Help Southwest Airlines -- a co. that does little lobbying -- convince... [View All]

[AP]

...congress to repeal the anti-competitive Wright Amendment.

Southwest is a low-cost airline that, although it has the most passenger traffic of all the airlines, is still an underdog in the airline industry. The feds protect other airlines from having to price-compete with Southwest through things like the Wright Amendment, which prevents Southwest from offering direct flights from Dallas to major cities like Chicago and LA.

Southwest wants to fight the Wright Amendment, but not by getting lobbyists to do whatever the hell it is they do. They want to get citizens -- the people who will benefit from price competitiveness in the airline industry -- to make the appeal to Congress.

American Airlines, the Dallas-Fort Worth Airport and the cities of Dallas and Fort Worth could lose money if Southwest wins this battle. But consumers would win. Which is a good reason to help Southwest out.

If people are interested, write your congresspeople, and write your newspapers (especially if you live in LA and Chicago and other big cities that have Southwest service) and say you'd like to see Congress stop protecting the profits of a major airline and of a couple of very wealthy cities that have making out pretty well in the last couple years while everyone else has been suffering.

http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/041205/southwest_wright_amendment_1.html