Southwest Airlines awarded flight slot after FedEx departure

The Long Beach Airport awarded Soutwest Airlines an additional permanent flight slot after FedEx announced in September it would no longer continue services at the airport.

The noise-controlled airfield at LGB allows a maximum of 53 daily flights and each carrier is allocated a certain number.

With the added flight slot, Southwest now has a total of 35 fight slots, followed by Delta Airlines, which has a total of 12.

The airport defines a flight slot as a flight an airline company makes over a period of two days.

For more than 30 years, FedEx had at least one daily flight, and as many as three, at the municipal airport.

A spokesperson for the airport originally told the Post that the goods transportation company was using its allocated flight slot.

In March 2020, the airport enacted a flight slot moratorium that relieved airlines from the minimum flight slot use provision as companies were dealing with economic impacts amid the pandemic.

That moratorium ended on June 30 this year, and after months of non-operation, FedEx officially notified the airport on Aug. 18 in that it would discontinue service at LGB, according to a city memo.

The airport notified all the airlines on its flight slot waiting list of the new available slot, including Southwest, Delta, American Airlines and Hawaiian Airlines. Only Southwest and American Airlines requested the available slot, according to the memo.

The remaining goods transportation company still operating at LGB is UPS.

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