US regional airline Continental Express has begun flying from Dallas/Love Field, becoming the latest carrier to join a surge of interest in the city's downtown airport despite legal attempts to stop the growth.
The airport has become a hotbed of controversy, with lawsuits and countersuits flying across Texas. In the latest development, the Dallas-Fort Worth Airport Board has filed lawsuits against Continental Airlines, the parent of Continental Express, and American Airlines to prevent them from providing interstate services from Love Field.
The dispute centres on the fact that DFW was developed as the area's main airport on the understanding that the two existing airports at Love Field and Fort Worth would fade away. To protect DFW, a perimeter rule was placed on Love Field preventing aircraft with more than 56 seats from flying into or out of Texas nonstop. A later amendment exempts the four contiguous states from the perimeter rule, but there remains much disagreement about how to interpret the purpose of that amendment - whether it was intended to loosen the restrictions or to prevent any further expansion from Love.
Continental Express has held leases on two gates at Love Field since 1994, but its seven daily roundtrips to Houston, begun on 11 June, and three daily roundtrips to Cleveland, to start on 1 July, are the first time it has made use of these gates. The airline's president, David Siegel, admits he was under pressure from Dallas city officials to use the gates or lose them. He adds that the acquisition of regional jets also made the airline look again at Love Field. 'We are able to do this now because we have the right product, whereas we used to have turboprops and didn't think they were right,' says Siegel.
Continental Express, a subsidiary of Continental Airlines, will use regional jets for all of its Love Field services and is installing jetways at its gates. Its flights are scheduled to dovetail with Continental's domestic and international services in and out of Houston and Cleveland. Analysts say it will most likely become a highly successful operation, given the link to Continental and the convenience of Love Field's downtown location.
American, meanwhile, is also planning to launch service from Love Field in August with 14 daily roundtrips to Austin, Texas. And startup Legend plans to launch service later this year flying Douglas DC-9s to other major Texan cities.
Southwest Airlines, which provides 14 daily services to Austin, an almost half-hourly service to Houston and nonstop service to several other cities, says it is not concerned about new competition and believes the resurgence of interest in Love Field will only help attract more business - something DFW's board of directors clearly would prefer not to happen.
Source: Airline Business
