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Long Beach Airport's terminal building

Long Beach Airport (IATA: LGB, ICAO: KLGB, FAA LID: LGB), also known as Daugherty Field, is located in Long Beach, California, and serves Los Angeles and Orange Counties. The airport has four smaller runways and one long runway for jets (10,000 ft.), plus nine taxiways, and occupies 1,166 acres. It was formerly known as Long Beach Municipal Airport.

Long Beach Airport has very little service compared with the dominant Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) approximately 18 miles (29 km) to the northwest, and will always remain a relatively small airport due to ordinances adopted to minimize noise in the residential neighborhoods near LGB. The airport is under one of the strictest ordinances in the United States on both airport noise and the number of commercial flights. The current noise levels allow for a maximum of 41 daily commercial flights and 25 commuter flights. Local community groups and activists are very vocal about any changes at the airport.

At the same time, the arrival of low-cost carrier JetBlue Airways at Long Beach Airport in 2001, and that airline's decision to establish a West Coast hub at LGB, has substantially increased the air traffic to the airport and has cemented LGB's standing as a viable alternative to LAX for flights from the Los Angeles area to major East Coast cities. While JetBlue used the local noise ordinance to turn Long Beach Airport into a miniature fortress hub, it quickly reached maximum capacity and has since been forced to rework flight schedules and direct future growth to other Los Angeles area airports.

Air cargo carriers, including ABX Air (DHL), FedEx and UPS, also maintain operations out of LGB. 57,000 tons of goods are transported each year.

The Boeing Company (formerly McDonnell Douglas) maintains production of the C-17 military transport jet; maintenance facilities for other Boeing aircraft (including the historic DC-9 and DC-10 aircraft) are also found at Long Beach Airport. Gulfstream Aerospace also has a completion center at the airport.

Although commercial flights are severely restricted, there are still a large number of flights at the airport from charter flights, private aviation, flight schools, law enforcement flights, helicopters, advertising blimps, planes towing advertising banners, etc. Because of that, Long Beach airport is one of the busiest general aviation airports in the world, with more than 300,000 annual general aviation operations.

Long Beach Airport has a single terminal. It is notable for its Streamline Moderne style of architecture and is an historical landmark. Because of the age and limited size of the current terminal, changes, including a possible addition, are currently under discussion (as of 2005).

The first trans-continental flight, a biplane flown by Perry Rodgers, landed in 1911 on Long Beach's sandy beach. From 1911 until the airport was created, planes continued to use the beach as a runway.

The famous 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.

A Douglas C-74 Globemaster I at Long Beach Airport with Boeing B-17 and Curtiss P-40 aircraft in the background.

During World War II, the airport temporarily became "Long Beach Army Airfield". Pilots were trained at the airport and several squadrons were based there. It was also the home of the Air Transport Command's Ferrying Division, which included a squadron of 18 women pilots.

Also during World War II, Douglas Aircraft produced 9,000 aircraft (including C-47s), plus hundreds of transports for the Korean War.

LGB used to be serviced by both United Airlines and American Airlines, but both pulled out due to lack of profitability. In addition, the latter blamed Southwest Airlines for forcing it to move flights from Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport to Dallas Love Field "to remain competitive".

• Alaska Airlines (Seattle/Tacoma)
• Delta Air Lines
  • Delta Connection operated by SkyWest (Salt Lake City)
• US Airways
  • US Airways Express operated by Mesa Airlines (Phoenix)

• JetBlue Airways (Boston, Chicago-O'Hare, Fort Lauderdale, Las Vegas, New York-JFK, Oakland, Sacramento, Salt Lake City, Washington-Dulles)

The following airline(s) have announced new service to Long Beach Airport and their concourse location is TBA at this time:

• ExpressJet Airlines (Fresno, Monterey, Reno/Tahoe)

Douglas "Wrong Way" Corrigan used to regularly fly out of Daugherty Field. Before his infamous flight from Brooklyn, New York to Ireland in 1938, he had already flown a transcontinental flight from Long Beach to New York. He was supposed to be returning to Daugherty Field after authorities had refused his request to fly on to Ireland, but because of a claimed navigational error, he ended up in Ireland instead. He never publicly acknowledged having flown to Ireland intentionally.

The facade of Long Beach Airport's passenger terminal served as the fictional "Aeropuerto Val Verde" (Val Verde Airport) in the Arnold Schwarzenegger movie Commando (1985).

The final scenes of the Cary Grant film The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer are set at Daugherty Field.

• FAA Airport Master Record for LGB (Form 5010 PDF)
• Long Beach Airport (official web site)

• Historic California Posts: Long Beach Army Air Field
• FAA Airport Diagram (PDF)
• Resources for this airport:
  • AirNav airport information for KLGB
  • ASN accident history for LGB
  • FlightAware airport information and live flight tracker
  • NOAA/NWS latest weather observations
  • SkyVector aeronautical chart for KLGB
  • FAA current LGB delay information