STATE
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 2, 2005
LAREDO MORNING TIMES | 17A
Southwest to start Dallas-Missouri flight service on Dec. 13
By DAVID KOENIG
ASSOCIATED PRESS
DALLAS — Southwest Airlines
Co. wasted no time in announcing
Thursday that it will launch service from Dallas to St. Louis and
Kansas City on Dec. 13, and American Airlines plans to challenge
Southwest on those same routes.
Six Flags
names new
chairman
ASSOCIATED PRESS
NEW YORK — Six Flags Inc.,
the theme park owner which is
considering a possible sale, said
Thursday it has unanimously appointed Washington Redskins
owner Dan Snyder as non-executive chairman.
Six Flags, which has parks in
Texas, also said the company remains up for sale and will consider bids made before midmonth.
On Tuesday, Six Flags shareholders voted to oust Chief Executive Kieran Burke as chairman
and turned control over to Snyder,
resolving a contentious proxy
battle. More than 57 percent of
shareholders also voted to remove Chief Financial Officer
James Dannhauser and director
Stanley Schuman from the board.
In a statement Thursday, Snyder confirmed that “all directors
are committed to continuing the
sale process.”
Snyder, who holds about 11.7
percent of the company’s stock,
launched his proxy battle against
Six Flags in August. Six Flags responded by putting itself up for
auction, and Burke said last week
that the company had received a
number of bids.
Michael Gellert continues to
serve as lead independent director, Six Flags said.
Six Flags shares rose 3 cents to
$7.49 in early trading on the New
York Stock Exchange, where they
have traded in a 52-week range of
$3.72 to $7.74.
Bush called
for jury duty
in Texas
ASSOCIATED PRESS
WACO, Texas — He’s called
the commander in chief and
leader of the free world, but
George W. Bush may have a new
title: juror No. 286.
The president is among 600
potential jurors who have been
summoned to report to court
Monday in McLennan County,
where he has a 1,600-acre ranch.
State District Judge Ralph
Strother said he
expects to get a
response about
the summons
but doesn’t expect Bush to
show up in his
court.
“I
don’t
BUSH
think I’ll be
sending the sheriff out to bring
the president in,” said Strother, a
Republican who has a grandson
serving in Iraq. “It seems to me
that the president has plenty of
things to occupy his attention.
Jury duty is a very important civic
function, but running the country, I think, especially in wartime,
takes priority over jury service.”
White House spokesman
Allen Abney said Bush was not
aware of the situation and had
not received the summons. He declined to elaborate on how the
president would handle the jury
notice when it arrived at the
White House.
McLennan County District
Clerk Karen Matkin said her office mailed a jury summons in
mid-November to Bush at his
ranch in Crawford, about 20
miles west of Waco. Several times
a year Bush visits the ranch he
bought in 1999, and he voted in
Crawford in the 2000 and 2004
presidential elections.
Strother said one of Bush’s twin
daughters, Barbara, received a jury
summons for his court a month
ago. Someone called to reschedule
her jury service, saying she would
be out of the country for the next
six months, the judge said.
When Bush was Texas governor in 1996, he was called for jury
duty in a drunken-driving case.
But he was excused after the defense attorney said Bush’s power
to pardon convicts could pose a
conflict.
Southwest’s announcement
came the day after President Bush
signed a transportation bill that
included a provision to make Missouri the ninth state that airlines
can serve directly from Dallas
Love Field.
Southwest said Thursday it
would operate four daily nonstop
flights to St. Louis and four more to
Kansas City. Southwest said it
would charge $79 each way for
tickets bought 14 days in advance
and $129 each way for other tickets.
Analysts say Southwest’s new
service would mostly hurt American by taking away customers
and forcing it to cut fares on
flights to Missouri.
Even before Congress acted on
the Missouri exemption, American reduced fares on its flights to
St. Louis and Kansas City from
its hub at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport. But its fares
are still higher than those planned
by Southwest.
A last-minute ticket for nonstop service from DFW to St.
Louis or Kansas City on Ameri-
can’s Web site Thursday was $253
each way. Some 14-day advance
round trips were as low as $227.
American has no timetable for
launching Love Field service, but
spokesman Tim Wagner said,
“We want to start as quickly as
possible.”
American is considering flying from there to states other than
just Missouri, Wagner said. First,
American must add computers, a
ticketing area, jetbridges and other improvements.
American leases three gates at
Love Field but has never used
them. Its American Eagle division,
however, operated flights at Love
Field in 2000 and 2001 at a gate it
shared with Continental Airlines.