The airport management decided in 1977 to start a gate assignment function in Airside Operations prior to the new E-Satellite terminal opening up. Most gates were leased out on long-term leases to the airlines and they could use their leased gates as they saw fit. The remaining "common-use" gates were assigned by Dispatch Service, Inc. and of course they showed favoritism to their customer airlines instead of non-customer airlines such as Braniff.

We started with 3 common-use gates on F, 12 gates on the E-Satellite, 4 gates on the original Concourse E, 2 gates on Concourse D and 2 gates on Concourse H. In the early 1980's, Braniff went bankrupt so their leases on Concourse D were void, plus Concourse D was extended and rebuilt, so we ended up with gates on that concourse. Concourse F was extended and National was given preferential rights but not an exclusive lease, so we could assign gates on F when National wasn't using them. In 1986, after I became Supervisor of Gate Control, the long-term leases expired on Concourses G and H and gates on those concourses turned into common-use gates assigned by our gate controllers. We obtained the last of the former leased gates when Eastern died in January 1991.

The gate board depicts the following gate assignment for that time and day:

E20: DO 302/303 1330/1420, NI 410/T 1730/T
E22: MX 301/300 1420/1535, MX 309/308 1630/1755
E24: LR 620/T 1250/T, AF 350/351 1435/1545
E25: LM ???/976 1445/1545, LM ???/??? 1605/1710
E23: VA 822/823 1215/1345, NA 003/T 1550/T
E21: VA 820/821 1300/1500, NA 001/T 1535, BA 279/278 125/1930
E31: -
E33: AM 410/411 1330/1430, AM 450/450 1635/1800
E35: OD 144/T 1650/T
E34: GU 900/901 1400/1540, BN 976/T 1620/T
E32: PA 442/445 1200/1340, BN 908/T 1515/T KX 046/T 1630/T
E30: KX -/047 H/1335, ST 101/100 1420/1520, EA 970/T 1645/T

D12: Two Air Florida flights
D4: Three Air Florida flights and an Avianca intransit

F8: AR 367/367 1050/1150
F6: -
F4: -

The gate board depicted in the image was primitive but it worked and we used it for many years. Now they have fancy systems with LCD monitors and I'll put up an image in the future to show the difference.