By KWMU
St. Louis, MO – American Airlines began flights today (Thursday) from St. Louis to Dallas Love Field. The airline already flies regularly to Dallas-Fort Worth International, where it has a huge presence.
Love Field is Dallas's second airport where American has not operated for more than four years. The company pledged to return there last year, after rival Southwest Airlines gained for the first time the right to fly from Love Field to Missouri.
That started a bidding war between the carriers, with many deals being offered on St. Louis-to-Dallas round trips for less than $100.
American has said it expects to lose money serving Love Field, but needs to so it won't lose customers who live closer to that airport than Dallas-Fort Worth.
Southwest gained access to Missouri from Love Field after Congress passed a law last year that changes another law called the Wright Amendment. Wright was designed to boost then-new DFW Airport, but Southwest, which bases operations out of Love Field, says the law is anti-consumer. It wants the entire Wright Amendment lifted, but has so far only gained the change to allow access to Missouri.