Tuesday, March 14, 2006

Our long regional nightmare is not over

Around the cloud of Southwest's fare hike is what the Dallas Morning News would have you believe is a silver lining: "The increases didn't affect any of Southwest's flights from Dallas Love Field, where it is restricted to short-haul flights by federal law." But that federal law is the Wright Amendment. And no matter how obliquely DMN refers to it, the Wright Amendment already gives Dallasites the crap end of the stick when it comes to airfares. Maybe DMN thought you wouldn't notice.

And maybe DMN, along with too many area politicians with business ties to American Airlines or DFW Airport or both, thought you wouldn't notice that Southwest is a remarkably good corporate citizen. No. Only Mitchell Schnurman will make the point that without Southwest, Dallas would lose "5,000 direct jobs, one of the biggest taxpayers in the city, and the prestige of being home to one of the most-admired companies in the world. (And don't forget about the thousands more whose jobs are connected with Love.)"

But we're not affected by this recent price increase so: don't worry about it!

2 comments:

Bob in New Jersey said...

Great post. I laughed particularly hard at this part of the DMN article:

The new $309 top fare narrows the gap between Southwest and traditional carriers, many of which lowered their top fares last January to $499.

Yeah. $200 difference each way, I'm surely taking the cheaper option. But make it $190 difference each way, and then I'm going with the cheaper one. But it narrowed the gap!

But as you say, they're really trying hard to make you feel better, since you have only the expensive option on offer. Feeling better? NOT.

Irene Done said...

I don't feel better. In fact, sometimes? Between some local politicians and their enablers at the Dallas Morning News, it feels like my head might explode.