Long Beach Airport | |||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Summary | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Airport type | Public | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Owner | City of Long Beach | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Serves | Greater Los Angeles | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Location | Long Beach,California, U.S. | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Elevation AMSL | 60 ft / 18 m | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Coordinates | 33°49′04″N118°09′06″W / 33.81778°N 118.15167°W /33.81778; -118.15167 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Website | www | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Maps | |||||||||||||||||||||||
 FAA airport diagram | |||||||||||||||||||||||
  LGB  LGB  LGB | |||||||||||||||||||||||
 Interactive map of Long Beach Airport | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Runways | |||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Helipads | |||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Statistics (2025) | |||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Sources:FAA[1][2][3] | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Long Beach Airport (IATA:LGB,ICAO:KLGB,FAALID:LGB) is a publicairport 3 mi (4.8 km) northeast of downtownLong Beach, inLos Angeles County, California, United States.[1] It is also calledDaugherty Field, named after local aviator Earl Daugherty. The airport was an operating base forJetBlue, but this ended on October 6, 2020, as the carrier moved its operating base toLos Angeles International Airport (LAX), amidst the then-ongoingCOVID-19 pandemic. Consequently,Southwest Airlines became the airport's largest airline.
TheNational Plan of Integrated Airport Systems for 2011–2015categorized it as aprimary commercial service airport.[4]Federal Aviation Administration records say the airport had 1,413,251 passenger boardings incalendar year 2008,[5] 1,401,903 in 2009 and 1,451,404 in 2010.[6]
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Located near the border between Los Angeles County and Orange County, Long Beach Airport serves theLos Angeles MSA. Due to its close proximity to the busier and largerLAX 20 miles away, the airport sees more domestic commercial passenger, cargo, military, and general aviation activity. The airport's placement near many residential areas has led to it having one of the country's strictest ordinances limiting airport noise.[7]
It is the 10th busiest airport in California based on passenger boardings, at 1.4 million. As of May 2025, Southwest operated the most airline flights out of Long Beach; the other airlines are Delta and Hawaiian. Air cargo carriers, includingFedEx andUPS, also use LGB. 57,000 tons of goods are carried each year.
TheBoeing Company (formerlyMcDonnell Douglas) maintains maintenance facilities for Boeing and McDonnell Douglas/Douglas aircraft (including the historicDC-9 andDC-10 aircraft) near the Long Beach Airport and produced theC-17 through 2015. The manufacturing facilities were leased toMercedes-Benz andRelativity Space.Virgin Galactic established the satellite launch vehicles at the Long Beach Airport and operated byVirgin Orbit.[8][9]Gulfstream Aerospace operates a completion/service center.
The Long Beach Airport has an aggressive noise abatement program, with three full-time noise specialists.[10] The City of Long Beach can criminally prosecute the aircraft's owner and the pilots for breaking the noise ordinance. As the airport continues to grow and air traffic increases, so do the complaints about loud and low-flying aircraft. The airport produces a monthly noise and complaint report.[11]
Because of the noise abatement program, commercial (passenger or cargo) flights have been restricted since 1981, when a limit of 15 daily flights was instituted. As of 2023, 41 daily flights are permanent, and 17 flights are supplemental (which are adjusted each year depending on noise budget results), for a total limit of 58 flights per day.[12] However, many other types of flights take place, including charters, private aviation, flight schools, law enforcement flights, helicopters, advertising blimps, and planes that tow advertising banners. Long Beach airport is one of thebusiest general aviation airports in the world, with 398,433 aircraft movements in 2007.[13]
Long Beach Airport has one terminal inStreamline Moderne style that is a historical landmark and was renovated in early 2013.
ATP Flight School operates a professional commercial pilot flight training program at Long Beach Airport/Daugherty Field.[14]
The first transcontinental flight, a biplane flown byCalbraith Perry Rodgers, landed in 1911 on Long Beach's sandy beach. From 1911 until the airport was created, planes used the beach as a runway.
