I’ve lived in L.A. almost all my life, and am now employed near LAX. Every day I drive past the airport, and have noticed an increase in the number of small, twin-engine, propeller driven airliners that I see landing and taking off. I’ve flown around California a fair amount, including frequent trips to San Francisco, and, in my college years, between L.A. and San Diego or Burbank and San Diego, which is about as short as an airplane trip can get. But even the trips to San Diego were always in jets.
When travelling to other parts of the country, I’ve long noticed you still see quite a few prop airliners on the shorter routes, but AFAIK the California air travel market was taken over completely by jets as early as the mid 60’s.
So why am I seeing these small planes now? As an enthusiast, I’m seriously considering buying a ticket just to go for a ride on one and see what they’re like. But what destination would I buy a ticket for? Where do these planes go?
A few destinations where they use small commuter planes out of LAX are San Luis Obispo, Palm Springs, Santa Barbara, and San Bernardino. There are many cities who either do not have the air travel or the runway length to handle a larger jet.
I imagine that a lot of propellor driven planes are used for commuter flights because they are cheaper.
These commuter flights seem to go all over, Palm Springs, Santa Barbara, Bakersfield, El Centro.
A brother of mine in the aerospace field says that these planes aren’t popular with a big segment of the flying public. The industry has a term for this “Turboprop Aversion Factor.”
I livd in CA until I was 18, then went away to university on the East Coast. My parents would splash out for me to come home three-four times a year, so I’ve not only seen the planes you’re describing, I’ve ridden in a lot of them. Major airlines use the turboprops or straight propeller aircraft to service the small hubs. At least in CA, this means US Express, Alaska, Sky West, American etc. The planes can range from seating four passengers to about sixteen. Very small, noisy and I don’t particularly care for them. Then again, I fly enought that I don’t really care for ANY kind of plane, except the 777 in club class going transatlantic. Like a flying lounge, it is.
I’ve been on the little ones Redding-SFO, SFO-LAX, Sacto-Oregon, etc. A lot of the smaller fields see a lot of them-like Eureka, Salinas, Monterey. Prices are expensive, probably because they cost a lot to run and can carry proportionately fewer passengers.
My mom commutes on one of those once a week from Seattle Portland. She usually flies in a Dash 8 on Horizon(Alaskan) Airlines or United Shuttle. Yes, they are small(16 pax) and noisy(earplugs always required) but she has had experiences that she says took her breath away. Often times the pilot will do a couple of loops around Mt. St. Helens and over local ski resorts so close to the ground that you can see the skiiers and chairlifts. Not to mention the sunsets. She always books a left side window going down(to see the mountains) and a right side window coming home(to see the sunsets).
They are expensive too, but if you are a commuter you can make “back to back” reservations(meaning you make a ticket that leaves Monday morning and leaves the next Monday night, but use the ticket from last week to get home that Monday night, and make all trips more than two weeks in advance), you can include a Saturday night stay that greatly reduces the cost. It is also illegal but highly cost efficient.
That’s about what I assumed. You never used to hear about people flying in from places like El Centro; I think people probably always used to drive in, even if it was to catch a flight out of LAX. But with traffic the way it is now, I can certainly understand why flying would become an increasingly popular option.
Moderators, “asked and answered” about sums it up, don’t you think? Why not close it up?