SWA to codeshare out of DFW
 

Dallas Business Journal - 2:46 PM CST Thursday

Southwest to sell flights on ATA out of D/FW Airport

Southwest Airlines will expand its ATA Airlines codeshare agreement to include ATA flights from Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport to Chicago Midway beginning in January, Southwest said Thursday.

Southwest (NYSE: LUV) began a codeshare agreement with ATA in February. The agreement, which allows the two airlines to sell seats on each other's flights, did not include D/FW Airport.

Southwest, which began flying from Dallas Love Field to St. Louis and Kansas City Missouri this week, said the expanded codeshare agreement will allow Southwest customers to book flights on any of ATA's three, daily, non-stop flights from D/FW Airport to many destinations in the Southwest System by connecting at Chicago Midway.

The new service will be available Jan. 3 with flights to begin Jan. 11.

Southwest customers will now be able to connect at Chicago Midway and fly on to Albany, N.Y.; Baltimore/Washington; Cleveland, Ohio; Detroit; Raleigh/Durham; Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Pa., and other cities.

Southwest has 196 daily departures from Chicago Midway.

"Southwest still has no interest in splitting our operation between Dallas Love Field and D/FW Airport," said Southwest CEO Gary Kelly. "We will continue our efforts to repeal the anti-consumer, anti-competitive Wright Amendment, which restricts our Love Field service. Given the success Southwest has had with the ATA codeshare agreement in other cities, along with the route restructuring under way at ATA, and the progress we've made in repealing the Wright Amendment, it now makes sense to add D/FW Airport to our list of codeshare cities."

Southwest, last year, began a battle to have the Wright Amendment repealed. Wright is a 1979 federal law that limits flights from Love Field to short haul service to a few surrounding states. Last month, President Bush signed a transportation appropriations bill, which included a provision that exempted Missouri from Wright restrictions. On Tuesday, Southwest began operating four daily flights from Love Field to both St. Louis and Kansas City.

Fort Worth-based American Airlines (NYSE: AMR), the fortress carrier at D/FW Airport, responded by announcing it would begin in March operating flights out of Love Field for the first time since the 9/11 attacks.