Airline launches long- distance flights

3 Some passengers aboard the first long- haul Southwest Airlines flights from Dallas Love Field have been treated to shirts and vacation packages.

Southwest on Monday launched its first long- distance flights from its home base to seven U. S. cities, with eight more destinations next month.

Such flights were prohibited until now by a 1980 federal law that protected Dallas-Fort-Worth International Airport by limiting flights from Love Field to a few nearby states. Those restrictions have now expired.