Long Beach Post: Long Beach Airport has Lowest Airfares in California, Second Lowest in Country

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Long Beach Airport has Lowest Airfares in California, Second Lowest in Country

by Long Beach Post | Staff Reports | 01.26.12 |

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2:24pm |�Long Beach Airport (LGB) has the lowest airfares in the State of California and the second lowest airfares in the entire country, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation Bureau of Transportation Statistics, which tracks the data nationally.

"Long Beach Airport is known for exceeding expectations � very low fares, easy access, great destinations and excellent customer service all help make Long Beach Airport one of the very best in the country," Mayor Bob Foster said.

According to a recent story published on�Bankrate.com,

"Top 5 Cities with the Lowest Airfares," Long Beach ranked No. 2 and passengers could, "expect to pay about $140 less in airfare to get there compared to the average domestic flight cost of $356."�

"In addition to the second lowest airfare in the nation, LGB's seat capacity has risen by 4 percent and there is approximately 170 percent demand for each seat available in the marketplace,� Airport Director Mario Rodriguez said. �And, we continue to see approximately 85 percent of available seats sold. The airport has fared very well through a recessionary economy."

Long Beach Airport is running slightly ahead of schedule with the Airport Modernization Plan and expects to open the new passenger concourse in 2013 with new concessions, many upgraded conveniences and LEED-certified standards with the green airport initiatives.

Comments

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24 Comments so far.

Attention Mario
This is good news for the Airport but we have a big problem that many residents are upset about.

Ever since Mario took over, the well established flight patterns has become less and less respected.

At times the planes take off backward day after day and veer miles off of the time tested take off and approach paths at will. It as if all former rules have been suspended.

Many homeowners who never saw a plane over their home now see them overhead far too often and for no valid reason.

Absent any visable wind, we watch the planes fly out in reverse all of the time. This never happened until a few years ago.

For decades the planes would only take off backward if there was a very high and prolonged Santa Ana wind. Maybe once a year when the wind was really howling.

Now on any given Saturday they reverse the pattern all day and apparently at will ? This happens on week day mornings too?

It has gotten so bad that Seal Beach has had meetings and has a Congressman involved.

Long Beach may be next because our concerns go ignored.

Also, the planes pick up the pattern very late at times and come in over the Wetlands which violates Federal Law too. It definitely harms the wildlife area.

Our new Director needs to get serious about this issue. Ten's of thousands of homes were thoughtfully purchased away from this noise and risk. People pay more to be away from the noise and danger.
Homes miles away from well established approaches or departures now see and hear the planes too often.

For those of us who saw and anquished over The Cerritos Air Disaster, we get nervous when pilots get creative with designing their own paths ?
If you want a lot of residents to get really upset and get legislators and petitions involved, continue the 'Air Show'.

Some of these private jet guys act like stunt pilots too often as well.

Poor leadership is to blame.

If you want to gain friends and good will, stay on time, and on pattern.

We used to be able to call the tower and register concerns. Those days have passed so please help.

Concerned
Yes, the off pattern flights have become terrible ! It is as if there are no rules any more.

Please play by the rules ! I'll sign the petition !

Jon in 90808
Mario, are you playing around in the control tower again? lol. People, get your facts straight before blasting the best airport director we've seen. An Airport Director can not direct pilots. That is what a control tower does. The tower is run by the FAA, and in fact, it is the pilot who calls most of the shots between ATC and a plane.

Huh?
I don't know what everyone is talking about, I live right under the approach path for the airport and the only times I see them taking off backwards is on windy or bad weather days. You have to realize that even if it's calm on the surface, there can still be strong winds 100 feet up in the air. It really has nothing to do at all with the airport director. Any day i see the planes taking off over the city, when I drive past John Wayne airport they are also taking off the opposite way than usual. I would much rather sign a petition to allow more daily flights out of long beach rather than restrict them. The noise is not that bad and I live right under the flight path off of Clark St, so I really don't understand why people in seal beach are complaining, the planes are still so high at that point, heck some of the massive planes fling into LAX that fly over seal beach are louder than the planes comming into Long Beach :/

I hope one day that the FAA will come in and force the city to convert the commuter slots into commercial slots, which is a good balance so the airport would still be restricted to 66 flights a day just like today but they could actually fill all those empty commuter slots with service to new places and also get some more airlines in to drive down prices further.

