Dallas Love Field (IATA: DAL , ICAO: KDAL , FAA LID: DAL ) is a city-owned public-use airport located 5 nautical miles (9 km) northwest of the central business district of Dallas, a city in Dallas County, Texas, United States.
Love Field was the primary airport for Dallas until 1974, when Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport opened. Love Field is now Dallas's secondary airport and serves as a major focus city for Southwest Airlines. Continental Express and Delta Connection also offer service from Love Field.
History
Prior to 1957
Love Field was opened as an Army flying field on October 19, 1917, constructed just southeast of Bachman Lake. It was named after First Lieutenant Moss Lee Love, who died in an airplane crash in San Diego, California. Love Field was opened to civilian use in 1927 when the City of Dallas purchased the land with National Air Transport starting the first passenger service.
During World War II, the airport was used by the United States Army Air Forces for flying training, with the Dallas Texas Aviation School providing basic (level 1) flight training, equipped with Fairchild PT-19s as the primary trainer used. Also had several PT-17 Stearmans and a few P-40 Warhawks assigned. Love Field was also used as a sub-depot of the San Antonio Air Service Command for aircraft overhauls. Air Force facilities were closed at the end of the war in August 1945.
During the 1940s Love Field's Lemmon Avenue Terminal Building opened on the east side of the airfield and various runways were completed. The city adopted an amended Master Plan for Love Field in 1948 guiding future expansion.
Pioneer Airlines moved its base from Houston to Love Field in 1950.
1957 to 1974
Love Field's new terminal building (the third and current terminal) was dedicated on October 20, 1957 and opened to airline service on January 20, 1958. The complex opened with three one-story concourses equipped with 26 ramp-level gates and connected to the terminal by the world's first airport moving walkways. Airlines serving the airport at the time included American, Braniff, Central (which was based in Fort Worth), Continental, Delta and Trans Texas (later Texas International).
Jet-powered operations began on April 1, 1959 when Continental Airlines introduced the Vickers Viscount turboprop. Turbojet operations began on July 12, 1959 when American Airlines initiated Boeing 707 flights to New York.
The 1960s brought tremendous growth to Love Field. In 1961, Mr. and Mrs. Earle Wyatt made a gift of a large bronze statue bearing the inscription "One Riot, One Ranger" for display in the airport's new terminal. Famed Texas born sculptress Waldine Tauch created the piece. The inscription refers to an incident in which a single Texas Ranger was dispatched to quell a riot.
On November 22, 1963, President John F. Kennedy arrived in Dallas via Love Field. After his assassination, Lyndon B. Johnson was sworn in as president aboard Air Force One at Love Field.
Several terminal expansion programs were fueled by the boom in air travel during the 1960s. American Airlines expanded their concourse in 1968. In the same year, Braniff opened its "Terminal of the Future." The expansion, showcasing Alexander Girard, Herman Miller and Ray and Charles Eames designs, featured the first rotunda concourse, jet bridges and several airport innovations. Braniff connected their new terminal to new remote parking lots with the Jetrail monorail system in 1970.. Texas International expanded their concourse in 1969, and Delta's concourse was expanded in 1970.
In 1972, Love Field was the site of a notable hijacking incident. On 12 January, Billy Gene Hurst, Jr., a resident of Houston, Texas, hijacked Braniff Flight 38, a Boeing 727 airliner, as it departed William P. Hobby Airport in Houston bound for Dallas, Kansas City, Missouri, and Minneapolis, Minnesota. Mr. Hurst, who had a history of mental illness and unstable behavior, was armed with a .22 caliber handgun and a briefcase that he claimed was filled with dynamite. After the plane landed at Love Field at 2:50 PM, Hurst allowed all 94 passengers to deplane, but continued to hold the 7 crewmembers hostage. During the ensuing standoff with Dallas police and FBI agents, Hurst insisted on flying to South America, although he apparently never named a specific destination. He also made a variety of other demands, including food, cigarettes, parachutes, jungle survival gear, $2 million dollars, and a .357 Magnum handgun. Braniff officials and police negotiators stalled, claiming that the plane could not depart due to mechanical problems, refueling delays, and trouble securing the ransom money. Shortly after 8:30 PM, a package containing parachutes and a .357 Magnum handgun- which was reportedly disabled from firing- was delivered to the plane. The entire crew secretly fled the airliner at 8:51 PM while Hurst was distracted examining the package's contents. With no hostages remaining aboard, Dallas police stormed the craft at 9:26 PM, arresting Hurst without serious incident. He was later sentenced to 20 years in prison.
