Will Start DAL Operations In March 2006

American Airlines has announced its plans for Dallas's Love Field, matching Southwest Airlines' service from the airport to St. Louis and Kansas City, as well as adding two intrastate flights to San Antonio and Austin.

The move, which was previously reported in Aero-News, comes at the expense of several routes American previously flew out of its hub at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport. Equipment and staff shortages are forcing the world's largest airline to shift aircraft from DFW. American has eliminated nonstop service to several cities, including Long Beach, CA, Providence, RI, and Toledo, OH. An international route was also affected, as the carrier  pulled its daily flight to Lima, Peru.

While American hopes the move will allow the airline to better compete with popular LCC Southwest, no one at the Ft. Worth-based carrier was particularly happy with the decision.

"It's bad for American Airlines, it's bad for our people and it's bad for the people who live around Love Field," said American's Executive VP of Marketing Dan Garton to the DMN. "But we've said all along that this is absolutely essential for us to do to remain competitive."

In order to match Southwest's new routes into Missouri -- which were announced the very moment Wright Amendment restrictions to Show Me State were lifted through a provision attached to a Congressional spending bill -- American has shifted four daily flights to St. Louis and three to Kansas City from DFW to Love Field, according to the Dallas Morning News. One flight to STL and two to KC were eliminated by the move.

American's flights into Missouri, which the carrier says will begin in March 2006, will also irk neighbors of the downtown Dallas airport -- which is surrounded by residential areas to the north and west. In addition to the increased amount of traffic (from both Southwest and AA aircraft) American's older MD-83s (file photo, right) are louder than Southwest's newer 737s.

"This is not something we look forward to doing," said Garton. "We're not driving this -- we are responding to [Southwest]."

Even with more planes flying from Love Field, however, the North Dallas Chamber of Commerce told representatives of the Love Field Citizen's Action Committee the number of daily departures comes no where close to the maximum of 250, as was previously set by the master plan designed to limit growth at Love.

Meanwhile, Southwest continues with its efforts to lift the Wright Amendment entirely, which would allow the carrier to fly nonstop to any destination from Love Field -- limited only by economics and the range of a 737. American's decision won't affect that effort, said Southwest spokesman Ed Stewart.

"They're just another competitor," said Stewart, adding American's movement of aircraft "just seemed like they were repositioning their aircraft the way they always do."

FMI: www.aa.com, www.southwest.com