Country music singer Kacey Musgraves performed Monday on the Virgin America flight from D/FW Airport to Love Field. (Kye R. Lee/Staff Photographer)
We’re at Dallas Love Field this morning, along with a lot of other people, as the airlines, the airport and the passengers celebrate the end of the Wright amendment.
Southwest Airlines chairman and CEO Gary Kelly was at the gate for the 6:40 a.m. flight to Denver, the first flight scheduled to depart to a destination beyond what the Wright amendment allowed. He and Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings held a press conference at 8 a.m.
Later, Virgin America CEO David Cush and the Virgin Group founder Richard Branson arrived on a ferry/party flight from Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport and other events.
“Happy 10/13,” a Southwest Airlines employee said as he hugged Southwest executive vice president Ginger Hardage by the Denver flight’s gates.
“The Wright amendment ends today,” a Transportation Security Administration employee said as she was checking IDs at the security checkpoint.
Kelly set his alarm for 4 a.m. He woke up before the alarm went off. “No alarm required,” he laughed.
Southwest and other airlines flying out of North Texas had to deal with a line of storms that swept through in early morning. Love Field had 1.57 inches of rain by 6 a.m.
Despite that, the first flight departed on time, and most other flights scheduled before 7 a.m. also departed on time, including the second flight to go beyond the Wright amendment borders, a 6:55 a.m. departure for Chicago Midway.
“We were all up very early this morning,” Kelly said shortly after he exited the first flight to Denver just before its departure. “Everything just worked out well. Our meteorologists, I’d put them up anything. They called it very well, and here we are.”
Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings and former U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, who authored the law that enacted the 2006 compromise, moved from the Southwest festivities to a party at the Virgin America gate.
A flight from Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport arrived around 9:15 a.m., carrying Dallas City Council members, news media and Virgin America officials, including chairman Donald J. Carty and president and CEO David Cush, plus Virgin Group chairman Richard Branson.
The Wright amendment, signed into law in February 1980, prohibited nonstop flights from Dallas to most of the United States. It initially allowed flights only to Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Arkansas and Louisiana. Missouri, Alabama, Kansas and Mississippi were later added.
The law applied to both nonstop and connecting flights beyond the area for any airplane with more than 56 seats.
UPDATE: At the 8 a.m. press conference, Mayor Rawlings and Kelly took turns thanking each other and talking about how great it was for Dallas and Southwest Airlines that the Wright amendment had expired.
“This is a great day for Dallas, Southwest Airlines and Love Field,” Rawlings said to start the joint press conference.
Among the people in attendance were Herb Kelleher, Southwest’s chairman when the Wright amendment was enacted and when Kelly begin calling for its repeal. Attendees gave Kelleher, who gave up the chairman’s job in 2008, and former president Colleen Barrett a standing ovation.
“You just don’t think some things are going to happen,” Kelly said. “This morning, for the first time in my life, I got a kiss from Herb Kelleher, and that man has kissed everybody on the planet. That’s how momentous this day is.”]
He brought a roar from the crowd when he wrapped up his remarks with a jibe at his biggest competitor at Love Field in terms of flights and seats.
“After 43 years when it comes to Southwest and Love, we ain’t no Virgin,” Kelly said. “Let freedom ring, baby.”, we ain’t no Virgin,” Kelly said. “Let freedom ring, baby.”
ORIGINAL ITEM: Kelly in November 2004 called for the law’s repeal. A compromise in 2006 provided for a phase-out of the law, with the ban lifted for flights throughout the U.S. as of Oct. 13, 2014.
“What really hits home is just how remarkable our people are. Southwest is a great airline, a great company, but it’s all because of our people. To have all these storms blow through, in the rain and get this airplane out in time is just another testimony to how great they are,” Kelly said.
“It’s a great feeling now to have the Wright amendment restrictions behind us, and we’ve got our whole future to look forward to,” he said.
At Virgin America’s gates 11 and 13, the carrier had set up a red carpet to await the arrival of its airplane from D/FW Airport. Among those waiting was Virgin America chief operating officer Steve Forte. His alarm was set for 4 a.m. as well. He woke up before the alarm as well. “This is an exciting day,” he said.
Helping making it exciting was the stormy weather that preceded Monday’s operations.
“I was following it closely all night,” he acknowledged.
Virgin America’s first flight departed at 7:05 a.m., five minutes past its 7 a.m. scheduled departure, on its way to Washington Reagan National Airport.
“Having access to Love Field is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for us. To be able to come in here to this beautiful terminal, this iconic airport with the iconic Virgin brand, they just seem to go together,” Forte said.
“You know, we’re the only airline that’s going to offer three classes of service, Wi-Fi on the airplanes, touchscreen TVs where you can order food by simply touching the screen in front of you and then we bring it to you, that’s the kind of service you don’t find here,” Forte said. “We’re the only airline to provide that.”
Under the watchful eye of Dallas police officers, some armed with automatic weapons, the city-owned airport began its first day in decades operating without the law’s restrictions
The big board now looks decidedly different: Virgin America joins Southwest at Love this morning. And it intended to make a grand entrance: Branson will arrive at Love at 9 this morning on a flight from Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, which will feature an in-flight concert by country singer-songwriter Kacey Musgraves.
Our reporter, James Osborne, went down to the United Airlines gates to talk to Delta Air Lines passengers. He discovered that Delta wasn’t flying out of United’s gates, but a Southwest Airlines gate instead.
I doubt we’ll have many people at Dallas Love Field on Monday who don’t know it’s not an ordinary day.
Staff writer Robert Wilonsky contributed to this report.
The first travelers to fly Virgin America out of Love Field lined up before dawn Monday. (Michael Ainsworth/Staff Photographer)