American drops Dallas/Love flights

By Joe Brancatelli

LOVE FEST

American Airlines DropsDallas/Love Service–Again: Business travelers have lost count of the number of times the bosses at Dallas/Fort Worth-based American Airlines have launched flights at Dallas/Love Field. Whenever a competitive threat appears at Love Field, American begins flying inexpensive, competitive service. And as soon as the threat disappears, so does American. But this time American ran into Love-based Southwest Airlines, a competitor it couldn't push around. After a change in the Wright Amendment permitted Southwest to fly to new cities from Love in 2006, American piled in, too, launching flights to Chicago/O'Hare, Kansas City and St. Louis. The St. Louis and Kansas City flightsdisappeared almost immediately. American has now announced that it'll drop the O'Hare service on June 11. But don't worry, American says it'll be back at Love in 2013, when a new terminal is due for completion.

HOTEL HOT SHEET

Get Out the Scorecard for The Latest Openings: The disastrous state of the global hotel industry may make new properties seem superfluous, but it takes times to shut down the development pipeline. So get out your scorecard for these newbies: In Toronto, a 394-room Hyatt Regency on King Street. In New York, another Hilton Garden Inn, this one in Herald Square. In Paris, a 45-room Radisson in the 16th arrondissement. In Tampa, a 222-room Crowne Plaza on the site of the two-years-closed Westshore Hotel. In Tokyo, a 202-room Shangri-La hotel atop the Marunouchi Trust Tower. In Hamilton, Ohio, a 120-room Courtyard by Marriott, a renovation of the 25-year-old Hamiltonian. And seven miles from Milwaukee Airport, a 118-room Staybridge Suites.

MERGER MATTERS

Northwest Shifts More Flights to Delta'sAirport Locations: The integration of Northwest Airlines into Delta Air Lines is
beginning to pick up speed, so check your arrangements carefully if
you're flying the combined carriers. Among the changes: Northwest has
moved its flights at Raleigh/Durham to Delta's location in Terminal 2 and now both carriers operate their flights from Gates C7 to C15. Northwest's flights at Boston/Logan moved to Delta's digs in Terminal A.
The exception: Northwest's Boston-Amsterdam nonstops, which will
continue to use Terminal E, where Logan's immigrations and customs
facilities are located. The carrier's flights in Kansas City have moved to Terminal B
as part of its consolidation with Delta, too. Another bit of merger
news: Hartford, which briefly had Northwest nonstop flights to
Amsterdam last year, won't get the service back. Despite earlier
claims, Northwest says it won't revive the service this summer after
all.

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