Long Beach Airport Has Limited Hours

December 26, 2007 at 8:50 pm in LA

Long Beach Airport. It’s adorable in a charming, Art Deco way, right down to the airline desk signs. It’s so cute that, as you fly in, it almost looks like something made out of Duplo blocks, a building-block airport. What is NOT cute is that Long Beach doesn’t open quite early enough. Not even for holidays. We couldn’t figure out if the shuttle from the offsite parking was running when we arrived at 4:30 (in THEORY it was, but it was nowhere to be seen).

We decided to park-and-walk from Lot C, arriving at the terminal just in time to…wait for the check-in desk to open at 5:15. Then there was the slowdown of waiting for security to open at 5:45. THEN we were able to walk out onto the tarmac and board the plane.

I know this is extremely whiny, but I was mostly grumpy because it was a) cold to be waiting outside and b) FIVE IN THE MORNING. It was probably a far worse gong show at LAX. It was just a surprise because I expected earlier hours on the Christmas travel weekend. Then again, there weren’t the crowds to justify more staffing – or even an earlier start time. Strange, since I thought the Port of LA was trying to funnel more of the LAX traffic through the smaller airports.

Anyways. A warning: arriving at LGB before 5:30, no matter when your flight, is not necessary. On the bright side, it’s only $11 to park in a lot close enough to walk to the airport. I think I need to fly out of LGB one morning when it’s all open & fully staffed. Then I’ll be able to judge if it’s as awesome as I’ve always been told.

8 Comments »

http://www.typetive.com/candyblog cybele

Just about every airport I’ve ever been to that has a wee-early hours departure has a similarly pluked schedule where they want you to be there 2 hours ahead but don’t open the check in until 90 minutes (or less) before departure.
http://militantangeleno.blogspot.com militant angeleno

Long Beach Airport is a municipal airport of the city of Long Beach, and is subject to its rules, etc. There’s likely some long-standing ordinance stemming from community concerns that limit the hours of this airport.

As for the “Port of L.A.” get out of your NY mindset; LAX is run by Los Angeles World Airports; the Port of Los Angeles is a separate entity that only oversees water vessels going in and out of San Pedro. The only other airports LAWA has authority over are Ontario, Palmdale and Van Nuys. While other regional airports like BUR, SNA and LGB do help lighten the LAX load, LAWA benefits directly from flights into ONT or PMD.
frazgo

Oh oh…there’s going to be some po’d people when they find out you gave up one of the great little air travel secrets in LA. My cousin and his wife have used it a few times to get to NY. Fast, cheap and a very, VERY short drive down the 605 for us. Jet Blue used them as their first local airport when they started up and it is a great way to get to NY cheap.
Les

We would appreciate it if you refrained from mentioning the Long Beach airport in the future. It doesn’t really exist and you were never there. Now say it… it doesn’t exist and I was never there (repeat)
J

Um.. I think this has to do with sound pollution laws. AND, not to mention, ALL airports usually stop outbound traffic around midnight and resume after 5 or 6 am. While there are flights in the air (i.e. an LAX to JFK bound flight that leaves at 11 pm and arrives after 6 am) usually only delayed flights land in the whee hours of the morning. I think most ticket counters at ALL airports across the US close at 11PM or sooner. This is not exclusive to LGB. This article might as well be renamed to “Airports have Limited Hours”.
J

Um.. I think this has to do with sound pollution laws. AND, not to mention, ALL airports usually stop outbound traffic around midnight and resume after 5 or 6 am. While there are flights in the air (i.e. an LAX to JFK bound flight that leaves at 11 pm and arrives after 6 am) usually only delayed flights land in the whee hours of the morning. I think most ticket counters at ALL airports across the US close at 11PM or sooner. This is not exclusive to LGB. This article might as well be renamed to “Airports have Limited Hours”.
jillian

I was hoping by complaining enough fewer people would use LGB anyways. I kind of liked Ontario, myself.
http://calmdragonproto.blogspot.com/ Proto

Long Beach to Las Vegas on Jet Blue is my favorite flight.

Long Beach Airport Has Limited Hours

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