The first of a three-case series, this is a classic business-government relations (BGR) challenge for Southwest Airlines. The A case takes the student from the problems SWA had with competitors and the Civil Aviation Board in the early years of attempting to fly through the passage of the Wright Amendment in the late 1970s. House Majority Leader Jim Wright championed the cause for the Dallas/Fort Worth Airport Authority and the big DFW airlines, most prominently American Airlines. The case then updates the situation 25 years later, when SWA is a big airline and the events of September 11, 2001, hurt the short-haul business of low-cost airlines. The case presents BGR strategies of SWA over time.