Agree
It would be wonderful if the planes stay on their correct paths !

Clean up the airport but please keep the flights on the correct routes. It is a once non existent problem, and now a big problem.

Fix it please?

Lb Lifer
We have way too many stray flights these days. They fly out over Park Estates sometimes, Naples,it is nuts.
Yesterday, a huge Jet Blue plane came in way way the heck off of the pattern,in over Los Alamitos, and did this huge bank turn over CSULB, hard right.

In 50 years I have never seen that approach, ever.

I agree, approach is approach, departure is departure and enough backward take offs !

If the Director can't help, who can? The cub scouts?

I will help curculate a petition if it get's much worse. We do not need a Cerritos Air disaster here

KenK
I'll agree. LGB is a great little airport, but I want to know where it has the lowest fares to.

Are we talking LGB to Point A in one leg? Maybe; but I've seen plenty of trips that are much less expensive out of LAX. Usually direct flights are more expensive than those with connections; but I've seen connecting routes to/from LGB that are way more expensive. So I'd like to know the criteria here.

Parking...
I agree, you can often find cheap flights out of Long Beach. Unfortunately, now that they have eliminated the off-site lot and increased parking prices in lots A/B the total cost for your flight is often more than other area airports! The last flight I had to take to the Bay Area was a lot cheaper out of LAX once I figured out the added cost of parking...

@Parking
The 111 bus, as well as other routes I believe, stops at LGB. It costs $1.25. A cab ride from anywhere in the City to the airport couldn't be more than $15 or $20. How much are you paying for parking at LAX (plus gas to go all the way up there)?

31 years
Come on people,the airport has been there over sixty years.It was there when you moved to Long Beach.It didn't just open last week.If you don't like it move.No one made you buy a house in the flight path.

Meaningless pap
What does this survey even mean? That I will pay less to fly to Fresno than someone in Boston? than someone in Dallas? than someone in Denver? This is news?

1888 Here to stay.
Hopefully when you ALL get tired of complaining and MOVE to a area in which there are "NO" surrounding airports, you then will be far enough away from me, check a map they're everywhere.
I dislike the fact that you think the world revolves around you, silly Seal Beach...you try, you really do, and sometimes we entertain it. *(If your rant was Union dispute related, I apologize)

1888 Here to Stay
Are the comment mods here from Seal Beach?

RW Crum
Unbelievable. It's as if some people here tink these planes are flying just to upset you.

They fly these patterns because for legitimate reasons they've been ordered to do so by air traffic controllers. If they're taking off "backwards" or landing in unusual patterns, it's because that was the safest, most prudent way to operate that flight. Period. The airport manager cannot overrule them.

LGB Airport

Long Beach Airport thanks you for your comments.
Your airport staff is here to serve you. We value your observations and are here to listen to your concerns.
We assure you that while our office makes every effort to educate pilots on the City's Noise Compatibility Ordinance to minimize the impact on our surrounding communities, the FAA Flight Standards District Office in Long Beach is the regulatory body responsible for investigating low flying aircraft and ultimately the enforcement of Federal Aviation Regulations governing flight tracks, flight altitudes, flight patterns and navigable airspace.
You can contact your Noise Compliance Office at 562-570-2635. Please visit us at www.lgb.org and view WebTrak, out flight tracking and monitoring system. We look forward to hearing from you.

Fly right please
Thanks LGB and others for trying to help. It is best for you to police the offending pilots. Please do so.

Some pilots have fallen in to a bad habit of taking off in reverse and residents do not like this. It happens a lot on the weekend so people see it and get mad. Our HOA has had 10 complaints in a day.

All that most of the concerned residents want is for the planes to simply stay on the paths that were laid out and designed years ago. We bought our homes based upon the established paths. When they change a lot, that is not fair.

For example,the jets used to pick up the approach over Huntington Beach weapons station. That is nice, safer and quieter.

Lately, they come in over Seal Beach , along PCH or over the Wetlands and make a big bank turn low and loud. They often pick up the approach at the very very last minute, over Bixby Hills or Hill Jr High. That is dangerous, not fair and offensive.

At times they can be so low that your China rattles.

