Wright Amendment

Wright Amendment

Long title	An Act to amend the Federal Aviation Act of 1958 in order to promote competition in international air transportation, provide greater opportunities for United States air carriers, establish goals for developing United States international aviation negotiating policy, and for other purposes.
Acronyms (colloquial)	IATCA
Enacted by	the 96th United States Congress
Effective	February 15, 1980
Citations
Public law	96-192
Statutes at Large	94 Stat. 35 aka 94 Stat. 48
Codification
Acts amended	Federal Aviation Act of 1958
Titles amended	49 U.S.C.: Transportation
U.S.C. sections amended	49 U.S.C. § 40102 aka § 1301
Legislative history
Introduced in the Senate as S. 1300 by Howard Cannon (D-NV) on June 7, 1979 Committee consideration by Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation, House Public Works and Transportation Passed the Senate on September 29, 1979 (passed) Passed the House on November 13, 1979 (passed, in lieu of H.R. 5481) Reported by the joint conference committee on December 19, 1979; agreed to by the Senate on January 31, 1980 (agreed) and by the House on February 4, 1980 (agreed) Signed into law by President Jimmy Carter on February 15, 1980

The Wright Amendment of 1979 was a federal law that governed traffic at Dallas Love Field, an airport in Dallas, Texas, USA, with some provisions also applying to other mid-size airfields in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex, including Meacham Field and Addison Airport. It originally limited most non-stop flights from Love Field to destinations within Texas and neighboring states. Additional states were allowed in 1997 and 2005; the law was amended and partially repealed in 2006, then fully repealed in 2014.

In the early 1960s, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) decided Love Field in Dallas and Greater Southwest International Airport in Fort Worth, Texas could not handle future air traffic, and refused to continue federal funding for them. The Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) then ordered Dallas and Fort Worth to find a new site for a regional airport. The result was Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport (DFW), which opened to airlines in 1974. To make the new airport viable, each city had agreed to restrict its own passenger airports and all airlines at the old airports signed an agreement to relocate.

Southwest Airlines was founded after the agreement between the airlines and cities to relocate to DFW and was not a party to the agreement, and felt that their business model would be affected by a long drive to the new airport. Before DFW's opening, Southwest filed suit to remain at Love Field, claiming that no legal basis existed to close the airport to commercial service and that they were not bound by an agreement they did not sign. In 1973, a Federal District Court ruled that, so long as Love Field remained open, the City of Dallas could not preclude Southwest from operating there. The ruling was in the regulated environment where the CAB did not have control of travel within a state, the only service Southwest then offered.

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Wikipedia