=20 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- This article was sent to you by someone who found it on SFGate. The original article can be found on SFGate.com here: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=3D/n/a/2006/02/27/financial/= f172356S57.DTL --------------------------------------------------------------------- Monday, February 27, 2006 (AP) Phoenix May Make Bid for Southwest HQ By DAVID KOENIG, AP Business Writer (02-27) 17:23 PST DALLAS (AP) -- Phoenix officials have met with executives from Southwest Airlines Co. to discuss the low-cost carrier moving its headquarters from Dallas and may soon make a formal offer, according to officials for the city and the airline. Southwest officials say several other cities have also approached the airline, which is locked in a dispute about expanding at its home, Dallas Love Field. Southwest has declined to identify the other bidding cities. The airline was also miffed last week when Dallas increase landing fees = at Love Field by 57 percent beginning in April to raise an extra $1 million a year. Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon spoke with Southwest Chief Executive Gary Kelly by phone about a possible move two weeks ago, and he dropped in last week when city airport officials were having lunch with Southwest representatives, said the mayor's spokesman Scott Phelps. "It wasn't a hard sell, with PowerPoint presentations and all that," Phelps said. "He said, 'If you really want to move, we'll help you get where you want to go.'" A Southwest spokesman, Ed Stewart, said Monday that Phoenix officials indicated they will make a more formal pitch but that a meeting has not yet been scheduled. "They came knocking, saying that 'We're a city that knows how to appreciate a good employer, unlike others, love to sit down and talk about it,'" Stewart said. He said Kelly believes that the airline owes Phoenix "the courtesy to hear you out." Southwest is the second-largest operator at Phoenix's Sky Harbor International Airport behind US Airways, which includes the former America West and is now headquartered in Phoenix. Southwest has 4,500 employees in Phoenix and 5,000 in Dallas, including 3,000 at its headquarters just outside the Love Field fence. This is the second time in four months that Southwest officials have air= ed the idea of moving from the city that has been the airline's home since June 18, 1971, when it served only a few Texas cities. In late October, company Chairman Herb Kelleher and President Colleen Barrett suggested it might make sense for Southwest to move because it couldn't expand at Love Field due to a 1979 law barring most long commercial flights from the airport. Southwest flights in Dallas have declined since 2001, and it offers more flights in Phoenix, Las Vegas and Chicago. However, Kelly quickly quashed the relocation speculation last fall, saying Southwest was not considering a move. A few weeks later, Southwest scored a small victory when Congress weaken= ed the 1979 Wright Amendment by allowing flights from Love Field to Missouri. Southwest is lobbying Congress to lift all limits at Love Field, allowing it to fly anywhere in the country from the airport near downtown Dallas. But it is opposed by American Airlines and nearby Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport. American, a unit of Fort Worth-based AMR Corp., plans to begin its own service from Love Field to St. Louis and Kansas City on Thursday, competing directly with new Southwest flights to those cities. Meanwhile, Southwest continues to say it has no interest in starting service at DFW Airport, where American controls about 85 percent of the traffic. ------------------------------------------------------------------= ---- Copyright 2006 AP