SWA, DL , B6 awarded slots at LGB.

The City of Long Beach has allocated Southwest Airlines, jetBlue Airways, and Delta Air Lines take-off and landing slots at Long Beach Airport following an eight-week assessment and evaluation period.

Both Southwest and JetBlue requested all nine of the available slots, but because JetBlue and Delta already operate at LGB, and the city’s allocation process gave precedence to new carriers over those incumbent, Southwest was entitled to two slots per application and JetBlue and Delta were only entitled to one.In total, Southwest was awarded four slots, JetBlue was awarded three and Delta received the remaining two slots.The deadline to submit letters of interest was February 8, and the city received one each from the carriers that were awarded slots. While the allocation process has yet to be completed—the airlines must decide if it’s financially viable for them to operate the slots awarded to them—Southwest Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer Gary Kelly announced the airline’s intentions to expand services into Long Beach at an employee rally in Las Vegas today.“Long Beach would make it five for five in greater L.A. for Southwest and would give us another service point to fulfill our promise to connect our California customers, not only to what’s important, but also to where is important in planning business, vacation, or personal travel plans,” Kelly sad. “Nobody can match the value you all bring to air travel with our world-famous hospitality, and no one can offer California what we do on a daily basis, especially with the attractive addition of our low-fare service at Long Beach.”Southwest already provides service out of LAX, BUR, SNA and ONT.