Photo courtesy of Southwest Airlines.
Just one month after the Long Beach Airport announced the arrival of Southwest to its lineup of air carriers, Southwest on Thursday will reveal new information regarding its service options on flights departing from Long Beach, potentially spilling the beans about its envisioned destinations.
A release issued today confirmed it will reveal more of its plans on Thursday, March 31 aboard The Queen Mary. The airline promised more information and a “few surprises” at Thursday’s event.
Last month, the city drafted award letters to Southwest, JetBlue and Delta Airlines for nine new slots made available due to current noise levels at LGB.
Both Southwest and JetBlue requested all nine of the available slots, but because JetBlue and Delta already operate at LGB, and the city’s allocation process gave precedence to new carriers over those incumbent, Southwest was entitled to two slots per application and JetBlue and Delta were only entitled to one.
In total, Southwest was awarded four slots, JetBlue was awarded three and Delta received the remaining two slots.
Southwest Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Gary Kelly announced the airline’s intentions to expand services into Long beach at an employee rally in Las Vegas last month.
“Long Beach would make it five for five in greater L.A. for Southwest and would give us another service point to fulfill our promise to connect our California customers, not only to what’s important, but also to where is important in planning business, vacation, or personal travel plans,” Kelly said. “Nobody can match the value you all bring to air travel with our world-famous hospitality, and no one can offer California what we do on a daily basis, especially with the attractive addition of our low-fare service at Long Beach.”