And every effort should be made to take off to the North, as designed. The runway is the longest in America, over a mile, so our experts say that you do not have to routinely take off backward. Several times many residents come outside to try to figure out what all of the noise is about. This was previously unheard of.

Please just follow the established rules and we will support you.

An airport spokesman tried to rationalize this new habit as within the pilots domain. They are free to pick the direction that they depart.

No they are not. We master planned those choices in to our neighborhoods 50 years ago. May we please keep the deal that we agreed upon?

Tell the Hot Rod wanna be stunt pilots to maybe ''Cool their Jets just a little bit??''

Kudos for the recent improvements and other successes.

cyn2bfree
I have now had the priviledge to fly into Long Beach 4x on Jet Blue and all I can say is: I love Long Beach Airport!

Thanks
The planes came in high, slow , quietly and on pattern this weekend. THANK YOU !

Jesus
You people realize that the planes came in perfect this weekend because I gave you good weather, right? I mean, no rinky dink HOA is going to possibly jeopardize the safety of hundreds of people and dicate how commercial airliner will fly when the weather dicates otherwise. Get a grip, some of you. The manager of the Long Beach Airport can't do anything about it, Joe Sopo can't do anything, no city council person, no one. These planes will do whatever they have to do to fly safe. Now go and tithe me some money.

31 years
Okay people airplanes do not take off or fly backwards.They take off in the opposite direction.

Concerned
The concerns are not with the weather. The planes have been picking up the patterns miles late. Rather than pick up the approach over the weapon station in Huntington Beach,they sometimes wait until the very last minute and jump on over Hill Jr High or CSULB.

That was unheard of until a few years ago and wrong.

This actually INCREASES the risk to passengers and residents according to aviation experts and pilots in the area.

Also, some of these jet pilots have lousy aim. Just today one Jet Blue pilot flew in, dead center over Hill Jr High. This is normal and it avoids two neighborhoods.

The next guy comes over dead center over Bixby Hills, about 1/4 mile south of the pattern? So why is he way off of the pattern? A sudden change in weather over 5 minutes? Nope, just sloppy flying.

And the flying out in reverse has become way way too frequent over the last 2 years. It is better lately but we agree with Seal BEach and Senator Rohrbacher. A deal is a deal.

Deal With It, People
A lot of people here aren't going to like this, but plain and simple, this Airport was here looooooooooooooooooooong before any homes were built. It wasn't squeezed in, nobody made room for it. Matter of fact, a case can be made that if it wasn't for the Airport being "born" in the 1920's, your homes might not be there now. So while you might think "a deal is a deal" or that you're entitled to tell big dual engine jet airplanes what to do, as Jesus says, you'd be thinking wrong. If your realtor didn't disclose to you that there's an airport nearby, or you weren't observant enough to figure out and/or prognosticate that over time, the Wright Brothers' invention might somehow affect your life, frankly, too bad for you. Your home was built looooooooooong after that Airport got there, and you eventually moved near the nuisance, the nuisance has not somehow found you. Now you can stomp your feet, say it isn't so, get all self righteous, but it-simply-won't-matter in the long run.

That Airport is not going anywhere. Ever. Some of you, on the other hand, feel free to exercise your Constitutional rights to move freely about the country. Or, just deal with it.

YOU DEAL WITH IT
The airport used to support 3 shifts and thousands of jobs at Douglas. I supported a long list of related businesses but all of that is long gone. When the noise and problems were to help thousands work that was reasonable.

Today many never use this air port and do not make a penny from it, thus many could care less if it comes or goes.

Asking the planes to merely follow the rules, stay on the established patterns, minimize noise and be good neighbors is not asking a lot.

Some of you air port people are really good at being bull headed and upsetting a ton of people along the way. Then you dig in your stupid heals and we have a multi year Hush 1 or 2 battle needlessly?

Just be considerate....or watch the petitions circulate. BOTH sides have rights regardless of who built first.

Under the law of Nuisance, you can move to any nuisance and sue. The key is being reasonable.

Staying on pattern is reasonable.

Flying like a bored stunt pilot or test pilot at an air show is not.

Thanks LGB
Thanks to the LGB airport for posting what it did here. That was very considerate and helpful. That is also very reassuring.

When we all work with respect towards all, we all achieve better results.

Quietly staying on the normal routes and in the normal direction is all that most desire.

Thanks !