Shoelu,
So your saying that LUV wants room at DFW and they couldn't get it due to AA? I think anyone willing to lease a gate is allowed into DFW.

Doesn't surprise me that LUV has taken the position that competition at DAL is not necessary.

This will mark the end of LUV pressuring the DOT to always give LUV slots that the majors have into airports that operate with slot rights.

With most of the consolidation over though, that ship has mostly sailed.

 

Ummmmmm really? DAL has effectively become a slot controlled airport. Just like DCA. Just like LGA. When Delta wanted to do a slot swap with LCC for gates between LGA and DCA, the gubbamint got involved and forced those carriers to give up slots to accommodate "competition". And you see no double standard there? Of course not. SWA can get gates at ATL and ORD.. it is just that they get their asses handed to them when they try....

 

Actually it is not due to AA directly, but due to the Wright repeal agreement signed by: SWA, AA, Dallas and Fort Worth, that Southwest must relinquish a gate at Love if they add one at DFW. There are no realistic expansion possibilities for SWA at DFW.

 

Update: Delta’s out at Love Field because Southwest will use 1 United gate, and United will add Houston flights

Update at 11:57 a.m. September 30: Delta Air Lines is being forced out of Dallas Love Field because Southwest Airlines is going to use one of United Airlines’ two gates at the airport, and because United has told the city it will increase its service in January. That’s according to a memo Ryan Evans, the city’s first assistant city manager, sent to Mayor Mike Rawlings and the Dallas City Council Tuesday morning — one day after the city’s aviation director gave Delta two weeks’ notice at the city-owned airport.

Southwest Airlines controls 16 of Love Field’s 20 gates. For now, at least, United has two gates, and American has two. For years, American has been subleasing its gates to Delta. But that deal ends Oct. 13, when those gates become property of Virgin America Airlines under the Department of Justice’s terms to allow American’s merger with US Airways.

Delta — and Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings — had been hopeful that Delta could still find a way to fly out of Love, especially given United offers only a handful of daily runs to Houston.

But, Evans said in his memo, “Delta Airlines has been unsuccessful in securing a sublease from any of the airlines currently leasing gates at Love Field. Per the Airport Use and Lease Agreement, Delta requested assistance from the City in securing a gate to operate flights after October 13th. Based on the increased number of flights, as well as the longer flights which may be affected to a greater extent by delays, United and Southwest ha[ve] entered into a Gate Use agreement which allows Southwest to operate from one of United’s gates. United Airlines has also notified the City that it intend[s] to increase service to 12 flights daily on January 7, 2015.”

United’s schedule shows 10 nonstops between Houston Intercontinental and Love Field beginning in early January. The current schedule through late December shows six or fewer flights per day.

“United has done a historically poor job of utilizing its gates,” council member Philip Kingston said. “United has provided the city with assurances the city has accepted that it will fully utilize the gates. We need to make sure we’re holding United to its assurances.”

Mark Duebner, Dallas’ director of aviation, says United will continue to fly only to Houston to connect with its hub, but “Things are ever-evolving.” He also says the Southwest-United gate-use agreement does not “contemplate anything beyond Jan. 6.” Which means …?

“I don’t now if United and Southwest will continue to have Southwest utilize some portion of United’s gate past that January date,” he says. Southwest, of course, wanted the American gate that Virgin will occupy beginning on Oct. 13.

According to Evans’ memo, the city tried to find Delta a spot at Love Field, but in the end, there was no room at the inn. However, he insists in his memo, “We look forward to working with Delta in the future and will continuously monitor the activity at Dallas Love Field in order to provide the best quality of service.”

Rawlings told the City Manager’s Office and city staff in May he wanted them to find room for Delta. For now, at least, that is not going to happen.

“We’re limited to 20 gates, and that was always because we wanted to make sure the impact of the airport on the surrounding community would stay neutral,” says Duebner. “Having more competition is a good thing. I would have hoped Delta could have reached an agreement with one of the airlines to continue to operate, but in the end they were unable to do so.”

Kingston voiced his displeasure with Delta’s forced departure from Love Field.

“I don’t know why we can’t demand better,” he said. “I don’t understand how this proposal satisfied the five-party agreement that all gates be fully utilized.”

 

So it's no surprise that Delta Airlines isn't going to tip its cap to Dallas City Hall and say "so long and thanks" after the city's aviation director told the airline it would no longer be accommodated at Love Field.
As Robert Wilonsky reported Wednesday, the city is saying that this was a failure among airlines, specifically United, Delta and Southwest, to come to an agreement over some subleases.
Delta doesn't see it that way and, in one of those letters you never want to get, told the city so yesterday.
"Denying Delta's continued access to DAL violates the City's obligations under Section 4.06 of the Amended and Restated Lease of Terminal Building Premises, the Five Party Agreement, the City's recent promise to accommodate Delta, its commitment in its Airline Competition Plan field with the Federal Aviation Administration to accommodate Delta and other new entrants at DAL, its Airport Improvement Program grant assurances and Federal Law," a letter from attorney Kenneth P. Quinn states.
Whew. And I left out the parentheticals.
It's pretty clear that this will not be settled at the airport but in a courtroom. I dare not wade into who will win that fight.
But this has all the hallmarks of another job mishandled at City Hall. It doesn't look like the letter to Delta passed through the hands of any elected officials before it was sent to the company. The short notice to depart was less than gracious to the traveling public who might have, perhaps, paid for tickets into or out of Love more than two weeks in advance.
The legal issues will be settled in time. But someone at City Hall has to stop and see that this is no way to run the shop at 1500 Marilla.

 

...A change in plans.....how much you wanna bet they stay longer than just the end of the year?

Delta Air Lines will be able to remain at Dallas Love Field through the end of the year | Dallas Morning News

 

This actually does make sense. Delta sold those tickets in good faith and before they knew the final decision of the dumbasses in Dallas. Now if DAL continues to sell tickets beyond the end of the year that is another story.

 

Well, this has potentially played out in my favor for November....

Just announced an extension to the ATL717 bid window, due to 24 additional ATL-DAL pairings.

 

Nice!

Yeah it kind of rang hollow to cry about the loss of LUV gates, its so important of a market etc while operating a tiny sliver of the old DFW ops and only putting a few RJ's into LUV. This at least backs up DL's effort to possibly keep service there.

 

Whatever happened with this? Delta is still operating at Love so I assume they came to some long term agreement?