Southwest Airlines will begin daily flights out of Long Beach Airport on June 5, flying four times daily to Oakland International, officials said Thursday morning.
Southwest Airlines announced in February that it had an interest in serving LGB, and the airport offered four newly-available “slots” to the airline. Airline executives decided to allocate all of those slots to the LGB to OAK route after deciding to focus on a single area where they saw significant demand for two-way flights, Southwest senior vice president Andrew Watterson said in an interview.
“With only four flights, we wanted to make sure we had a good plan for business travelers, as well as leisure,” he said.
Southwest executives also considered the prospect of flights to such destinations as Las Vegas, Phoenix and the airline’s hometown of Dallas before deciding the Bay Area presented the best opportunity for new business, Watterson said.
Watterson and Long Beach Mayor Robert Garcia convened a media conference Thursday morning on the deck of the Queen Mary, overlooking Queensway Bay and downtown Long Beach, to announce the airline’s plan.
Long Beach Convention & Visitors Bureau Chief Executive Steve Goodling also attended the event. After the announcement, he said the Bay Area is the second-most significant source of visitors to Long Beach and the additional flights may boost his organization’s ability to advertise Long Beach venues to convention planners.
“It is going to help us with bringing lift into our city,” Goodling said.
The largest source of visitors to Long Beach, Goodling also said, is the Greater Los Angeles area itself.
Southwest executives, Watterson said, have had a longtime interest in coming to LGB. The city’s noise ordinance, however, limits the number of daily flight operations that may take place at LGB and the carrier has not previously been able to obtain any of the airport’s flight slots.
The possibility of Southwest coming to LGB follows outgoing Airport Director Bryant Francis’ determination that the combination of improvements in passenger jet technology resulting in airlines being able to use quieter aircraft and the mandates of Long Beach’s law governing airport noise requires the city to increase the number of flight operations allowed at LGB.
Previously, the city’s noise law has set forth a base line number of 41 commercial flights at LGB. Long Beach’s noise law is written to limit aircraft noise levels, as opposed to the number of flight operations, and basically sets a budget for maximum allowable noise levels.
Francis advised the council that studies show LGB must give airlines a chance to provide more flights at the airport since existing carriers have been operating below the allowable noise level.
The four slots that Southwest obtained was a smaller number than what the airline asked for. Airline executives had asked for all nine of the new slots, but LGB decided to offer three slots to JetBlue Airways Corp. and Delta Air Lines. LGB spokeswoman Stephanie Montuya-Morisky said Delta has confirmed the company will accept the slots but has not yet revealed whether it will add any new destinations.
Delta currently flies from Long Beach to Salt Lake City.
JetBlue also had a Long Beach-related announcement this month, revealing plans to increase its flights to Oakland and San Francisco International airports, as well as an additional flight to Las Vegas and new service from Long Beach to Reno-Tahoe International Airport. Numbers were not immediately available to show how many of the flight slots given to JetBlue will be in use after JetBlue follows through on those plans.
Southwest’s arrival to LGB will result in the airport having four carriers offering commercial flights. American Airlines is fourth carrier offering commercial flights to Long Beach travelers.
Southwest now has a presence at 10 California airports, which include Los Angeles International Airport, John Wayne and Ontario International airports.
Watterson said Southwest would be likely be interested in expanding its future presence at LGB if any flight slots become available within the terms of Long Beach’s noise law.
Press-Telegram
Southwest Airlines starts serving Long Beach
