American Airlines will soon take off from McClellan-Palomar Airport once again.
American Airlines recently announced it will soon offer daily flights to Phoenix, Arizona, from the county-run airport. The last time American flew out of Palomar was 1997.
San Diego County's director of airports Jamie Abbott said commercial flights returning to McClellan-Palomar would mean "increased economic activity for the airport."
He said the aviation industry supports about 2,600 jobs at Palomar.
“It also means giving people the chance to fly out of their community instead of travel to Orange County’s John Wayne Airport or down to San Diego International to begin their travel," Abbott said. "So it's I think it's going to be a great benefit for the residents of North County.”
American will offer two outbound flights to Phoenix’s Sky Harbor International Airport — 6:15 a.m. and 12:45 p.m. — and two returning flights — 11:30 a.m. and 6 p.m.
The flights will be operated under the American Eagle brand and can accommodate up to 76 passengers per flight.
"American looks forward to connecting Carlsbad to our comprehensive global network starting next February," American Airlines said in an email statement. "This new service will provide convenient one-stop connections to destinations across the United States and Mexico while bringing travelers from around the world to see all that Carlsbad has to offer.”
Erik Bruvold, CEO of the San Diego North Economic Development Council, said that Pheonix is an American Airlines hub with access to hundreds of international destinations, so these new daily flights will be a boon for tourism.
“So just a few direct flights in and out of Palomar that serve key markets for our tourist industry, like Las Vegas, like the Phoenix area, perhaps the Bay area is just good for driving overall visitor spending in the North County,” he said.
He estimates that each flight would add about $300,000 to the overall regional economy, assuming that 80% of the flight's passengers are new visitors.
But first, Palomar will need to update its infrastructure to support commercial flights. Right now, it’s pretty simple to go through security screening at McClellan-Palomar Airport, but with commercial airlines returning, so too will the Transportation Security Administration and beefed-up security.
The last commercial flight out of Palomar was in 2015 and the TSA had removed all of the screening equipment.
“So we formerly had to request to bring their equipment back and their personnel back to Palomar in order to provide the screening for the American flights,” Abbott said.
Currently, JSX and Advanced Airlines offer chartered passenger flights out of Palomar. They operate under a different aviation license and do not require TSA screenings.
Flights from American Airlines are expected to take off starting Feb. 13, 2025. Tickets start from $320 roundtrip.
