Neighbors they may be, friends they aint. The cities of Dallas and Fort Worth, Texas, have never disguised their rivalry and when it came to sharing an airport... well. Dallas first suggested it back in 1927. Fort Worth's answer, predictably was: "Forget it".
Forget the obvious advantages of geography and economics. Dallas and Fort Worth went their separate ways, built their own airports and ran them with varying degrees of success. So how did the present hugely successful joint operation get off the ground?
It took some patience and lots of persuasion to make it happen. Inevitably there were plenty more false starts before it came about. The Civil Aeronautics Administration tried in 1940 when both cities went looking for federal funds to shore up airport operations. The CAA pointed out the plain sense of a joint airport and was prepared to find USD$1.9 million to help it along.
The following year two airlines, American and Braniff keen to cut unnecesary costs, got together with the city of Arlington to develop Midway Airport. Great idea, but this time Dallas and Fort Worth fell out over the siting of the main terminal and again nothing happened.
Twenty years on and things finally came to a head. In 1964 the Civil Aeronautics Board ruled that Love Field (Dallas) and Great Southwest International (Fort Worth) were unsuitable for future needs. It ordered the great rivals to find a site for a joint airport within 180 days or it would do the job for them.
Minds were suitably concentrated by the ultimatum. Enter the entrepreunurial Mayor of Dallas, J. Erik Jonsson, as chairman of an Interim Airport Board and things began to happen. A site was found diplomatically situated 17 miles from both cities, money was raised, prairie land was bought and the Dallas Fort Worth Regional Airport Board created in 1968.
The first commercial flight landed at the new DFW on January 13, 1974 and they have been landing and taking off in increasing numbers ever since. In 2000 DFW was the world's fifth busiest airport and plans to get bigger.
History has no chance of repeating itself... has it?
