7/02/2013

Flying Los Alamos to Albuquerque

Pacific Airways operating as New Mexico Air introduced a commercial flight (reintroduced really, maybe third iteration of commercial flights out of Los Alamos) back and forth to Albuquerque airport. I took the flight in late May amid light rain and cloud cover. Flights are $50 and 30 minutes each way, which beats the hell out of the 100 mile 1 hour 45 minute drive. The schedule is still getting dialed in but if it works for your connections, it is a fun little trip. Flight seats 9. Pretty much takes off and from Los Alamos and follows the Rio Grande down to Albuquerque, banks around a bit and you are there. See all the photos here If you like little planes and flying photos, check out a post about the last flight I took out of here
Update! Sharp memoried former Los Alamoosan Chad recalled the following incident related to Los Alamos airport history: airplane fornication

Handsome little Cessna 208 Grand Caravan
Los Alamos Municipal to Albuquerque commercial flights.

Taking off from Los Alamos County Airport (LAM)

Looking back over the town,lab and ski hill
IMG_1743

White Rock Canyon and the Rio Grande
IMG_1754

Jumbly Badlands in Cochiti
IMG_1756

More Rio Grande in Cochiti Pueblo
IMG_1759

Planned Sprawl North West of Albuquerque
IMG_1767

Rio Grande Closer to Albuquerque
IMG_1761

Nuclear Museum in Albuquerque
IMG_1774

Landing at the Albuquerque International Sunport (ABQ)

Anyhow, I will take it again. I urge you to as well if it makes sense for your trip. The flight was pretty smooth, certainly smoother than the times I have flown from Santa Fe to Denver. The air service is heavily subsidized, likely at numerous levels, and I am not super confident that this will last in the long run at this price, but it probably makes some financial sense at some weird level for all of us to use it as we probably paid for the subsidies through our taxes as we do for all our transportation. So don't worry about it and enjoy the flight...