Sep. 7—It just got easier to fly to the beach.
The Albuquerque International Sunport celebrated the inaugural nonstop flight between Long Beach, California, and the Duke City on Tuesday. The new daily flight is offered by Southwest Airlines.
"It opens up Albuquerque and New Mexico to Southern California," said Sunport Director of Aviation Richard McCurley.
This is the third nonstop flight the Sunport offers to the Los Angeles basin. The film industry in New Mexico offers a business case for expanding services between New Mexico and California, according to Manny Manriquez, Sunport innovation and commercial development manager.
"Now, obviously, there's a strike going on right now. That has hindered a lot of that production, but as far as we know, those productions are going to be coming back," Manriquez said. "And they're going to be coming back and forth. And we're building out the infrastructure in Albuquerque and throughout the state to accommodate more and more and more of those productions in the years to come."
The Sunport has rapidly expanded the number of nonstop flights available over the last several years. There were 24 nonstop flights in 2021 and only 19 in 2020. At present, there are 29 nonstop flights, the most the Sunport has offered since 2012.
The Wright Amendment being repealed in 2014 reduced the number of nonstop flights into New Mexico, said Manriquez. The Wright Amendment restricted flights out of the Love Field Airport in Texas, where Southwest Airlines operated, so that nonstop flights could only be made to neighboring states. That inflated the number of nonstop flights coming into Albuquerque.
"I think it was a right-sizing, but now we're in a place where if there is a business case for the flight and there's demand in the market, we're going to get that service, and that's how we want it to be. It's market driven," said Manriquez.
The Sunport plans to add more nonstop flights.
"We already have really great connectivity to the West Coast, to the region around us. We're building out our routes to the Midwest," Manriquez said.
With Balloon Fiesta a month away, the new flight comes at a great time, said Sanjay Bhakta, CFO for the City of Albuquerque. There is also a lot of momentum in the tourism industry at present, Bhakta said, with a promising new report from the state having come out last week.
"In 2020, there was a nosedive when it comes to travel and tourism, but I'm happy to tell you, in 2023 in June, our lodgers' tax data tells us that the rise from that nosedive was more spectacular than ever," Bhakta said. "Pre-pandemic, 2019 was the best year for Albuquerque as far as the lodgers' tax, which reflects travel and tourism. 2023 was actually better than 2019. So post-pandemic we are doing great and there is a momentum."
The city's lodgers' tax has grown almost 11% between 2022 and 2023, bringing in an additional $2.1 million, for a total of $21.7 million in the 2023 fiscal year. Lodgers' tax has grown by 105% since 2021, when travel was still seeing an impact from the COVID-19 pandemic. The Albuquerque Tourism Marketing District brought in $6.4 million in revenue for fiscal year 2023.
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