Westsiders Likely To Be Furious: Tiny ‘Airline’ Starts Daily Roundtrips Off Santa Monica’s Short, Doomed Runway

Scheduled airline service will begin operations out of the Santa Monica Airport … the first turboprop leaves for Las Vegas this evening at 5:30.

The airline, JSX, promises no crowds, dedicated hangars, baggage included and free drinks and Wi-Fi.

The neighbors are surely to be furious. 

They have already filed suit to block the City of Santa Monica from leasing airport facilities to the small charter air company. 

The Texas based airline … JSX … flies 30 passenger short takeoff and landing planes.

Company documents and court filings indicating an initial goal of at least six departures per day and a potential expansion to nine.

Claiming to be a charter airline for relation purposes … JSX offers service to small suburban airports like Carlsbad … Napa … and other so-called executive airports.

They are also promising roundtrips between Santa Monica and Scottsdale starting January 22nd.  Scottsdale is a small city outside Phoenix.

The City of Santa Monica claims they discretion to deny the permit under a 2017 federal consent decree with the Federal Aviation Administration.

It requires Santa Monica to keep the airport open through the end of 2028. 

So JSX was granted a three year lease and commercial operations permit.

Neighbors in West Los Angeles and Santa Monica have been trying to close Santa Monica Airport for decades. 

They point to a strong of crashes … and of deadly lead residue from aviation fuel being found in their yards and gardens. 

And they point out the Santa Monica Airport does not have crash zones, development setbacks or fire department crash crews trained for possible passenger jet disasters.

Aviators say this people should have known about there airport when they bought their houses.

But … the airport sits on land that the City of Santa Monica bought for a park … 100 years ago.

And residents have filed suit.

They say the flights will increase jet fuel use and create new impacts on noise, air quality, traffic, safety, and emergency response in surrounding neighborhoods. T

They want a court order to require to rescind JSX’s permit until a full environmental review is completed.

No court order yet.  

The first JSX flight … at 5:30 tonight to Las Vegas … is sold out … 

But as of 6 this morning…. JSX airlines had at least one seat available to fly to Las Vegas tomorrow … 

The last seat on the 30 passenger plane was listed for 255 dollars roundtrip … as of early this morning. 

Another Fatal At A Ventura County Railroad Crossing

One person was killed yesterday on Las Posas Road in the Oxnard farm fields … the. Road used by Malibu residents to get to Home Depot. 

A train struck a pickup truck.

And the driver … an elderly man driving a Honda Ridgeline truck was killed instantly.

The truck was registered to an address in Port Hueneme.

The crash was at about 2 p-m on a stretch of tracks that parallels Highway 34 … a stretch where trains are allowed to travel 79 miles per hour as they cross streets at grade crossings.

14 passengers were on the train … none were hurt.

Las Posas road is the two lane highway linking PCH to the 101 … near the shopping centers in Camarillo. 

Similar fatal crashes have been happening for 100 years.

A railroad overpass is under construction on the other western link to Malibu … on Rice Avenue.