An airline that bills itself as a “hop-on” carrier — passengers can arrive only a half hour before a flight and simply hop on — is happy with its decision to begin serving Reno-Tahoe International Airport.
JSX, which operates out of Stellar Aviation’s facilities on South Rock Boulevard, started flying between Reno and Burbank in September. In December, it added service between Reno and Orange County.
The Reno-Tahoe Airport Authority says JSX carried 382 passengers on 19 flights leaving from Reno to Burbank during November. Figures aren’t yet available on December traffic, which would include the new Orange County service.
(By comparison, Southwest Airlines — the busiest passenger airline at Reno — had 50,645 passengers in November.)
“We have been very pleased with the initial response to the new JSX service,” a company spokeswoman said a couple of days ago.
The company believes that its service to Reno has benefited from the desire of pandemic-weary consumers to get out of cities and head for outdoor recreation in places such Lake Tahoe and northern Nevada.
In fact, the airline subtly shifted its focus from short-haul business travel to a greater emphasis on leisure destinations as the pandemic unfolded.
But even once business travel gets back to something like normal, JSX executives expect that Reno will remain an important component of its service.
The Dallas-based regional carrier uses 30-seat Embraer 135 and Embraer 145 jets on four weekly flights between Reno and each of the Southern California airports.
The regional jets provide two seats in each row, eliminating middle seats.
Because its flights use the Stellar Aviation facilities rather than the Reno-Tahoe International terminal, JSX says it can eliminate long waiting lines for a security check system that exceeds TSA requirements.
The company serves the California cities of Concord and Oakland in addition to Burbank and Orange County. Elsewhere, it serves Las Vegas, Phoenix, Dallas and Houston.
