A “betrayal” was what then-New York City mayor Ed Koch called American Airlines’ headquarters move to North Texas in 1978.
For North Texas, it was a historic moment that reshaped the area’s economy and national significance.
“It might have been one of the smartest decisions an airline ever made in aviation history,” said DFW International Airport CEO Sean Donohue. “Who knew what the DFW area was going to grow into but to establish their headquarters down here and where we are now — a brilliant decision.”
It’s a move that crafted a large sum of change in aviation history for the Dallas-Fort Worth region, drawing the largest airline to North Texas and keeping its headquarters there ever since. In 1978, the news shook the Big Apple as the carrier announced 1,300 jobs would relocate to DFW International Airport, then called Dallas-Fort Worth Regional Airport.
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Click here to read more on this report from our partners at The Dallas Morning News.
Editor’s note: This is part of a series of stories marking 50 years of DFW International Airport, previously known as Dallas-Fort Worth Regional Airport, which landed its first ceremonial flight in September 1973 and welcomed its first commercial passengers in January 1974, turning Dallas-Fort Worth into a major aviation hub and sparking an economic surge.
