Long Beach Airport reopens World War II-era main terminal after massive restorations

The Long Beach Airport reopened its historic 1940s-era main terminal. Rina Nakano reports.

[rkneegordon]

I’m so happy the decision was made to restore it, rather than demolish an make a new floor.

[Urbanhandyman]

You can easily hear the echo in the woman's voice which means the former general manager wasn't wrong about loud noise levels. Perhaps sound mitigation treatments along some walls and ceilings will be necessary in the future. I worked as a cashier at the gift shop over the summer of 1986 prior to my senior year in high school at Poly High. The job was like combat. I was bored most of the time but for a few minutes all hell would break out as people rushed in to buy magazines, candy, or romance novels, as their flight was already boarding. Good times.

[djsnyder]

That airport manager who covered those mosaics in the 60's was a complete philistine.

[TinLeadHammer]

No clickety-clack from high heels anymore, more like flipity-flop.

[edmundgonzalez]

Grew up on Catalina Island 1962-81. As a young kid would sometimes fly into Long Beach on Catalina Airlines when we could afford to fly. As a high school kid I worked summers and weekends for the airlines and got to fly for free. Loved the old terminal. Of course the old "Steamer" terminal in San Pedro was pretty cool too.

[Msflamingo-wlqo]

Love this!!❣️ Good on you Long Beach!! They recently demolished and modernized my beloved KCI, but they can't take away my great memories! ❤

[trumpthis]

Best airport in socal. That building is a reminder of years past.

[kendallevans]

Hope this becomes a American trend...restoration instead of replacement. For so many decades we got into the habit of tearing stuff down and rebuilding from scratch. Old DT Anaheim had some amazing buildings then in the late 70's they just leveled it and tried to look "Jetsons"....it's horrible!

[Dutch]

This is a huge win for historic preservation. Great to see!

[celebrityrog]

I haven't been to Long Beach Airport since 2007, thought it was kinda cool, and old classic WWII era airport, which had cute little jetramps for jetBlue when I flew them. But I think back then that was one of the only airlines that flew in/out of them. I don't even remember if Southwest did back then. I guess at least they have Southwest as their main airline - I just checked - and have quite a few destinations.

[CityLifeinAmerica]

Carpet ruins EVERYTHING. Stop doing it to houses with wood floors too! It's always funny when we see that you see something really beautiful hiding underneath the carpet!

[roachtoasties]

How did they not know the tiles where there but were probably under the carpet? Carpet doesn't last decades and must have been replaced numerous times.

[FreddySherman]

KCAL, you need better camera people. Lighting and image quality on those interviews inside the terminal are truly terrible. Cool story though.

[mRahman]

Maybe they could find a clever way to add some sound absorbing material in terminal.

A few strategically placed bails of hey might just do the trick.

[Rudys]

How about that rental car kiosk? Am I right!?!?

[hernanhernandez]

Awesome! Never have flown out of Long Beach living in the Valley but now I want book a flight out of that terminal.

[paulazmudzinski]

Next thing on the to do list is to reopen the second floor restaurant and bar. In my day it was known as the Clouds restaurant.

[robertmartinez]

looks like the airport that was shown in the movie, The Best Years of our Lives.

[judegabbard]

I love flying into LGB! Truly the most wonderful, friendliest small airports in California.

[DJ_Andreas]

Restoration complete, clumsy worker drops Ladder on it almost instantly.