Southwest says it will fly out of Long Beach Airport

Southwest Airlines aounced Tuesday that it will indeed fly out of Long Beach Airport, although the airline has not yet revealed its destinations.

The Dallas-based airline plans to make those details public during a Thursday moing media conference at the Queen Mary.

Long Beach officials offered four flight slots to Southwest after former LGB chief Bryant L. Francis determined the city’s noise ordinance required the city to allow airlines to increase the amount of business they do at LGB.

The noise law essentially creates a budget of allowable aircraft noise around LGB and Francis relied on multiple studies to conclude that since mode jet engines are quieter than earlier technologies, observed noise levels have fallen to levels that are low enough to mandate an increase in flight operations at LGB.

Historically, the noise law has allowed 41 flights at LGB. Francis aounced in December that LGB will allow a total of nine new flight slots.

LGB has offered four slots to Southwest. JetBlue Airways Corp., which is LGB’s primary carrier, received an offer for three slots and Delta Air Lines was offered two slots.

JetBlue recently aounced plans to add a flight from LGB to Reno-Tahoe Inteational Airport as well as increasing its service from Long Beach to San Francisco and Ontario.

Long Beach’s City Council has also taken action to undertake a controversial study to determine whether JetBlue’s interest in offering inteational flights at LGB makes business sense.

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