Crazy Senator Inhofe is at it again:

http://newsok.com/article/1669515/?template=home/main

In some sort of bizarre, misguided quest to help American Airlines keep its long-haul air service monopoly in DFW, he wants to shut Love Field in three years, thereby ending all Southwest Airlines flights between Oklahoma City and Dallas.

Side effects of his whacky scheme include:

  • sending Oklahoma City - Dallas (and Tulsa - Dallas) airfares into the stratosphere (as an example, on flights between DFW and Omaha (where an American Airlines monopoly is currently in place, airfares frequently exceed $1,000 round trip).

  • tossing 24,000 Love Field employees out of work;

  • triggering a City of Dallas budget crisis (Southwest is one of the City's largest tax payers)


Repeal of the Wright Amendment has been advocated by the following newspapers:


Pro-Repeal
Albuquerque Journal
Amarillo Globe-News
The Arizona Republic
Austin Business Journal
Colony Courier-Leader (Lewisville, TX)
D Magazine
Daily Oklahoman
Dallas Business Journal
Dallas Morning News
East Valley & Scottsdale (AZ) Tribune
The Economist
Florida Times-Union (Jacksonville)
The Gazette (Colorado Springs, CO)
Houston Chronicle
Las Vegas Sun
Los Angeles Times
Memphis Business Journal
The Monitor (McAllen, TX)
Muskogee (OK) Daily Phoenix
National Review
New York Times
Odessa (TX) American
Omaha World-Herald
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Plane Business
The Press-Enterprise (Ontario, CA)
San Angelo (TX) Standard Times
San Antonio Express-News
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
St. Petersburg Times
Tampa Tribune
Texas Monthly
Valley Morning Star (Harlingen/Rio Grande Valley, TX)
Wall Street Journal
Washington Post

Anti-Repeal
American Way Magazine (AA's inflight magazine)
The Fort Worth Star-Telegram

I understand Sen. Inhofe's desire to help one of Tulsa's largest employers, but this is way, way over the line and sends an extremely negative signal to companies thinking about locating in Oklahoma.