=20 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- This article was sent to you by someone who found it on SFGate. The original article can be found on SFGate.com here: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=3D/n/a/2005/12/15/financial/= f165633S62.DTL --------------------------------------------------------------------- Thursday, December 15, 2005 (AP) American Airlines to end service from Long Beach Airport (12-15) 16:56 PST Long Beach, Calif. (AP) -- American Airlines will stop its service from Long Beach Airport in early 2006, company officials said. The Dallas-based airline will give up one flight in January or February and the other four remaining flights will be discontinued by March 2, said Tim Wagner, a company spokesman. The airline is discontinuing flights at several locations nationwide as = it expands service out of Dallas Love Field. The airline's primary hub is Dallas-Forth Worth International Airport . Discount airline JetBlue Airways will take over at least three of Americ= an Airline's five slots. New York-based JetBlue had to give up some of its slots at Long Beach after American Airlines threatened legal action over how flight slots were originally awarded. JetBlue will receive at least three of the soon-to-be vacant spots as pa= rt of a 2003 agreement related to American Airlines' threatened lawsuit. "We find it ironic that we were kind of pressured to release these slots, and now they're apparently not useful to them (American) anymore," said JetBlue spokeswoman Jenny Dervin. "The marketplace changes so rapidly, almost on a daily basis, so I'm not entirely surprised. No one should be." The Long Beach flights were being dropped for economic reasons, Wagner said. "Because we don't have the financial position to buy new aircraft or (hire) more people, we have to get more assets from our other locations," Wagner said. "Long Beach happens to be one of our lower-performing markets. It's a marginal route." ------------------------------------------= ---------------------------- Copyright 2005 AP