Barnstormer Earl S. Daugherty had leased the area that later became the airport for air shows, stunt flying, wing walking and passenger rides. Later, he started the world's first flight school in 1919 at the same location. In 1923 Daugherty convinced the city council to use the site to create the first municipal airport.
Douglas "Wrong Way" Corrigan used to fly regularly out of Daugherty Field. Before his infamous flight fromBrooklyn, New York, toIreland in 1938, he had flown from Long Beach to New York. After authorities refused his request to continue on to Ireland, he was supposed to return to Daugherty Field, but a claimednavigational error routed him to Ireland. He never publicly acknowledged having flown there intentionally.
The main terminal building was designed by architects William Horace Austin and Kenneth Smith Wing and was constructed in 1941.[15]
The murals and mosaics were created by artistGrace Clements and completed in 1941, with the support of theWorks Progress Administration. They depict aviation, navigation, and constellations.[16]
In the 1940s and 1950s the only airline nonstops from Long Beach Airport were to Los Angeles, San Diego, and sometimesCatalina Island; in 1962Western Airlines introduced a dailyElectra to San Francisco and one a day to San Diego. Jet schedules began in 1968; in 1969 WesternBoeing 737-200s flew to Las Vegas, Oakland, and San Francisco. In 1980 the only jets werePacific Southwest Airlines flights to SFO.
Between 1990 and 1992 Continental, Delta, TWA, and USAir ended service to LGB, andAmerican Airlines left in early 2006.[17] Alaska Airlines later ended mainline service, and ended codeshare service in 2015.Delta Connection Regional jet flights continue at LGB. In February 2016 Southwest Airlines announced plans to begin service to the airport with an initial four available slots. On July 9, 2020, JetBlue announced that they would end service to the airport in October 2020, instead expanding their operations at nearbyLos Angeles International Airport.[18]
To attract theUnited States Navy, the City of Long Beach built a hangar and an administrative building and then offered to lease it to the Navy for $1 a year for the establishment of a Naval Reserve air base. On May 10, 1928, the U.S. Navy commissioned the field as a Naval Reserve air base (NRAB Long Beach). Two years later the city built a hangar and administrative building for theUnited States Army Air Corps as well. Significant developments to the little city airport began only after the city built hangars and administrative facilities for the Army and Navy in 1928–30.
As a Naval Reserve Air Base, the mission was to instruct, train and drill Naval Reserve personnel. A ground school was offered three nights a week at the base and two nights a week at theUniversity of California in Los Angeles until 1930, when ground school was continuously offered at the base. On April 9, 1939, training in night flight began, and shortly thereafter its facilities began to be used by fleet aircraft as well.
With increased activity by airlines and the private airplane industry, particularly withDouglas Aircraft showing an interest in the Long Beach Municipal Airport, the facility needed more space. With Douglas Aircraft as a resident, the attitude of Long Beach's authorities became openly hostile to naval aviation, with its city manager saying that "the sooner the Navy gets out of the Long Beach airport, the better we will like it."
The Navy began a survey for another site, unknown to city officials at the time.Admiral Ernest J. King, then the Chief of the Bureau of Aeronautics, and AdmiralsWilliam D. Leahy,Joseph K. Taussig, and Allen E. Smith pointedly requested that the city of Long Beach repair the runways and reminded the city that thePacific Fleet, then lying offshore in Long Beach andSan Pedro harbors, had a payroll of more than $1 million a month. Eventually, the city complied with the Navy's requests.
The city remained hostile toward approving a lease on any additional land that the Naval Reserve now required.
The Navy, fed up with the city of Long Beach, decided upon the purchase of some property owned by a Mrs.Susanna Bixby Bryant, a fact made known by the commander of the base, Commander Thomas A. Gray, to the Chief of the Bureau of Aeronautics,Admiral John H. Towers. The circumstances behind the purchase were revealed toJames V. Forrestal, Under Secretary of the Navy, and by him to the House Naval Affairs committee who approved the purchase. Although Comdr. Gray had offered Mrs. Bryant $350 an acre, in the best patriotic spirit she sold the property at $300 an acre.
