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| Long Beach Airport's 'art deco' terminal and new concourse have been voted "Top 10 Domestic Airport" multiple times |
Although Long Beach Airport (LGB) has no “airline” slots available,
access to the convenient LA Area airport is still available. There are
currently 25 “commuter” slots available at LGB. Commuter slots are
defined as aircraft under 75,000 lbs. This was determined by the Noise
Ordinance, implemented in the 1990s.
The weight is key, at 75,000 lbs., this enables the CRJ-700 to meet
the criteria of the LGB Noise Ordinance as a commuter aircraft. The
CRJ-700, seats 70 in a one-class (all coach) configuration, and 65 in a
two-class (First/Coach) configuration. The aircraft has proven
economically viable, and able to fly West Coast to mid-continent hubs
such as Denver, Dallas/Fort Worth, or Houston. It can also easily reach
the Pacific Northwest, as Alaska/Horizon has proved past service from
LGB to Portland and Seattle.
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| CRJ-700 aircraft, such as the one above, are eligible for "commuter" slots (Photo by Jeremy Madson) |
It would be nice for LGB to have all three major/legacy airlines supporting
LGB. AA has reduced to three daily flights to Phoenix, however, Delta,
now has four CRJ-900 flights daily. The addition of United to LGB would
be ideal. United’s options, if serving LGB, would be San Francisco,
Denver, or Houston/IAH. There is a huge market for all three, of course,
like American and Delta, United prefers the passengers connecting
beyond their hub, as opposed to terminating at their hub.
With the recent addition of Southwest, they have forced forced JetBlue to discontinue slot squatting. For the first time in several years, LGB has 100% usage of the airline slots. The City of Long
Beach’s hotel occupancy has skyrocketed to over 80%since then; it’s no
coincidence. How much more would the city benefit with 75 flights?
