Mar. 6--LONG BEACH -- The first of two major changes in the Long Beach Airport landscape begins today with the startup of daily flights by a new tenant, Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines.
And on April 2, American Airlines officially disappears again from Long Beach runways as it ends its final two daily commercial flights as part of a shift of resources to new operations at Love Field in Dallas.
Delta will operate three new daily nonstop flights between Long Beach and Salt Lake City, a rapidly developing western hub for the airline that it plans to use to link up local travelers with more than 100 Delta destinations.
Delta is using three of the airport's regional commuter flight slots for the service. The airline's SkyWest Airlines subsidiary will operate the flights.
The airline is not a stranger to Long Beach, operating commercial service here from 1987 until 1991.
Departures to Salt Lake City are set for 6:45 a.m., 1 p.m. and 5 p.m.
American, meanwhile, confirmed it ends its run of service out of Long Beach on April 2.
The Long Beach nonstop flights to American's hub at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport just weren't profitable enough to continue operating, said Tim Smith, an American spokesman.
And with American ramping up new service out of Love Field, the airline is repositioning some of its planes to meet demands there.
American already had scaled back its other Long Beach flights, both to Dallas, as part of the rampdown here. At one time, American operated eight daily flights from Long Beach.
"The decision was driven by business conditions," Smith said. "The flights have not been economically profitable or rewarding from a financial standpoint."
Three airlines have applied for American's slots: FedEx, Alaska Airlines and the airport's biggest tenant, JetBlue Airways.
In addition to possible new destinations from JetBlue if it gets the slots, Long Beach travelers could also see some tweaks in the popular airline's fare structure.
Hammered by continued high jet fuel prices and flight cancellations caused by last year's hurricanes, JetBlue is trying to recover from fourth quarter losses of more than $42 million by restructuring its pricing.
The airline is experimenting with higher fares on its popular routes between New York City and Florida and could expand the structures, which CEO David Neeleman earlier this year said might be around $10 on one-way tickets.
JetBlue spokesmen said the airline isn't increasing fares in the traditional sense, but adjusting the "fare buckets" it uses to determine how many seats on selected flights have discounted fares, which have more moderate fares and which have higher, capped ticket prices.
The percentage of seats with the lower fares might be adjusted to help boost JetBlue revenues as it battles the fuel costs.
Neeleman told an investor conference recently that JetBlue had set prices too high on top-end fares, failing to sell some seats, and too low on some bottom-end fares, selling out but at too low a price, the New York Times reported.