With the site acquired, in 1941, construction funds soon followed andNAS Los Alamitos began to take shape. Upon the transfer of the Naval Reserve Training Facility to Los Alamitos, to the surprise of city officials of Long Beach, in 1942, instead of returning the Naval Reserve Air Base facilities at Long Beach to the city, the Navy turned over the facilities to theUnited States Army Air Forces, which had established a training base next to it. NARB Long Beach was not totally abandoned but became a Naval Auxiliary Air Station (NAAS).
ThroughWorld War II the airfield was given over to the war effort. In August 1941 theCivil Aeronautics Administration took over control of the airport, which had grown to 500 acres (2.0 km2). Once Los Alamitos became an operational base in 1941, NAAS Long Beach now turned to servicing carrier-borne F4Fs, SBDs, FM-2s, F4Us, F6Fs, TBF/TBMs, and SB2Cs. In addition, it had utility aircraft and such patrol planes as the PBY, SNB, GB3, NH, GH, and SNJ.
As the Navy's activities began to be shifted to Los Alamitos, theLong Beach Army Airfield at Long Beach became the home of the Army's Air Transport Command's Ferrying Division, with the 1736th Ferrying Squadron assigned,[19] which included a squadron of 18 women pilots commanded by Barbara London, a long time Long Beach aviator.
Like the Naval Air Ferry Command at NAS Terminal Island, the Army's ferrying work was an immense undertaking, thanks to Douglas Aircraft's wartime production. Ground was broken for the initial Douglas Aircraft facility in November 1940, with dedication in October 1941. Douglas had been drawn to Long Beach's growing municipal airport with its Army and Navy facilities. With wartime contracts, the company went into intensive production. The company's first C-47 was delivered 16 days after the attack ofPearl Harbor and another 4,238 were produced during the war. The plant turned out some 1,000 A-20 Havocs, not to mention 3,000 B-17 Flying Fortresses and 1,156 A-26 Invaders.
With the end of the war the U.S. Navy abandoned any use of Long Beach Municipal Airport and with it the designation of Long Beach as a Naval Auxiliary Air Station.
Long Beach Airport covers 1,166acres (472ha) at anelevation of 60 feet (18 m). It has threeasphalt runways:[1][20]
It has fourhelipads:
Runways 16L/34R and 16R/34L were permanently closed on July 21, 2016. Runway 16L/34R was 3,330 by 75 feet (1,015 x 23 m), and runway 16R/34L was 4,470 by 75 feet (1,362 x 23 m). Both runways were removed.[21]
| Airlines | Destinations | Refs |
|---|---|---|
| Delta Air Lines | Salt Lake City | |
| Delta Connection | Salt Lake City | [22] |
| Hawaiian Airlines | Honolulu,Kahului | [23] |
| Southwest Airlines | Austin,Chicago–Midway,Dallas–Love,Denver,Honolulu,Houston–Hobby,Las Vegas,Nashville,Oakland,Phoenix–Sky Harbor,Portland (OR) (resumes August 4, 2026),[24]Reno/Tahoe,Sacramento,Salt Lake City,San Jose (CA),Seattle/Tacoma (begins August 4, 2026)[25] Seasonal:Bozeman (begins June 6, 2026),Kahului,Orlando |
| Airlines | Destinations |
|---|---|
| FedEx Express | Fort Worth/Alliance |
| UPS Airlines | Louisville |
| Destinations map |
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Long Beach Continental U.S. destinations from Long Beach Airport Red = Year-round destination Green = Seasonal destination Blue = Future destination Spring Green = Cargo destination Dark Green = Destination shared by more than one airline |
Hawaii destinations from Long Beach Airport Red = Year-round destination Blue = Future destination Dark Green = Destination shared by more than one airline |
