SWA Plans Service To St. Louis, Kansas City From DAL

It's official -- President Bush Wednesday signed into law a new transportation bill, containing a provision exempting Missouri from the burdens of Wright Amendment -- a decades-old piece of compromise legislation restricting flights from Dallas' Love Field to states bordering on Texas... as well as Mississippi, Kansas, and Alabama.

The ruling means Southwest Airlines, which is based at Love, can now fly direct to places like Kansas City and St. Louis from the inner-city airport. For that matter, so could any other airline with a gate at Love Field, including DFW-based American Airlines -- although American hasn't flown a plane from DAL since the events of 9/11.

As has been extensively reported in Aero-News, Southwest has been lobbying hard in Congress to have the Wright Amendment abandoned altogether -- but has run into stiff opposition from both American and from DFW International Airport, which says it could lose billions in revenue over the next decade if the Wright Amendment is dropped.

FMI: www.southwest.com, www.dfwairport.com, www.dallas-lovefield.com