SAN ANTONIO – Southwest Airlines is calling on the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to suspend federal funds from San Antonio after the airline said the city violated federal requirements in gate assignments in a new $1.2 billion terminal.
San Antonio’s largest airline filed a complaint on March 20 to the FAA after it accused the city in court of pulling a “bait and switch” while negotiating gate assignments in a new terminal in the San Antonio International Airport (SAT).
The FAA awarded SAT more than $30 million in grants for upgrades to the new terminal.
The complaint is similar to the lawsuit filed in September against the city and San Antonio Director of Airports Jesus Saenz in federal court.
It claims the city and Saenz intentionally hid the fact that their terminal allocation decision was predetermined.
“The City has made false and misleading statements and is impermissibly attempting to play favorites among its users based upon its own subjective and improper preferences,” a Southwest Airlines spokesperson wrote in a statement to KSAT.
The city filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit on March 20 “because Southwest fails to state a claim for relief,” the court filing states.
“It was inevitable that one or more airlines would be unhappy with their gate assignments, and Southwest clearly is,” the City of San Antonio claims.
The city accused Southwest Airlines of “creating a false narrative.”
“We are disappointed that Southwest continues to put its corporate interests above those of the millions of passengers who use and benefit from San Antonio International Airport,” the City of San Antonio wrote in a statement to KSAT on March 25.
“We are not surprised by the City’s action and anticipated it when we filed our amended complaint, which we believe shows the City of San Antonio’s own documents prove what we have maintained all along: the City assigned gates in the new terminal based on a preference for airlines with first class service and club lounges in violation of federal law,” the airline said.
Southwest claims those city documents “misled City Council and taxpayers” about how they planned to assign gates in the new terminal.
“These actions cannot stand. Southwest is asking the FAA to review the City’s conduct, and to order that it comply with federal requirements or lose federal grant funding,” Southwest Airlines said.
KSAT’s previous coverage on the lawsuit:
