The Brief

A day after a state board denied parole for Erik Menendez, his older brother received the same decision Friday.

At the end of a lengthy hearing, a two-person panel found Lyle Menendez unsuitable for parole.

The brothers have been in prison for more than three decades for the August 1989 murders of their parents, Jose and Kitty Menendez, at their Beverly Hills home.

The board set Lyle Menendez's next parole hearing for three years from now.

It's a major setback to the brothers' years-long campaign for freedom, fueled by renewed interest in the high-profile case, arguments about new evidence, and a judge's decision earlier this year to resentence the pair — making them eligible for parole.

Parole Commissioner Julie Garland said the panel found there are still signs that Menendez poses a risk to the public and should not be released from prison. She also noted Menendez had shown genuine remorse for his crimes.

"You have been a model inmate in many ways who has demonstrated the potential for change," the commissioner said.

But despite the positive factors working in his favor, Menendez still struggles with deception and following the rules, Garland said, adding that incarcerated people who break rules are more likely to break rules in society.

“Don’t ever not have hope," the commissioner told Menendez. "This denial is not … it’s not the end. It’s a way for you to spend some time to demonstrate, to practice what you preach about who you are, who you want to be.

“Don’t be somebody different behind closed doors.”

The Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office opposed parole, arguing that both brothers still pose a threat to society and that they committed the killings out of greed hoping to inherit their parent's fortune.

Menendez attorney Heidi Rummel said during the hearing that the district attorneys cling “to their 1990s theory of the case” and ignore the role the sexual abuse played in the shootings.

The brothers' have long claimed they were sexually abused by their father.

“I hope that we’re in a place today that we have a deeper understanding of childhood sexual abuse,” she said. “This crime arose from trauma, from unresolved trauma, from fear, from sadistic abuse, and from cruelty."

Deputy District Attorney Ethan Millius questioned whether Menendez had “genuinely” taken accountability for his conduct. He cited Menendez’s inability to “follow basic rules" while in prison and said he “struggles with honesty.”

“There is no growth," Millius said. "It is just who Lyle appears to be.”

Claims of sexual abuse

On Friday, Lyle Menendez, 57, spoke remotely from Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility in San Diego, where both brothers are being held. Others also appeared remotely, including two state Board of Prison Terms commissioners — different from those who heard from Erik Menendez, 54, on Thursday.

During the hearing, the commissioners questioned Menendez about his claims of sexual abuse at the hands of his father.

“It was confusing, caused a lot of shame in me,” he said.

Menendez said the abuse started when he was around 6 years old. Around the age of 7 or 8, he said, there was a lot of waiting, and not knowing when something would happen in the bathroom or in the car.

He said it left him in a state of “hyper-vigilance.”

Menendez said when he was growing up he felt disconnected from the people in his life, somewhat borne from a fear that people would see the sexual abuse "in" him.

He said his father never spoke with him about the abuse after it stopped.

“I was getting pretty strong lessons about not trusting the world around me," he said.

Menendez said he was clearly the favored son.

“He was never harsh with me,” he said of his father. "I never got beaten for doing something wrong, so it was a devastating part of it in terms of just fear, I felt contaminated … but I felt love."

“I wanted to believe my father loved me, so in my mind I felt like he was a great man and my main way of dealing with it was that it was just a sickness that some great men have," he continued.

Garland asked Menendez about when he abused his brother.

“I don’t know why I did it," he said. "I think I was just trying to release it from me.”

As for Menendez’s relationship with his mother, he said he was abused by his mother too — something the commissioner said was not in the prison record.

“I didn’t see it as abuse really,” he said. “I just saw it as something special between my mother and I. So I don’t like to talk about it that way.”

He said he now sees it as sexual abuse.

"When I was 13, I felt like I was consenting and my mother was dealing with a lot," he said.

Testimony about the murders

Menendez said there was "zero planning” leading up to the murders on Sunday, Aug. 20, 1989. He said he and his brother bought the guns a few days earlier for “emotional protection.” They bought shotguns, not handguns, because there was no waiting period.

“The decision to buy the guns was Thursday night, it was somewhat impulsive … and that was it,” Menendez said. “There was no other discussion."

Menendez said he believed at the time of the shootings that his parents were going to kill him and his brother — but his feelings have since changed.

“I no longer believe that they were going to kill us,” he told the commissioners. “At the time, I had that honest belief.”

Menendez estimated he spent $100,000 in the months following the murders, including purchasing a Porsche. He said it helped him feel good in the moment and helped temporarily lift him out of his “anguish.”

His life collapsed without his parents, he said.

A combination of two booking photos provided by the California Department of Corrections shows Erik Menendez (left) and Lyle Menendez, now in their 50s.

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Responding to the commissioners' questions, Menendez said his mother's death caused him more sorrow than his father's because he "loved her and couldn’t imagine harming her in any way." But he said he also had a deep connection with his father, and killing him brought no relief.

“He was the one who sort of guided my life … he had his plan," Menendez said. "I was in his plan. I just felt lost without him.”

Garland referenced the “web of lies and manipulation” the brothers demonstrated after the murders, including attempts to destroy a competing family will and plans for escape from jail.

Garland asked Menendez if he believes he is a good liar.

Menendez said no — not now or then.

Conduct in prison

As with this brother, Menendez's use of cellphones in prison played prominently during the hearing. Cellphones are contraband and possession one is considered a serious violation of prison rules.

Citing prison records, Deputy Parole Commissioner Patrick Reardon noted Menendez had access to a cellphone from 2018 until 2024.

Menendez said he lived in a prison dorm during that time with five other people. He said someone would take responsibility for the phone who didn’t have anything to lose.

“I had convinced myself that this wasn’t a means that was harming anyone but myself... ," Menendez said. "I didn’t think it really disrupted prison management very much.”

In March 2024, Menendez lost his family visits because he got caught with the phone. Because he was caught again, he is now barred from family visits for three years.

According to a prison risk-assessment, cited by Garland, a doctor found Menendez had anti-social traits and was prone to entitlement, deception and manipulation. He also had a history of not accepting consequences.

Menendez said he talked through those issues with his doctor.

"Those elements were there with the cellphone use," he said. "I recognize them.”

But he noted he had also done some good in prison, by working with people who are especially vulnerable.

“I would never call myself a model incarcerated person," he said. "I would say that I’m a good person, that I spent my time helping people. That I’m very open and accepting.”

He called himself a "peacekeeper," someone who helps resolve conflicts.

The commissioners lauded Menendez for earning a college degree in prison and for starting a greenspace program and other mentorship work at a time when there was no guarantee he would ever get out of prison.

Menendez cried as he spoke during his closing statement to the commissioners.

“I will never be able to make up for the harm and grief I caused everyone in my family," he said. "I am so sorry to everyone, and I will be forever sorry.”

Comments from family

Members of the Menendez family pleaded with the commissioners to grant Lyle Menendez freedom. They said like his brother, Menendez has reformed himself behind bars and is no longer a threat to society.

“I’ve heard so many times over the last 35 years, why didn’t they just leave?" said his cousin, Anamaria Baralt.

She added that the trauma and childhood abuse created an illusion that there was no escape for the brothers, a concept that the criminal justice system is better at acknowledging now than when the crimes happened.

“I am begging you, commissioners … make this torture end," she said. "This 36-year nightmare. Let us put it behind us.”

Family members issued a statement late Thursday after Erik Menendez's parole was denied, saying they were disappointed in the decision but respected it.

The Friday hearing for Lyle Menendez was interrupted when his attorney learned that audio from his brother's Thursday hearing had been leaked to a local TV station.

“I don’t think you can possibly understand the emotion of what this family is experiencing," Rummel said. "They have spent so much time trying to protect their privacy and dignity.”

She blasted the parole board for the leak, although it's unclear how the audio got out.

Garland noted the transcripts will be made public anyway 30 days from now and that people could request release of the audio. She denied a request by Rummel to adjourn the hearing.

Several family members elected not to speak as a result of the leak. Rummel said they wanted to protect their privacy.

What's next?

The recommendation in Lyle Menendez's case is subject to review by the Parole Board's chief counsel. The decision will became final unless the the board finds it was made based on an error of law or of fact.

The board has up to 120 days after the suitability hearing to conduct a review.

In California, the governor has the right to review the board's decision. Gov. Gavin Newsom has up to 30 days to approve, reject or amend the recommendation.

In a separate bid for freedom, the brothers have asked Newsom to grant them clemency.

May gray skies will continue to keep the mornings on the cooler side, but come later this afternoon we'll see some sunshine and slightly warmer temps.

High temperatures along the beaches will stay in the mid 60s to around 70 degrees, and reach the lower 70s for the inland coast.

For the valleys, temperatures will reach the upper 70s. Meanwhile the Inland Empire will see highs up to 83 degrees.

Coachella Valley will see highs from 95 to 100 degrees.

Looking ahead to the weekend, the National Weather Service is forecasting high surf and dangerous rip currents for nearby beaches.

Come Saturday afternoon around 3:00, Ventura County will be under a high surf advisory. That will last until 9 a.m. Monday. Waves could be five to eight feet tall.

Meanwhile, the Malibu coast and L.A. County beaches will see dangerous rip currents and breaking waves starting Saturday evening through Monday morning. Swimmers, surfers and beach goers should be careful.

Since staunch conservatives achieved full control of Huntington Beach’s seven-member City Council in 2024, they have voted in lockstep to fight state mandates to build more housing, and for the right to censor books in the children’s library. They also voted unanimously to install a commemorative plaque at the library that spells out “M-A-G-A” and to commission a public mural to honor slain conservative activist Charlie Kirk.

But the city’s once-solid MAGA coalition appears to be fracturing, largely over allegations of “cronyism” — contracts, deals, favors and political appointments that appear to benefit friends and family of the city’s leaders. In April, several members of the council publicly lambasted the mayor’s plan to award a lucrative contract, seemingly out of nowhere and without competitive bidding, to the fiance of his appointee to a city commission.

The public backlash was swift from across the political spectrum — an unusual occurrence in the politically polarized city. An equally unusual display of dissent arose from the once-allied council. One of the dissenters, City Councilmember Chad Williams, told LAist he was outraged by “the audacity of our own mayor to push through this sweetheart deal for his commissioner’s fiance. Our city deserves better,” he said.

The mayor, Casey McKeon, told LAist he didn’t “understand the pushback.” He said the consultant who would have benefited from the contract, Tyler Wolff of Wolffhaus Studio & Creative, “happens to be one of the best in the industry. Why should we not engage in his services?”

Wolff, for his part, told LAist he merely saw problems with the city’s “brand ecosystem” — including events, merchandising and media outreach — and proposed solutions. “There’s no creative leadership, there’s no oversight, and there’s no accountability,” he said. Wolff said he was caught off guard by the controversy over the proposed contract for his company. “I know nothing about the RFP procurement process,” he said.

Ultimately, McKeon withdrew the contract with Wolffhaus under pressure, and the city is currently evaluating alternative bids (including from Wolffhaus).

The rift comes at a fraught time for the MAGA movement: Nationally, the coalition is splintering over the war in Iran; Locally, a deepening budget crisis in Huntington Beach has caused some residents and local leaders to look more closely at the city’s recent spending decisions.

At the heart of the city’s problems is cronyism, critics say. But not everyone agrees on what falls into that category.

The backstory

The latest controversy started when a proposal to award a $720,000 contract to Wolffhaus appeared on the city’s April 7 council meeting agenda, proposed by Mayor McKeon. The two-year contract was for revamping and maximizing the city’s “brand,” including ramping up sales of HB merch, opening a film commission, and improving the city’s public relations. The ultimate goal is to generate more revenue to help close a looming budget gap.

Several council members said they had no prior knowledge of the initiative before it appeared on the agenda — nor did they know that the city had already paid Wolff $30,000 to “audit” the city’s branding and communications strategy.

Critics, including Councilmember Williams, pointed out what they characterized as a number of other red flags, including Wolffhaus’ unfinished website which included a contact number that went to an adult hotline. (Wolff said it was a mistake and is now fixed.) The contract also contained a clause stating that, should the city want to cancel the contract at any time without cause, it would owe half of the remaining allocated funds to Wolffhaus. Williams called it a potential “windfall for work that was never done.”

“This was tailor made for Tyler [Wolff],” Williams said of the contract.

City Councilmember Andrew Gruel sided with Williams in vocally opposing the contract, calling its road to near-approval “sloppy.” Gruel told LAist he has a high regard for Wolff’s work, but was concerned about the transparency leading up to the contract’s sudden appearance on the council’s agenda. “I think the whole process was upside down,” Gruel said.

The council’s usual critics were livid, lambasting the personal connection between McKeon and Wolff and the lack of a competitive bidding process, which is generally required for large contracts.

“The whole thing just smacks of cronyism, backroom deals, sloppiness, lack of accountability, fiscal responsibility, I mean, pick some adjectives,” said Cathey Ryder, co-founder of the group Protect HB. The group has been a frequent foil to the current council’s agenda, including spearheading a ballot initiative last year that overturned the library censorship measure.

But indignation came in equal measure from the other side of the proverbial aisle, including from former backers of the mayor and his allies.

“I’ve supported most of the people on this city council for a long time,” resident Domnic McGee said during public comment at the April 7 meeting. “But it seems that certain people are ruling by fiat,” he said, referring to McKeon.

McGee, who serves on the city’s planning commission, told LAist he worried that the communications contract would give the mayor a direct line to “spin” the messaging coming out of the city during election season. McKeon is up for re-election this fall.

“Casey [McKeon] will be able to override anything he doesn't like and overemphasize what he does,” McGee said. “And he could pretty much use this for his campaign.”

McGee said he campaigned for McKeon in 2021 but would now “never vote for him again.”

Following the outcry, McKeon withdrew the proposal from consideration and the city put out a request for competitive bids. An ad hoc committee made up of the mayor and two allied council members will review the proposals in private and recommend their top choices. Williams said the bidding process had been “utterly tainted.”

A pattern of 'cronyism' complaints

The rift over the Wolffhaus contract may have temporarily shaken up Huntington Beach’s conservative factions, but the faultlines are blurry. At their latest meeting, the city council voted 6-0 to shift $10,000 in federal grants from an afterschool care program in the city’s Oak View neighborhood, and $5,000 from a local program for at-risk youth, to a nonprofit where Councilmember Gruel, a vocal critic of the Wolffhaus deal, is the executive director.

The organization, Save the Brave, which is based in Temecula, takes veterans on deep-sea fishing trips. Gruel left the city council chambers when the vote was taking place, but did not formally recuse himself, or publicly disclose his ties to the organization. Under California’s Political Reform Act, elected officials are required to publicly disclose and recuse themselves from voting on any issue that represents a potential financial conflict of interest.

Gruel told LAist he had disclosed his ties with the organization from the start of the grant process — well before the money came to a vote before city council. He said he takes no money for his work with Save the Brave, and that he didn’t know he was supposed to publicly disclose his ties to the organization at the time the vote took place. “I’m still learning all this stuff,” said Gruel, a chef and TV personality who was appointed to his seat last year after former Councilmember Tony Strickland won a seat in the state legislature in a special election.

Asked whether he thought the council’s vote to give his organization additional funds was a bad look, Gruel said “Of course.”

“Especially in the framework of previous council decisions, there’s this reputation now that there are these backroom deals,” he said.

Longtime critics of Huntington Beach’s city government say it has become commonplace to reward people with political and family ties with funds, contracts, and prominent positions in city government. They point to the following examples:

• A decades-long, multi-million dollar settlement with the operator of the city’s annual airshow, who staged campaign events and printed signs for several of the city councilmembers who approved the settlement. The city has been fighting a state effort to audit the deal. But Williams and Gruel recently proposed settling the case and letting the audit go forward.
• A special street renaming for a local conservative donor, Ed Laird, who helped fund the campaigns of several city council members. (Laird also helped negotiate the airshow settlement.)
• The appointment, by Gracey Van Der Mark, of City Councilmember Gruel’s wife to the city’s Community and Library Services Commission in 2023. Gruel said he had nothing to do with the appointment, which is unpaid.
• The appointment in 2022 of Kelly Gates, wife of Michael Gates, the former city attorney and now deputy assistant attorney, to the city’s Finance Committee, also an unpaid position. Van Der Mark also made that appointment. 

California’s Fair Political Practices Commission, the state ethics body, has found legal violations related to some of these incidents. The commission recently ruled that former city attorney Michael Gates, and City Council members McKeon, Van Der Mark, and Pat Burns violated disclosure rules by failing to report that they had received free VIP passes to the airshow in 2022 when they were negotiating a settlement with the event’s operator. A similar complaint is pending against Kelly Gates — city finance commissioners are also required to disclose their income and gifts.

The mere appearance of a conflict of interest is problematic for good governance, said Tracy Westen, a public interest lawyer who has expertise in government ethics. For example, appointing the spouses of government leaders to key positions in city government. “It could be they were the best people for the job,” Westen said, “but it raises an appearance issue.”

Some Orange County cities, including Irvine, Westminster and Laguna Niguel, prohibit appointments of family members to city commissions. Huntington Beach does not have a similar rule, although the city council is prohibited from appointing relatives to salaried positions.

What it all means for the November election

Those looking to unseat the current city council majority see opportunity in the rift over the Wolffhaus contract. “We are pleasantly surprised to see that there's a crack in the cabal, for lack of a better word,” said Ryder of Protect HB. The group is backing a slate of four candidates in the November election in hopes of unseating the council majority. One of the candidates is Erin Spivey, who sued the city over the book censorship policy and won, including a $1 million judgment against the city for attorneys' fees. The city is appealing.

If elected, Spivey said she would propose a ban on contracts and city appointments for individuals with close ties to city councilmembers. “This has got to stop. The government is not the plaything of elected officials,” Spivey said.

Some of the city’s most controversial figures are seeking higher office this year. Michael Gates is running for state Attorney General in the June primary. Van Der Mark is also hoping to make a jump to Sacramento — she’s one of four candidates to represent State Assembly District 72 on the primary ballot.

At the local level, McKeon and Burns are up for re-election this fall, and Gruel will face his first test on a ballot.

McKeon, Burns, and newcomer Brian Thienes are running as a conservative slate, with signs reading “Don’t split the vote!”

But Gruel has chosen to run solo — distancing himself from the trend in Huntington Beach, over the last two election cycles, of Republican-backed council candidates running as a bloc. “I don’t necessarily look at everything through a party filter,” Gruel told LAist, adding that he considers himself a small-government libertarian.

Gruel said he shared critics’ concerns about the lack of daylight on some of the city’s recent contracts and decisions. “Generally speaking this is why I’m so frustrated by the look, because my whole thing is transparency,” he said.

Orange County will stop spraying local flood control channels with toxic chemicals — an environmental issue that has morphed in recent months into a major theme in the June 2 primary race to represent South O.C. on the Board of Supervisors.

In an emailed announcement, Supervisor Katrina Foley, who represents District 5, wrote that “following months of community outcry,” O.C. Public Works would halt spraying and “instead observe the growth patterns of invasive species to evaluate the safest and most effective procedures for removal.”

The backstory

The environmental activists who make up the three-person Creek Team OC began raising the alarm earlier this year about the county’s practice of spraying toxic chemicals to keep vegetation down in local waterways and flood control channels, which flow out to the ocean. Brent Linas, the group’s founder, had become concerned about the issue while noticing what he characterized as “dead” ecosystems during his runs along San Juan Creek, which empties into Doheny State Beach.

The political context

The herbicide spraying had become a major issue in the race to represent District 5 on the Orange County Board of Supervisors. Katrina Foley, a Democrat, is running for reelection against state Assemblymember Diane Dixon, a Republican. The conservative Lincoln Club, through its PAC, has spent around $200,000 thus far to try to influence the race. The PAC has latched onto the herbicide issue to attack Foley in ads and mailers.

The Lincoln Media Foundation, which shares an address and officers with the Lincoln Club, has simultaneously published content critical of Foley’s handling of the herbicide issue through the affiliated publication, California Courier.

Linas of Creek Team called Foley’s announcement about the countywide pause on herbicide spraying “a huge, huge victory for us.” Linas, who described himself to LAist as a lifelong Democrat, said his group ultimately used the political jockeying over the issue to their advantage. “ We took this firehose of money that exists and we redirected some of it towards what we saw as an urgent issue,” he said.

What’s next?

Orange County Public Works could still use herbicides in conjunction with maintenance work if they identify an “immediate need of vegetation management,” according to the announcement. But the county would give the public seven days' notice in advance of any such use. A pilot project along San Juan and Trabuco creeks is underway to evaluate the viability of replacing chemical spraying with manual and mechanical weed removal.

