{"id":441421,"date":"2026-08-23T19:30:10","date_gmt":"2026-08-23T19:30:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/441421\/"},"modified":"2026-08-23T19:30:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-23T19:30:10","slug":"only-109-miles-united-airlines-launches-new-extremely-short-route-map","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/441421\/","title":{"rendered":"Only 109 Miles: United Airlines Launches New Extremely Short Route [Map]"},"content":{"rendered":"

Earlier this month, United Airlines began flying between Los Angeles International Airport<\/a> (LAX) and Meadows Field Airport (BFL) in Bakersfield for the first time since August 2014. The carrier will serve this short route daily using Embraer E175<\/a> jets operated by its feeder partner, SkyWest Airlines, under the United Express banner. The flights take around an hour. <\/p>\n

At least that is the case for their block time. However, because this includes a considerable buffer for the long, busy taxiways at LAX, the actual time spent in the air tends to be closer to 30 minutes. The route is one of two intra-California corridors that United serves from Bakersfield, with the other linking the facility to San Francisco.<\/p>\n

Back In Action<\/p>\n

\"LAX
\n Credit:\u00a0Great Circle Map<\/a><\/p>\n

According to AeroRoutes<\/a>, flights between LAX and BFL resumed on August 11. The outbound leg, UA4804, leaves Los Angeles at 10:43 AM and reaches Bakersfield at 11:40 AM.<\/p>\n

For the return leg, UA4730 departs Bakersfield at 2:03 PM and arrives back at LAX at 3:05 PM. The actual time spent in the air is much shorter than the hour-long block times, with Flightradar24<\/a> showing that the fastest iteration of UA4804 thus far took just 24 minutes. Bill LaManque, Director of Kern County Department of Airports, welcomed the route’s launch in a statement earlier this year.<\/p>\n

“Each new route expands access, supports local businesses, and strengthens our region\u2019s economic vitality. We\u2019re proud to partner with both United Airlines and American Airlines in delivering these essential connections.”<\/p>\n

Bakersfield’s Operations As A Whole<\/p>\n

\"BFL
\n Credit:\u00a0Wikimedia Commons<\/a><\/p>\n

United is one of two major US carriers selling flights out of Bakersfield, with the other being its rival and fellow ‘big three’ operator American Airlines<\/a>. The Texas-based oneworld founding member flies from there to its hubs at Dallas\/Fort Worth International Airport (DFW) and Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport (PHX). The former is served daily by Airbus A320s from the mainline fleet. <\/p>\n

As for Phoenix, this route averages more than three daily departures, with data from Cirium<\/a>, an aviation analytics company, showing 99 flights across August 2026. American’s mainline A319s account for 32 of these, with the remaining 67 operated by regional jets: one by a SkyWest CRJ700, four by Envoy Air Embraer E175s, 26 by SkyWest E175s, and 36 by SkyWest CRJ900 jets.<\/p>\n

Bakersfield Departures, August 2026<\/p>\n

Airline<\/p>\n

Flights<\/p>\n

American Airlines<\/p>\n

63<\/p>\n

American Eagle<\/p>\n

67<\/p>\n

United Airlines<\/p>\n

31<\/p>\n

United Express<\/p>\n

111<\/p>\n

As for United, its only mainline flights from Bakersfield serve its Colorado hub at Denver International Airport (DEN) using A319s. Denver is also served on a daily basis by United Express flights operated by SkyWest’s E175s. Elsewhere in California, SkyWest Airlines operates twice-daily United Express flights to San Francisco International Airport (SFO), using both Bombardier CRJs and Embraer E175s,<\/p>\n


\n \"American<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Related<\/p>\n

\t\t
\n\t\t\tFlaps Issue Prompts American Airlines Airbus A319 To Divert To Bakersfield
\n\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

The aircraft landed safely, and no injuries were sustained by passengers or crew.<\/p>\n

United’s Other Ultra-Short LAX Routes<\/p>\n

\"United
\n Credit:\u00a0Shutterstock<\/p>\n

Despite Cirium<\/a> listing the distance from LAX to Bakersfield as being just 109 miles (175.4 km), this is not the shortest United-marketed route out of the carrier’s Southern California<\/a> hub. Instead, the shortest route is to Santa Barbara Municipal Airport (SBA), just 89 miles (143.2 km) away. United Express flights operated by SkyWest E175s serve this route twice on most days. <\/p>\n

Another United Express route out of LAX below the 150-mile mark is the link to Palm Springs (PSP). This 110-mile (177 km) corridor is served daily by SkyWest’s E175s, and it is just a mile longer than United’s shortest mainline route out of LAX, which serves San Diego (SAN). Of this month’s 93 flights (three a day), 73 will use Boeing 737s, with 20 using regional E175s.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Earlier this month, United Airlines began flying between Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) and Meadows Field Airport (BFL)…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":441422,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[151,153,152],"class_list":["post-441421","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bakersfield","tag-bakersfield","tag-bakersfield-headlines","tag-bakersfield-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/441421","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=441421"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/441421\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/441422"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=441421"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=441421"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=441421"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}