Texas Pacific Group, the Fort Worth-based private capital firm ($20 billion worth) with arms in San Francisco and London, has made a roughly $8.5 billion takeover move for Aussie Qantas Airways in tandem with the Australian merchant bank Macquaried Bank, Ltd., as reported in the Wall Street Journal. The offer…
If American Airlines had its flight attendants wear the old Braniff uniforms, we’d be more forgiving of its service. There’s an Associated Press story that moved this afternoon about airline museums and how poorly they do. In the case of, oh, Delta Airlines, people can’t even get into its museum…
For a few weeks, American Airlines has been waging a campaign to land nonstop daily service from Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport to Beijing, China, that would begin March 25, 2007. They’re serious about this–even got the Web site to prove it. Problem is, the U.S. Department of Transportation is only…
This is not a scene from the air traffic control tower at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport. Not yet, anyway. Keep this in mind next time you fly: The Federal Aviation Administration is getting rid of air traffic controllers–by creating salary caps for vets, offering lower pay to rookies, mandating a…
Life was so much easier when Braniff was flying out of Love Field. Remember its “Terminal of the Future,” pictured here? Yeah, that worked out well. Turns out some folks in the Justice Department aren’t the only ones finding “Problems with the New Wright Amendment Deal” reached by the Dallas…
Over the weekend, I accompanied the missus to Chicago for her family reunion, which essentially consisted of a Saturday-night dinner at the famous Gibsons steakhouse (Sinatra sang there, way back when). Guess we got placed at the Texas table: Joining us were three distant relatives–a middle-aged husband and wife named…
Steven Pearlstein, a business columnist at The Washington Post, has an outsiders’ take on the Wright Amendment compromise, which Mayor Laura touts as her legacy and some folks at the Justice Department insist is bad for business. Pearlstein writes that the compromise reached by mayors Laura Miller and Mike Moncrief…
Have you been checking out the Wright Amendment hearings taking place at this very moment in Washington, D.C., in front of the House Committee on Transporation & Infrastructure’s aviation subcommittee? The Dallas Morning News is providing a video link to what has to be the most rambling, frustrating and ill-informed…
The future of Love Field–well, the Wright Amendment, anyway–will be discussed in D.C. on Wednesday. On Wednesday, the U.S. House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure will meet to discuss “Reforming the Wright Amendment.” (Actually, it’s the Subcommitee on Aviation hosting the hearing that begins at 1 p.m. C.S.T. in the…
People love Love Field–the airport, not the movie, which sucked. During the heat of the debate over the Wright Amendment, some of us around the offices where we publish the paper version of Unfair Park were arguing about the merits of Love Field. Some of the old-timers hate the place…
And you thought we were done with Wright Amendment talk, you silly. Over the weekend, the Sioux City Journal reported that the agreement Dallas Mayor Laura Miller and Fort Worth Mayor Mike Moncrief hashed out last week concerning the abolishing of the Wright Amendment in 2016 ain’t enough for Nebraska…
By the time the Wright Amendment is lifted, I plan on traveling exclusively by jetpack. The local papers are all back pats and wet kisses over the Wright Amendment accord announced by mayors Laura Miller and Mike Moncrief yesterday, and good for them for finally hammering out a deal that…
More good new for American Airline and parent company AMR Corp.: On the eve of an announced settlement between Dallas and Fort Worth’s mayors regarding the Wright Amendment–a press conference is announced for tomorrow, as well as a city council thumbs-up concerning the deal–Standard & Poor’s gives the airline the…
All this talk about the city coming in and seizing and probably tearing down the old Legend Airlines terminal at Love Field, lest the former owner sell out to some other still-unnamed commercial airline, is getting me wistful and teary-eyed. Seems like only yesterday (fine, six years ago) some of…
Stop-and-Think, American’s “grassroots” pro-Wright movement, has nice digs in Snider Plaza. American Airlines Chief Executive Gerard Arpey recently gave an interview to the Chicago Tribune in which the Fort Worth-based carrier’s bossman talked about everything from the state of the airline industry (“troubled,” in a word) to why it’s so…
At least, that’s how The New York Times characterizes it, should the Mavericks wind up in the NBA Finals against the Miami Heat (and, man, that is looking too far ahead for my tastes). Miami plays at the American Airlines Arena, Dallas plays at the American Airlines Center, which means…
Dunno if this has anything to do with winning over folks who, for whatever reason, don’t think Joe Barton’s a schmuck–the Congressman known as “Smoky Joe” had a piece in Dallas’ Only Daily recently insisting the airline move from Love Field to Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport–but Southwest Airlines announced late…
Two days ago, American Airlines’ parent company, AMR Corp., submitted to the Securities and Exchange Commission a prospectus in which it announced it was selling precisely 15,002,091 shares of its common stock. As of yesterday, that stock was selling for $25.40 a share–which was way down from $27.63, its price…
Like me, you’re probably burned out on Wright Amendment talk, which will likely last so long we’ll be able to beam to New York City Star Trek-style from the comfort of our own homes. But the contstant noise coming from both Southwest Airlines and American Airlines has produced one totally…
Is this story in The New York Times today: a) a fawning profile of a business under seige by its larger local competitor; b) a case study in mid-1970s retro-feminism; c) a celebration of a job well done and proof that when treated well, employees will last forever; d) a…
Steve “Flat Tax” Forbes weighs in on the Wright Amendment this week. For what it’s worth (a billion dollars?), he’s against it. Then again, I could be reading it wrong when he refers to the Wright Amendment as “a pernicious measure enacted to hobble a then new airline, Southwest.” –Robert…
As someone who lives in the flight path of Love Field Airport–by which I mean I must have a runway in my driveway–I must admit, I don’t much care about what happens with the Wright Amendment. On the one hand, yeah, the noise is annoying on those rare occasions when…
