Southwest Brings FAA into San Antonio Terminal Fight

Southwest Airlines has been bickering with the San Antonio Airport Authority since mid-2024 now about terminal redevelopment and gate allocations. That effort escalated this week, with the carrier filing an official Part 16 Complaint with the FAA arguing the airport violated rules in relegating the carrier to the older terminal while charging it the same rent as carriers in the newer gates.

Here, the City has behaved patently unreasonably in its dealings with Southwest, is impermissibly attempting to play favorites among its users based upon its own subjective and improper preferences and is attempting to impose upon Southwest grossly unreasonable charges for the use of a substandard, obsolete facility. Such an approach should not be allowed to stand.

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Terminal Promises Unfulfilled

No one wants to be assigned to gates in Terminal A. Opened in 1984, it was designed for a different era of travel, with a different set of passenger expectations. The terminal is 67 feet wide, for example, while modern design standards call for a 110 foot concourse. It lacks space for sufficient concessions. The airport authority recognizes it has “functional deficiencies,” helping to drive the expansion and renovation plans.

But someone has to stay in those gates during the terminal renovation process. Southwest argues (pages 42-43) it was assured by the Airport Director from 2021 through mid-2024 that it would be allocated to gates in Terminal C. Right up until the final gate assignments were announced.

Alas, the discovery process in a pending lawsuit by Southwest against the Airport uncovered draft documents and emails suggesting the airport knew it was going to assign Southwest to Terminal A, even as it was promising a Terminal C move while negotiating the new lease terms.

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Lounges and Passenger Profile

The discovered documents reveal seven metrics used to rank the airlines as to whether they would be assigned to Terminal C.

Desire to operate a club held significant weight, which makes sense as those take up significant space and are much easier to build when designing a terminal from scratch. Lounges also outweighed access to the immigration facility for international flights, however, a factor Southwest highlights in its complaint. Southwest is the only one of the four carriers in play operating international flights at SAT. Commitment to a lounge, and to a multi-cabin on board experience, also factored into a separate “Experience” category on the rankings.

Most egregious to Southwest seems to be the claim that its passengers come up short on “desirability of passenger profile” for the terminal. For its part, the Airport defines that metric as relating to the type of travel (business or leisure) and the airline brand position.

Southwest ties with United Airlines on that metric, a couple points behind Delta Air Lines and American Airlines. Southwest describes the passenger assessment as “shocking.” Southwest’s filing states the passenger fit is the reason for the decision, not a reason for the decision. The two point differential on that score was not enough to knock Southwest out of Terminal C on its own. It does, however, makes for great legal filing fodder.

Financial Finagling

Southwest ultimately chose to not sign the new lease. It filed a lawsuit (5:24-cv-01085-XR, Western District of Texas) against the City and asked to maintain status quo in its contract position while the case remains pending. The City declined, relegating Southwest to paying higher rates as a non-Signatory. That’s on top of charging the same rates in Terminal A as airlines in the much nicer Terminals B and C will pay.