Boutique air provider JSX is increasing its community of posh turboprop flights to California’s Bay Space.
The air provider will start as much as thrice every day flights from the Santa Monica Airport (SMO) on the west aspect of Los Angeles to Oakland San Francisco Bay Airport (OAK) on Sept. 14, JSX mentioned Thursday. It can function its new 30-seat ATR 42-600 turboprops on the route.
With the addition, JSX will supply three year-round nonstop routes from SMO: Harry Reid Worldwide Airport (LAS) in Las Vegas, OAK and the Scottsdale Airport (SCF) close to Phoenix. The air provider additionally serves Napa County Airport (APC) from SMO seasonally throughout the summer season.
Vacationers can earn factors in both United Airways’ MileagePlus loyalty program or JSX’s personal Membership JSX program on the brand new route. A loyalty tie up with JetBlue Airways led to February.
JSX’s operations at SMO can solely be flown with turboprops resulting from native restrictions. The air provider debuted the ATRs in December 2025 as an experiment to see if its upscale air service from principally personal terminals would work with a turboprop moderately than a jet.
The planes are configured in a 2-1 structure with white faux-leather seats and a desk subsequent to the solo seats. They’re outfitted with high-speed Starlink inflight connectivity.
A turboprop ‘experiment’ for JSX
Alex Wilcox, the CEO of JSX, talking on the sidelines of the IATA annual assembly in Rio de Janeiro earlier in June mentioned they see no indication that vacationers are avoiding the ATRs in comparison with the air provider’s Embraer ERJ regional jets.
That’s excellent news for JSX. In January, Wilcox described the planes as an “experiment” for JSX and outlined an formidable potential development program potential solely with the ATRs. The turboprops can fly to many airports that jets can’t, both resulting from native restrictions — like at SMO — or the size of the runway.
Telluride Regional Airport (TEX) in Colorado is one other potential vacation spot for JSX’s turboprops, Wilcox mentioned on the time.
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JSX flies three ATRs with a fourth due this summer season.
The one query mark Wilcox talked about in Rio was help from airframer, ATR. JSX is barely the second operator of the turboprops within the U.S., the opposite being FedEx.
ATR sees JSX as a chance to determine a marketplace for its planes — the one industrial fashions with 40-60 seats in manufacturing immediately — within the U.S. the place many 50-seat regional jets are resulting from retire within the coming years.
“What we wish to obtain is to work to develop an ATR market within the U.S.,” mentioned Nathalie Tarnaud Laude, the CEO of ATR, in January. “We see this chance as a strategy to carry ahead our plane again to the U.S.”
ATR choices
JSX has choices with its ATRs. If all continues to go nicely, the air provider can decide to the 25 extra ATR 42-600s it signed a tentative deal for on the Paris Air Present in 2025.
The 4 JSX will fly by the top of the summer season are leased and might be returned if the experiment doesn’t work out.
“I am very optimistic, I am very bullish,” Wilcox mentioned in January. “Now we have to see how all 4 go, we have now to ensure the purchasers proceed to like them, and importantly we have now to ensure ATR helps them.”
