The city of Long Beach has announced that it would reallocate slots at Long Beach vacated by JetBlue Airways (B6, New York JFK) to Southwest Airlines (WN, Dallas Love Field), Hawaiian Airlines (HA, Honolulu), Delta Air Lines (DL, Atlanta Hartsfield Jackson), and any new entrant airlines.

JetBlue, which plans to end all services to Long Beach by October 6, 2020, currently holds 17 slots at the Californian airport, nearly a third of all 53 daily slots at the airport (of which 12 are supplemental and subject to annual review in light of the airport's noise footprint). All of JetBlue's slots are permanent and not subject to noise-related reviews.

"We have a waiting list at Long Beach Airport with multiple air carriers, and demand remains strong. Once air travel recovers from the COVID-19 crisis, we look forward to a strong recovery," Long Beach Mayor Robert Garcia said.

The airport will reallocate slots to each of the three waitlisted airlines, in addition to any new entrants, one each in order until all the slots are allocated. Once a slot becomes available, the airport has 30 days to allocate the slot to the requesting carrier.

Besides JetBlue, the 53 slots at Long Beach are currently allocated to Southwest Airlines (eight permanent and nine supplemental), Delta (nine permanent and three supplemental), American Airlines (AA, Dallas/Fort Worth) (three permanent), Hawaiian Airlines (two permanent), and cargo specialists UPS Airlines (5X, Louisville International) and FedEx Express (FX, Memphis International) (one permanent each).

JetBlue is withdrawing from Long Beach to focus its West Coast operations out at Los Angeles International.