| Rank | City | Passengers | Airlines |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Las Vegas, Nevada | 263,000 | Southwest |
| 2 |  Sacramento, California | 208,000 | Southwest |
| 3 | Oakland, California | 175,000 | Southwest |
| 4 |  Phoenix–Sky Harbor, Arizona | 171,000 | Southwest |
| 5 |  Salt Lake City, Utah | 146,000 | Delta, Southwest |
| 6 |  Denver, Colorado | 134,000 | Southwest |
| 7 |  Honolulu, Hawaii | 119,000 | Hawaiian, Southwest |
| 8 | San Jose, California | 118,000 | Southwest |
| 9 |  Houston–Hobby, Texas | 90,000 | Southwest |
| 10 | Dallas–Love, Texas | 90,000 | Southwest |
| Rank | Airline | Passengers | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Southwest Airlines | 2,794,000 | 84.82% |
| 2 | Hawaiian Airlines | 228,000 | 6.92% |
| 3 | SkyWest Airlines | 195,000 | 5.91% |
| 4 | Mesa Airlines | 74,910 | 2.27% |
| 5 | Delta Air Lines | 2,230 | 0.07% |
| 6 | Other | 300 | 0.01% |
| Year | Passengers | Year | Passengers | Year | Passengers |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2000 | 637,853 | 2010 | 2,978,426 | 2020 | 1,043,773 |
| 2001 | 587,473 | 2011 | 3,099,488 | 2021 | 2,104,696 |
| 2002 | 1,453,551 | 2012 | 3,206,910 | 2022 | 3,242,831 |
| 2003 | 2,875,525 | 2013 | 2,942,873 | 2023 | 3,739,307 |
| 2004 | 2,926,873 | 2014 | 2,823,996 | 2024 | 4,148,080 |
| 2005 | 3,034,032 | 2015 | 2,523,686 | 2025 | 3,817,980 |
| 2006 | 2,758,362 | 2016 | 2,852,294 | 2026 | |
| 2007 | 2,906,556 | 2017 | 3,783,805 | 2027 | |
| 2008 | 2,913,926 | 2018 | 3,884,721 | 2028 | |
| 2009 | 2,909,307 | 2019 | 3,584,203 | 2029 |
Long Beach Transit Routes 102, 104, 111, and 176 serve the airport. Specifically, route 111 southbound from the airport connects toDowntown Long Beach Station, where a passenger can transfer tothe A Line northbound to destinations in downtownLos Angeles.[30] Route 104 connects to theWillow Street Station. Route 405 provides weekday service to/fromUCLA.[31]
TheSan Diego Freeway (I-405) can be reached from the airport viaLakewood Boulevard (SR 19). Wardlow Road runs from the airport to the Los Angeles County/Orange County border, where it becomes Ball Road and crosses the north edge of theDisneyland Resort; Long Beach Airport is the second closest airport to Disneyland, afterJohn Wayne Airport.
On December 12, 2012, the Long Beach Airport completed a $136 million improvement project designed to modernize the main terminal without sacrificing its historicArt Deco architecture or reputation among travelers for convenience.[32] It was developed to improve the customer experience by providing resort-like amenities, having a central palm garden, outdoor dining areas with fire pits, wine bars, and 11 gates. A new 2,000-space parking structure was completed ahead of schedule and below budget. $5 million was spent to refurbish the old terminal, which was originally built in 1941 and declared a historic landmark by the city decades later. The new terminal retains the open-air feeling of the current terminal complex, and passengers still walk across the tarmac when boarding or leaving their planes. Thebaggage claim also is partially enclosed, as it was before.[33]
In February 2020, the Long Beach City Council approved of a new $80-million Phase II improvement project.[34] The project includes a new ticketing building and the seismic retrofit of the historic terminal building. The project also includes moving the rental car area into the historical terminal building, new baggage claim areas, and a new meet-and-greet area. Design and construction began in 2020 and will continue through early 2024.[35]
The airport appears in:
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