American Airlines complained recently that in 2014 28 of its prime routes in which its the dominant carrier will be subject to attack by Southwest Airlines once the Wright Amendment is lifted for domestic flights in the United States.   Those 28 non-stop routes out of DFW account for $800 million in revenue most recently.

Mostly this is about American Airlines making an over-arching argument for why it needs relief on costs.  New competition will assault them even more just as they expect to come out of bankruptcy.  Laying that foundation for the courts and labor unions should be expected.

What I wonder is why no one has taken the opportunity to point out that when American Airlines exits bankruptcy, Southwest Airlines will have the highest labor costs of the legacy airlines in the United States and, yet, American still views them as the treacherous competition.

Filed under: Airline News by ajax