American Hotair Lines
Some moron from American Airlines’s P.R. Dept. thought it would be a good idea to issue a press release claiming to oppose increased competition from Southwest, not because they want to keep it illegal for you or me to fly from L.A. to Dallas on Southwest, but because AA cares so much about the quality of life in Northern Texas (which, for some reason, they call “North Texas” – do all y’all talk like that down dere? UPDATE: Apparently so). American Airlines (which, contrary to its patriotic-sounding name and its lack of actual profits in recent years, is neither a government agency nor a nonprofit charity) even had the chutzpah to attack Southwest’s desire to expand its flight schedule as “selfish.” O-kay.
Hat tip: BTD Vance.
May 27th, 2005 at 3:27 pm
Yes, Texans do refer to that part of Texas as “North Texas”, it helps to differentiate that area of Texas from that of the Panhandle which is the true “northern” part of Texas.
May 27th, 2005 at 5:27 pm
Southwest Airlines has been stuck at Love Field (The old Dallas & Fort Worth airport) since it was founded. At the time, Jim Wright (D) was Speaker of the House and made it part of Federal Law that no out-of-state flights could originate or terminate at Love Field in order to promote the newly built DFW. Fortunately for Southwest, its early growth was in short-hop flights with Love as its hub. Now that Southwest has flights from coast to coast, it would be beneficial to have the ability to fly from Dallas to the west coast without having to stop in Amarillo, Lubbock, El Paso or Midland due to a bit of Federally mandated protectionism for DFW. I think that DFW is now well established enough that it can withstand the competition after around 25 years of protection.
As to the parts of Texas… The Texas panhandle while north of all of “north” Texas, is not north Texas. West Texas is south of the panhandle, but does not usually refer to the western most portion of Texas (El Paso) often referred to as “Big Bend Country”. Then there is West, Texas, a town in central Texas….
May 27th, 2005 at 7:05 pm
One minor clarification on the Wright Amendment: It allows flights from Love Field to anywhere in Texas, plus to adjacent states. Thus, I can fly to Albequerque or Little Rock, but not, say, Chicago.
It’s unbelievable that AA’s trying to paint Southwest as the bully here.
May 27th, 2005 at 7:17 pm
Michael: That’s odd. In my dialect, words like “north” and “south,” connote a separate state altogether. Cf. North Dakota, South Korea, West Virginia, East Palo Alto.
BTD Greg: I know. That’s why I picked L.A. as an example. [But what about East L.A.? That is part of L.A., you know. -Ed. Shut up, and stop calling yourself Ed. -Ed.]
May 27th, 2005 at 9:36 pm
Not only that, but Southwest isn’t even allowed to sell connecting tickets from Love Field to any state not on the Wright Amendment list. So you can fly Southwest from Dallas to Jackson (Miss.) via Houston Hobby, but you can’t fly Southwest from Dallas to Nashville via Hobby unless you buy two separate tickets and transfer your own checked baggage.
May 27th, 2005 at 10:02 pm
Moving Wright along
American Airlines’ pathetic campaign to protect its monopolistic practices in Dallas-Fort Worth has reached a new low with this jaw-droppingly asinine press release that actually accuses Southwest of monopolistic behavior. On the heels of two Dallas-…
May 30th, 2005 at 6:22 am
That’s odd. In my dialect, words like “north” and “south,” connote a separate state altogether.
That’s how I would have thought too before I moved here to subtropical west (by God) Georgia. About the only Southern state that uses the -ern suffix at all, seems to me, is Virginia.
For obvious reasons.
June 19th, 2005 at 6:48 pm
Would you believe that particular quote has triggered a thread on a website called “flyertalk.com” (see http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=437016 )that has generated over 200 replies and over 6,500 page views to date. I think the brazen cynicism struck a raw nerve with quite a few people.
October 2nd, 2005 at 10:06 am
The thread I mentioned previously ( http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=437016 ), has now generated over 1000 replies and 28,000 page views. Looks like AA’s having a bit more difficulty than they anticipated.