With the need for a larger airport, the cities of Dallas and Fort Worth agreed to build Dallas/Fort Worth Regional Airport (the original name of the current Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport). It was agreed that to protect the new airport, each city would restrict its own passenger-service airports from air-carrier operations.
Southwest Airlines, founded in 1971 and headquartered at Love Field, built its business on selling quick, no-frills trips between Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio. The company felt that the notion of a quick trip would be destroyed by a long drive to the new large airport outside of the city. Prior to the opening of DFW, Southwest Airlines sued for the right to remain at Love Field.
In 1973, the courts ruled that the City of Dallas could not restrict Southwest Airlines from operating out of Love Field, so long as it remained open as an airport. This ruling effectively granted Southwest the right to continue to operate its existing intrastate service out of Love Field. The airlines operating from Love Field at the time DFW was conceived executed agreements with DFW stipulating that no airline could operate at the new airport if it continued to operate any flights out of Love Field. Southwest, created after the other carriers had signed on to the DFW operating agreements, was not a signatory and remained as the only airline operating at Love Field.
Prior to completion of DFW, regularly scheduled service from Love Field included: New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Washington, Nashville, San Antonio and Mexico City (American); Atlanta, New Orleans, Orlando, Shreveport, Birmingham, Jackson, Los Angeles, and San Francisco (Delta); Chicago, Denver, Kansas City, Minneapolis-St. Paul, New York, Washington, Houston, Austin, Lubbock, Amarillo, San Antonio and Mexico City (Braniff International); Midland-Odessa, Lubbock, Amarillo, Albuquerque, and El Paso (Continental); New Orleans, Tampa and Miami (Eastern). Trans-Texas Airways provided service to Beaumont-Pt. Arthur, Texarkana, Houston, San Antonio, Laredo, Austin, Abilene, Wichita Falls, and Amarillo among other locales.
1973 saw Love Field, which contained more than 70 gates and saw frequent Boeing 747 service, reach record enplanements at 6,668,398 as the eighth busiest airport in the United States. On January 13, 1974 DFW Airport officially opened, ending most passenger service at Love Field.
1974 through 1999
With the drastic reduction in flights and only 467,212 enplanements in 1975, Love Field decommissioned several of its concourses. The City of Dallas attempted to make use of these dormant facilities by leasing some of them to an entrepreneur who opened the "Llove Entertainment Complex" in November 1975. The main lobby at the front of a former terminal was transformed into movie theaters, ice rink, roller rink, huge video arcades, restaurants and bowling alley. Llove seemed especially suited for the pre-teen and teen crowd, who could spend the day for a single admission charge of about $3.50. Llove closed in May 1978. Several of the concourses were remodeled into support and training buildings for Southwest Airlines.
After deregulation of the U.S. airline industry in 1978, Southwest Airlines was able to enter the larger passenger markets and announced plans to start providing interstate service in 1979. This angered the City of Fort Worth and DFW International Airport, which resented expanded air service at Love Field. Therefore, Fort Worth-based U.S. Representative (later Speaker of the House) Jim Wright helped get a compromise law through Congress that restricted air service at Love Field. Using the pretext of protecting DFW, the Wright Amendment restricted passenger air traffic out of Love Field in the following ways: Passenger service on regular mid-sized and large aircraft could only be provided from Love Field to locations within Texas and the four neighboring states (Louisiana, Arkansas, Oklahoma, and New Mexico). Long-haul service to other states was possible, but only on commuter aircraft with no more capacity than 56 passengers.
While the Wright Amendment prevented any other major airlines from starting service out of Love Field, it did not deter Southwest. Based on short trips to begin with, Southwest continued to flourish as it used multiple shorthaul flights to build its Love Field operation. Some people managed to "work the system" and get around the Wright Am
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