American Airlines has asked to add two more round-trip daily commercial flights from Carlsbad’s McClellan-Palomar Airport to Phoenix starting in May, despite a lawsuit by residents and the city seeking to ground the jets.
The additional flights at the county-owned airport will require a new lease with American, which the San Diego County Board of Supervisors is scheduled to consider at its May 6 meeting.
The board approved an existing two-year lease with American in January 2025 that allowed the Airlines to resume flights in February 2025, years after the airline had stopped serving Carlsbad. The only American flights there now, including the proposed additions, are to Phoenix.
The local watchdog group Citizens for a Friendly Airport filed a suit against the county and American weeks after the supervisors approved last year’s lease.
It claims the agreement violates the California Environmental Quality Act on issues such as noise and air pollution and a county policy that limits aircraft using the airport to a maximum of 70 seats. The airline uses Embraer 175 jets with 76 seats for the local flights.
San Diego Superior Court Judge Gregory Pollack approved the city of Carlsbad’s request to join the group’s lawsuit in November 2025. The case remains undecided, as activities at the airport expand.
“If approved by the Board of Supervisors, American will begin a new lease on May 7, 2026, which will supersede their current lease,” said Donna Durckel, a communications officer for the county. “The lease is for use of our facilities. Aircraft operations and certification are under the jurisdiction of the (Federal Aviation Administration), which has expressed its support of American Airlines serving Palomar Airport.”
The new lease is expected to generate $1.1 million in revenue for the airport during its first year, Durckel said.
The airline now has two daily flights from Carlsbad. One departs at 6:18 a.m. and returns at 11:48 a.m. The other leaves at 12:19 p.m. and returns at 4:13 p.m.
If the new lease is approved, the airline will add a flight departing at 4:49 p.m. and arriving back in Carlsbad at 6:21 p.m. beginning May 7. Then, beginning May 21, there will be a flight departing at 6:50 p.m. and returning at 10:28 p.m., according to county officials, a total of four round-trips to Phoenix.
The county supervisors approved a lease in December with United Airlines for four daily round-trip flights from Carlsbad to San Francisco and Denver that are set to start Tuesday. The Citizens group filed a separate lawsuit to stop United, but so far the city has not joined that one.
Residents opposed to the commercial flights spoke during public comments at Tuesday’s Carlsbad City Council meeting. There was no related item on the agenda, and council members did not discuss the issue.
Cynthia Trevino, a resident for 27 years, said she’s been awakened at 3 and 4 in the morning by planes that fail to follow the airport’s voluntary noise abatement program.
“That’s not a minor inconvenience,” Trevino said. “It affects my health, my home and my ability to function the next day.”
In addition to the noise, she said, residents have concerns about pollution and public safety, “especially considering the FAA’s ‘hot spot’ designation at Palomar.”
Palomar is one of more than 30 airports in California on the federal hot spot list, which identifies areas on or near runways and taxiways with a possibility of ground collisions based on past observations and complaints.
The Carlsbad airport has two spots on the list. One is part of a taxiway where it is difficult for air traffic controllers in the tower to see small planes when a large jet is parked in the way. The other is a spot where pilots have been known to turn onto the wrong taxiway, although there is no record of collisions at either of the listed spots.
Dom Betro, a resident of Carlsbad’s coastal Solamar neighborhood, told the City Council he thinks the county has “downplayed” the hot spots and other issues such as noise and pollution.
“We’re all concerned with these flights that are going to start next week,” said Betro, who represents 25 North County homeowners associations in the Palomar Airport Action Network.
“The county … is moving ahead full-steam to make this into a full-blown commercial airport,” he said. “The only thing that is going to stop the county is legal action.”
Details of the proposed new lease were presented at a March 19 meeting of the Palomar Airport Advisory Committee. Its nine members are appointed by the Board of Supervisors to advise county officials on matters related to the airport.
The committee, which has one vacant seat, failed to support a recommendation that the county approve the new lease on a 3-3 vote with two members absent, said Chair Cliff Kaiser.
“For the record, the PAAC nor the County approve or disapprove flights at Palomar,” Kaiser said in an email Friday. “We only have a say in leases on county property.”
Palomar is a general aviation airport used primarily by private and corporate aircraft. It is at the northwest corner of Palomar Airport Road and El Camino Real, near the city’s geographic center.
The airport opened at its present location in 1959, when it was relocated from Del Mar to accommodate construction of Interstate 5. Carlsbad annexed the airport and surrounding property in 1978.
American Airlines’ regional service, known as American Eagle, previously flew daily from Carlsbad to Los Angeles from 1991 to 1997.
United Airlines’ regional United Express provided regular service between Carlsbad and Los Angeles from 1996 to 2016. United used a 30-passenger turboprop for the flights, which ceased when the company switched to new jets that needed a longer runway.