Monday, September 19, 2016

Southwest Airlines rolls out Las Vegas service from Long Beach Airport

 
Taxies on "Lima" towards Rwy 30.


Commencing our takeoff roll.

 Short final to Rwy 30.

(Photos by Jason Jorgensen)

I did the inaugural Southwest Airlines flight between Long Beach Airport (LGB/KLGB) and Las Vegas (LAS/KLAS) today, September 18, 2016. The flight (WN2138) was operated with Boeing 737-7H4 (36889/2679) N927WN. (I free-loaded on this flight as it was wide open).

We pushed 4 minutes early at 09:46 and were airborne at 09:56 and after 48 minutes in the air we touched down on Rwy 25L in Las Vegas at 10:44 blocking in at 10:47. I would be returning to Long Beach at 12:05 and this would be my aircraft for the return flight.

As I wondered around the gate area I ran across a couple folks that I had worked with at LAX (Kenny Jinbo) and SNA (David Tilbury) during my years with the carrier and it was so very nice to chat with each of them.

The return flight (WN6198) to Long Beach commenced boarding promptly at 11:35 and I was first to board behind the pre-boarding passengers as I used awards points and bought a ticket as the return flight was booked full and somehow I managed to get A1. We again pushed early at 12:02 and were off the deck at 12:16. A very short 40 minutes in the air, we touched down on Rwy 30 at Long Beach Airport at 12:56 and blocked in at 12:59.

Both flights were great and ran like clock work. It is to bad this service will only last until the first of next year as the 3 slots we are using for the flights go back to jetBlue at that point.


(Michael Carter - Aero Pacific Flightlines -Editor and Chief)

1 comment:

amulbunny's random thoughts said...

Wish LGB would leave the slot game and let WN have them. We'd do LGB-LAS in a heartbeat after driving LAX traffic this summer.