Long Beach is served by Long Beach Airport (LGB), a convenient and often less crowded alternative to Los Angeles International (LAX). It focuses primarily on domestic flights into LGB, with a strong presence from Southwest Airlines and JetBlue Airways, offering point-to-point service to Long Beach from major cities across the U.S.
The airport's network into Long Beach is centered on short to medium-haul domestic routes. Key departure points into LGB include the major Bay Area airports (SFO, OAK, SJC), Seattle (SEA), Portland (PDX), Las Vegas (LAS), Phoenix (PHX), Salt Lake City (SLC), Dallas (DAL), and New York (JFK). There are no international or long-haul flights arriving in Long Beach.
Long Beach Airport is dominated by Southwest Airlines, which operates the majority of its flights into LGB. JetBlue Airways has a significant base, focusing on transcontinental routes to Long Beach from New York and Boston. Other carriers have minimal presence into LGB, and there are no ultra-low-cost carriers like Spirit or Frontier at LGB.
To find cheap flights to Long Beach, book domestic arrivals into LGB 3-6 weeks in advance. Use Southwest's and JetBlue's websites for the best deals to Long Beach. Flying into LGB on weekdays (Tuesday-Thursday) is cheaper. For a wider range of destinations into the region, especially international flights to the Los Angeles area, and sometimes lower fares, compare prices into Los Angeles International (LAX) and Ontario International (ONT) followed by ground transport to Long Beach. Long Beach's main advantage for arrivals is its ease of use and proximity, but for budget travel or global connectivity into the region, LAX often offers better prices and more options to get close to Long Beach.