JSX began scheduled flights from Santa Monica Airport to Las Vegas in December 2025 using 30-passenger turboprop aircraft. Service to Scottsdale was added in January 2026. The City of Santa Monica approved the JSX business permit and lease without CEQA review.
City Manager Oliver Chi recently stated that, to reach airport closure, the city must “carefully review and allow qualifying aviation uses” during the Airport’s remaining years of operation. Careful review is essential. Under California law, however, careful environmental evaluation has a defined name: CEQA — the California Environmental Quality Act.
This discussion is not about opposing the Great Park. It is not about preventing closure. And it is not about indiscriminately limiting airport operations. It is about careful environmental review for increased operational intensity — specifically scheduled passenger service on a 30-passenger regional aircraft.
The 2017 Consent Decree with the FAA requires the City to comply with federal grant assurances through 2028. One of those, FAA Grant Assurance 22 (Economic Nondiscrimination), requires fair and non-discriminatory treatment of similarly situated aeronautical users.
However, it does not mandate operational expansion, nor does it exempt discretionary City approvals from environmental review under state law.
The issue is not whether JSX is allowed to operate at Santa Monica Airport. The issue is that the City approved discretionary actions resulting in a shift in airport operational intensity and surrounding impacts without studying foreseeable environmental effects or considering mitigation. That is exactly what CEQA is designed for.
Here are some of the key issues requiring further study: changes in use and intensity; accurate baseline conditions; cumulative impacts; ground-level effects; ground transportation and parking impacts associated with increased passenger activity; fueling and emissions assumptions; and whether existing emergency response resources were evaluated in light of increased passenger operations involving a 30-passenger aircraft within or outside the Airport fence.
Federal grant compliance and CEQA operate in parallel. If the City exercises discretion in approving new leases or operational changes, CEQA provides the framework for the careful review the City Manager describes.
The City’s draft framework for the future Great Park and its reaffirmation that Santa Monica Airport will close at the end of 2028 are both welcome steps. In the meantime, transparency and mitigation of airport impacts allowed by law strengthens public trust and welfare. As we move toward Airport closure and creation of the Great Park, adherence to both federal obligations and California environmental law should reinforce — not conflict with — that goal.
For more information, contact: https://www.lcdefense.org/
Alan Levenson and Zina Josephs
Measure LC Defense
