.

In October of 2006, President Bush signs a bill that fully repealed the Wright Amendment. Southwest, American, D/FW and the cities of Dallas and Fort Worth all agree to the repeal, but on several conditions, including that the Wright zone restrictions stay intact until 2014, lowering Love Field's maximum gate capacity to 20 from 32 and keeping Love a domestic airport only.

American operates out of 134 of the 165 gates at DFW, a larger percentage of total gates than SWA operates out of Love.