Hey L.A.: Don’t be blue, Fly JetBlue!

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As the countdown to “Carmageddon” draws to a close, one U.S. airline took advantage of the impending traffic nightmare by offering Los Angeles commuters $4, 20-minute flights from one end of the city to another this weekend while a busy section of a major freeway is closed for construction.

Calling the short-haul flights the “Carmageddon Flyover,” Jet Blue Airways offered flights between Long Beach and Burbank, for this coming Saturday, with two flights scheduled in each direction. For an extra buck, passengers could get a seat with extra legroom that includes early access to overhead bins. The first flight to depart from Burbank is aptly flight #405.

Long Beach and Burbank are located38 miles apart.

The airline announced the flights Wednesday, and they sold out within four hours, local media report.

In May, L.A.’s department of transportation announced that a 10-mile stretch and four-mile stretch of Interstate 405 would be closed for 53 hours on the weekend of July 16. Local media quickly dubbed the closure Carmageddon because of the gridlock it’s expected to produce in a city already notorious for its gridlock.

“Plan ahead, avoid the area or stay home,” the department of transportation warned in its May announcement of the closure.

“Traffic conditions on local streets and freeways within the region of Los Angeles County and beyond are expected to be severe, with significant, multi-hour delays.”

I’m personally headed to LAX on Saturday morning, lets see how well this goes!

UpUp&AGay News | Article source: http://www.torontosun.com/2011/07/14/airline-capitalizes-on-carmageddon-fears-with-4-short-haul-flights

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