Wright Amendment was enacted more than 30 years ago with the ostensible reason of preventing competition between two airport of Dallas, Texas. At that time, the Dallas Love Field was the airport which already existed and the new one that came up was Fort Worth International Airport at Dallas. At that time, Love Field airport was the headquarter of the Southwest Airlines, the world’s first low-cost carrier (LCC) airline.

As per the amendment, restrictions were placed on non-stop flights originating from Dallas Love Field to cities outside Texas. A few other states were also placed under this amendment. However, this was rued by the biggest LCC of USA as it prevented nonstop flights to other destinations in the USA. With its expiry, the carriers have heaved a sigh of relief. Southwest has been quick to seize the opportunity, as it rushed to announce nonstop flights from Love Field to Denver, Las Vegas, Chicago, Washington D.C. and Orlando. A few other destinations are also in the pipeline for scheduled connectivity.

While Love Field has been ‘set free’ with the expiry of Wright Amendment, there has been reduction in the number of direct flights from the smaller airports. This has presented the other side of the coin and if the trend continues and these airports keep on losing the flights, then there will be a time when their relevance will be questioned.