Boutique air carrier JSX is expanding its network of posh turboprop flights to California’s Bay Area.
The air carrier will begin up to thrice daily flights from the Santa Monica Airport (SMO) on the west side of Los Angeles to Oakland San Francisco Bay Airport (OAK) on Sept. 14, JSX said Thursday. It will operate its new 30-seat ATR 42-600 turboprops on the route.
With the addition, JSX will offer three year-round nonstop routes from SMO: Harry Reid International Airport (LAS) in Las Vegas, OAK and the Scottsdale Airport (SCF) near Phoenix. The air carrier also serves Napa County Airport (APC) from SMO seasonally during the summer.
Travelers can earn points in either United Airlines’ MileagePlus loyalty program or JSX’s own Club JSX program on the new route. A loyalty tie up with JetBlue Airways ended in February.
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JSX’s operations at SMO can only be flown with turboprops due to local restrictions. The air carrier debuted the ATRs in December 2025 as an experiment to see if its upscale air service from mostly private terminals would work with a turboprop rather than a jet.
The planes are configured in a 2-1 layout with white faux-leather seats and a table next to the solo seats. They are equipped with high-speed Starlink inflight connectivity.
A turboprop ‘experiment’ for JSX
Alex Wilcox, the CEO of JSX, speaking on the sidelines of the IATA annual meeting in Rio de Janeiro earlier in June said they see no indication that travelers are avoiding the ATRs compared to the air carrier’s Embraer ERJ regional jets.
That is good news for JSX. In January, Wilcox described the planes as an “experiment” for JSX and outlined an ambitious potential growth program possible only with the ATRs. The turboprops can fly to many airports that jets cannot, either due to local restrictions — like at SMO — or the length of the runway.
Telluride Regional Airport (TEX) in Colorado is another potential destination for JSX’s turboprops, Wilcox said at the time.
JSX flies three ATRs with a fourth due this summer.
The one question mark Wilcox mentioned in Rio was support from airframer, ATR. JSX is only the second operator of the turboprops in the U.S., the other being FedEx.
ATR sees JSX as an opportunity to establish a market for its planes — the only commercial models with 40-60 seats in production today — in the U.S. where many 50-seat regional jets are due to retire in the coming years.
“What we want to achieve is to work to develop an ATR market in the U.S.,” said Nathalie Tarnaud Laude, the CEO of ATR, in January. “We see this opportunity as a way to bring forward our aircraft back to the U.S.”
EDWARD RUSSELL FOR THE POINTS GUY
ATR options
JSX has options with its ATRs. If all continues to go well, the air carrier can commit to the 25 more ATR 42-600s it signed a tentative deal for at the Paris Air Show in 2025.
The four JSX will fly by the end of the summer are leased and can be returned if the experiment does not work out.
“I’m very optimistic, I’m very bullish,” Wilcox said in January. “We have to see how all four go, we have to make sure the customers continue to love them, and importantly we have to make sure ATR supports them.”
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