Long Beach Airport will allocate empty slots to Southwest and others after JetBlue pulled out of the city in October.
The City of Long Beach awarded Southwest with 17 slots because JetBlue wasn’t getting a lot of flights going out, according to Alex Basquez, director of human resources for the city of Long Beach.
“Southwest earlier announced that they will offer more nonstop flights to Arizona and to Austin, Texas,” said Basquez.
The airline first offered service in Long Beach in 2016 and has slowly expanded its presence ever since, said Basquez.
Southwest has increased their service as flight slots have been available, at one of the strictest noise-controlled airports in the state of California.
Before JetBlue announced it would end services in Long Beach, the two airlines were tied for most flight attendants slots, said Cynthia Guidry, director of Long Beach Airport.
“Southwest Airlines is well on its way to dominating Long Beach Airport,” said Guidry.
Southwest Airlines will have 34 slots at Long Beach Airport which will limit just about 53 daily commercial flights, according to Guidry.
Long Beach Airport offers a total of 53 flight slots, 41 of which are permanent, and 12 which are supplemental and subject to review of the annual noise budget according to Guidry.
Delta has 12 slots at the airport. American Airlines comes in third with three slots, followed by Hawaiian, with two slots. FedEx and UPS round out the list with one slot each.
This was a vote of confidence in the boutique travel experience offered at the airport, according to Guidry.
“We are thrilled to see Southwest increase their presence at LGB and happy for their ongoing partnership,” said Basquez
“Southwest has established decades of consistency as the hometown carrier of California and soon will proudly offer more for Long Beach,” said Guidry.