Passengers departing from Long Beach, California, will have five additional destinations this year. The airport announced this week it has awarded additional airport slots to Southwest Airlines, allowing the carrier to expand its presence from the Greater Los Angeles area airport.
The routes
Two previously announced destinations of Kansas City and Orlando will be joined by services to Colorado Springs and El Paso this summer, and a final link to Albuquerque will commence in September. The airport confirmed this week that an existing seasonal service to Maui would also be returning on a daily basis from March 9th.
The airline's upcoming destinations and start times are listed below:
Beginning Date | Travel between Long Beach and | Frequency |
March 9th, 2023 | Kansas City | Daily |
July 11th, 2023 | Colorado Springs, El Paso | Both Daily |
July 15th, 2023 | Orlando | Saturdays |
Sept. 5th, 2023, | Albuquerque | Daily |
Long Beach Airport will now offer more nonstop destinations than at any time in the airport's history of almost 100 years. With this week's announcement, the airport will now offer direct flights to 22 destinations across the nation. The airport's previous record was 19 nonstop destinations in 2011. Long Beach Mayor Rex Richardson expressed his excitement for the business opportunities the new nonstop links brought to the community:
“Southwest Airlines continues to connect Long Beach to more places, demonstrating our airport’s economic value for tourism and business.”
When contacted by Simple Flying regarding the route announcement, a spokesperson for Southwest Airlines confirmed that the carrier chose the additional destinations due to customer demand for nonstop links to those locations.
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The Long Beach or Orlando link is especially interesting as it links the closest airport to Disneyland with Orlando, which serves Walt Disney World in Florida.
The Kansas City flights beginning next month will be operated using the airline's Boeing 737 fleet and are conveniently timed to coincide with the completion of a significant $1.5 billion terminal renovation at Kansas City International Airport.
Big growth for Long Beach
Long Beach Airport is a slot-controlled airport due to its location and noise restrictions. The five additional supplementary slots were made available following a third-party noise audit in December to evaluate if flights should be added or removed to ensure compliance with the noise budgets.
With the addition of the five supplemental slots, Long Beach Airport now offers 41 permanent and 17 supplemental flight slots, for a total of 58. Southwest Airlines currently holds 45 flight slots, Delta Air Lines holds seven, and Hawaiian Airlines holds two. More slots will shortly become available following the departure of American Airlines from the California airport, citing a shortage of pilots. The carrier is still operating flights until February 28th, following which, its three permanent slots will be up for reallocation.
When contacted by Simple Flying for this article, a spokesperson for the airport confirmed the current waiting list for permanent slots consists of four airlines.
- Canadian airline Swoop
- Breeze Airways
- Hawaiian
- Southwest
In response to questions regarding potential new destinations, a spokesperson for the airport confirmed the decision lay with the airlines but confirmed the most requested direct route passengers wanted to see implemented was Seattle-Tacoma International Airport in Washington State. Airport Director Cynthia Guidry expressed her excitement at the announcement and highlighted the ease of travel from the Los Angeles area airport:
“On top of offering one of the easiest and most convenient travel experiences in the country, we now offer more destinations for our travelers than ever before,”
Elsewhere in its autumn schedule, Southwest Airlines has announced two new sets of flights. The carrier will fly between Austin and Florida's Jacksonville International Airport (JAX). From Orlando, the carrier will also begin service to El Paso, Texas. Both routes begin on September 9th.