Delta Air Lines is still flying at Dallas’s Love Field, despite having lost access to the Southwest Airlines gate the carrier was using temporarily. That gate access was granted after the October repeal of the Wright Amendment left Delta without gates to operate from. Southwest shared with Delta but that agreement was necessarily time-limited as Southwest increased flights earlier this week and needed the gate space back to handle the increased operations. This time around Delta is sharing with United Airlines; the two companies came to an agreement on Wednesday to allow for five daily flights by Delta at one of the two United gates for the next 180 days.
“We have entered into a commercial agreement to voluntarily provide Delta access to our gate at Love Field,” says United Airlines spokesman Luke Punzenberger. “We will continue managing our flights and gates at the airport in the best interests of our customers.”
Technically the city’s aviation authority did nothing but “facilitate” the discussions because the negotiations never reached an impasse according to Mark Duebner, Dallas’s Director of Aviation. Should such an impasse come to pass the city could step in, but only if it believes the gates are not being reasonably used. United’s schedule certainly could be more aggressive in terms of gate usage but, at least for now, that’s not an issue since Delta is willing to pay for access at a rate which United found acceptable.
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