FORT WORTH, Texas - American Airlines today celebrated four new daily nonstop flights from Long Beach Municipal Airport - two each to Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport and New York’s Kennedy International Airport.

American and Long Beach officials held a ribbon cutting ceremony topped off by a fire department water cannon salute for Flight 290 as it departed for JFK Airport.

“American has served Long Beach for nearly 20 years, but this is our first opportunity to offer the community flights to three of the nation’s biggest and most popular gateways,” said Mike Gunn, the airline’s executive vice president of Marketing and Planning. “By combining Chicago and JFK with our existing service to the Dallas/Fort Worth hub, we give Long Beach travelers easy access to more domestic and international destinations than ever before.”

The Long Beach-Chicago service is being flown with 129-seat Super 80 aircraft. The Long Beach-JFK flight is operated with 176-seat Boeing 757s. Like all American Airlines jets, the Super 80s and 757s feature the added legroom of the airline’s “More Room Throughout Coach” interiors.

The new Long Beach routes augment American’s existing four daily flights to and from Dallas/Fort Worth, the airline’s largest hub.

American and its regional affiliate, American Eagle, operate more than 480 flights a day to nearly 100 destinations from Chicago’s O’Hare, including connections to scores of points in the Midwest, on the East Coast, and in Canada and Europe. From JFK, Long Beach customers can connect to nonstop service to Europe and Latin America.

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