County airport adding flights to Vegas
IMPERIAL — The commuter airline serving Imperial County Airport has announced it will begin offering service to Las Vegas on May 24.
Southern Airways Express has provided daily flights between Imperial and Los Angeles since it acquired Mokulele Airlines more than three years ago. Southern’s Essential Air Service contract with the County of Imperial was recently renewed for another four years.
“The County is extremely grateful to Southern Airways for choosing to open this service to residents and travelers of Imperial County,” Board of Supervisors Chairman Jesus Eduardo Escobar said in a written statement. “This will be an extraordinary opportunity for many to venture outside of Imperial County, build connections, and hopefully bring visitors to our beautiful and unique binational region.”
Southern’s routes in Imperial are subsidized under the federal Essential Air Service (EAS) program. Since 2019, Imperial has been one of the top-performing communities in all of EAS, the company said. In the year before the COVID pandemic, 12,800 passengers used Southern’s flights at Imperial. Throughout the pandemic and beyond, Southern has posted a controllable completion rate of 99.3 percent, which means, excluding weather cancellations, the airline has been virtually perfect for the last 26 months.
“Complementing our Los Angeles flights with Las Vegas should be a real winner,” said Mark Cestari, chief commercial officer of Southern Airways. “We expect this gamble to pay off big! We are even designating ‘711’ as the flight number for the Imperial-to-Vegas flights in hopes it gives our passengers a little extra luck!”
Southern will offer daily service between Imperial and Las Vegas every day except Tuesdays. Fares begin at $79. Tickets are on sale now at iFlySouthern.com, as well as all online travel agencies such as Travelocity, Orbitz and Expedia.