Southwest Airlines Co. is trying to expand its already dominant position at space-constrained Dallas Love Field by squeezing Delta Air Lines out of the city-owned airport and overtaking gates now controlled by Virgin America, new court documents indicate.
Dallas-based Southwest (NYSE: LUV) is dueling with Atlanta-based Delta (NYSE: DAL) in federal court in a case that’s springing back to life after several months of dormancy. In that case, Southwest Airlines and Delta are brawling over the use of Love Field’s Gate 15, to which the rival airlines now split access.
New court documents filed in that case suggest Southwest will not only try to banish Delta from Love, but also will go after two gates now controlled by Virgin America.
Virgin, which was acquired by Seattle-based Alaska Air Group Inc. (NYSE: ALK) last year, offers nonstop flights to five cities from two gates at Love. Alaska Air, which also flies out of the larger Dallas Fort Worth International Airport, said in April that it intends to hang on to the two gates Virgin leases at Love even after Alaska drops the Virgin America brand.
In the federal case, however, Southwest indicates in a document filed Aug. 21 that it will challenge Virgin and Alaska’s right to continue using the two gates.
Through a process called discovery, Southwest is seeking information on how many flights Virgin operates into and out of Love, as well as how full those flights are and how profitable they are. Southwest also is seeking Virgin/Alaska and Delta’s future utilization plans for their respective gates at Love, as well as other information.
The information Southwest seeks suggests that the airline will argue that Alaska should be treated as a new entrant to the airport. As such, the city of Dallas, as the airport’s owner, has a duty to decide which airline will get Virgin America’s current gates based on what’s best for the citizens of Dallas and which airline can put the gates to their fullest use.
That means that Alaska could be forced to make space for Southwest at the now-Virgin gates in the same fashion that Southwest has been forced to accommodate Delta at Gate 15.
Southwest technically controls 18 of Love’s 20 gates, including Gate 15. But the city is forcing Southwest to allow Delta to use the disputed gate part-time.
Meanwhile, a timetable for the trial is starting to take shape, with all indications pointing to a start date in nine to 12 months.
Southwest, which has demanded a jury trial, wants the case tried beginning July 9, 2018, Aug. 6, 2018, or Sept. 4, 2018. Delta proposes that the trial be scheduled for Oct. 1, 2018. The city of Dallas and other parties in the case have not taken a position on when it goes to trial.
Delta also is requesting that the case be granted summary judgment, which would essentially leave the gate-sharing scenario unchanged.
Love Field, in crowded northwest Dallas, is limited to 20 gates under the terms of the Wright Amendment reform. The airlines at Love are nearing the maximum number of daily flights that can be operated from the airport, so gate space there is considered some of the most valuable real estate in the U.S. aviation industry.
The Southwest-Delta duel has gone on for more than two years. Southwest controlled 16 of Love’s gates for many years. In 2015, it subleased two more from United Continental, which decided to stop flying to Love.
Delta, however, had been using one of those gates under a short-term lease and refused to leave, triggering the ongoing litigation.
