Travel Blog

For 27 years, the nation’s largest passenger carrier held an edge at its main Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport by preserving an obscure 1979 law that prevented upstart carrier Southwest Airlines Co. (LUV ), then a no-frills intrastate carrier, from flying nationwide from the newcomer’s home base at Love Field, which is closer to downtown Dallas. But the vagaries of power in the nation’s capital, combined with airline industry turmoil, has forced American to accept a painful compromise rather than face the prospect of losing a Capitol Hill showdown with a bitter rival. “We’re fatalistic about it,” says American lobbyist Dan Elwell. “Let’s get on with making this a better airline going forward than expending a lot of effort fighting this.”