How to watchdog your local government

One of the best things you can do to hold officials accountable is pay attention. Your city council, board of supervisors, school board and more all hold public meetings that anybody can attend. These are times you can talk to your elected officials directly and hear about the policies they’re voting on that affect your community.

• Read tips on how to get involved.
• The Orange County Board of Supervisors meets on alternating Tuesdays at 9:30 a.m. at 400 W. Civic Center Drive, Santa Ana. You can check out the O.C. Board of Supervisors full calendar here.
• Learn how to submit a public comment to the O.C. Board of Supervisors.

U.S. domestic air travel has boomed in recent years, except for one segment. Short flights of a few hundred miles decreased over the past decade, while longer flights became more popular, according to data gathered by the aviation analytics firm OAG for NPR.

Nearly 4 million short flights are scheduled for this year. But as of mid-April, the number of flights spanning less than 250 nautical miles had declined by 11% from 2016 to 2026 — the biggest drop of any route length. The decline comes as no surprise to John Grant, a senior analyst at OAG.

"That is an awful distance to be operating," he says, because short flights are more expensive for airlines than flights with a longer cruise time.

In contrast, every domestic flight category of more than 500 miles saw notable gains over the same 10-year span. The numbers depict the U.S. hub-and-spoke aviation system moving toward longer "spokes" for some routes.

The trend was well established even before rising fuel prices from the Iran war rattled U.S. aviation. It could now accelerate, as airlines raise prices and trim less-profitable flights due to jet fuel supply constraints.

Domestic jet fuel costs have roughly doubled since early February, before the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran. U.S. airlines spent more than $5 billion on jet fuel in March, a 56% increase from February, according to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics. Spirit Airlines blamed the soaring fuel costs when it announced it would shut down last weekend. Prices are even higher for Asia and other markets that rely more heavily on supplies transiting the Strait of Hormuz.

"Any time there is pressure like that, particularly a cost pressure, but also a resource pressure, airlines are going to concentrate flying where they can move the most passengers with the fewest pilots," says Faye Malarkey Black, CEO of the Regional Airline Association.

Short-hop flights are the most frequent, and least efficient

Every day, thousands of U.S. airline passengers step off planes without needing to check the local time and weather, because they've traveled less than 100 miles, on flights lasting less than an hour.

For example, there are dozens of flights between Milwaukee and Chicago each week, even though they're separated by less than 80 miles and have been connected by rail lines for more than a century. But there's a key snag for travelers in the Milwaukee area who might want to take the train to O'Hare International, says Joshua Schank, an urban planning professor at UCLA who's also a partner with the consulting firm Infra Strategies.

"Remember, that rail is going between the [cities'] two downtowns, and it's not between the airports," he says. "And that's the key distinction," he adds, noting that a majority of the route's passengers are likely connecting to other destinations beyond Chicago.

For routes like that to make economic sense, they require enough people willing to pay, says Black, of the airline association.

"It's not the distance, it's the density," she says. "If you have a short flight that has a lot of density because it's between two urban centers and it's a viable option, then people will take that option."

It's one of the shorter spokes in the U.S. hub-and-spoke system that helps airlines concentrate their traffic. That's why the sub-250-mile distance remains the second most popular domestic route, even with its double-digit decline. The most popular flight category over the past 10 years isn't much longer, with the 251 to 500 nautical mile distance scheduled 2.1 million times in 2026, despite a roughly 4% dip.

But all those repeated shorter flights come at a cost.

"A lot of the fuel is used in the takeoff and landing processes," Grant says. And every landing, he notes, adds wear and tear on the planes' equipment.

To hit the sweet spot of revenue versus cost, Grant says, "airlines typically try to be in that two-hour block time" – a category that includes flights over 500 miles, such as Washington, D.C., to Atlanta.

At airports, short flights also add to the workload for understaffed air traffic control systems and congested gates. A small regional jet carrying 50 people, for instance, is just as important to a controller as a wide-body airliner. And it takes up gate space repeatedly, as it shuttles passengers back and forth to a hub airport. As Black notes, the impact of all those short flights adds up.

"Regional airlines have always been the backbone of air service to smaller communities," she says. "In the early 2000s, they were the only source of scheduled air service for roughly three-quarters of U.S. airports. Today, that figure is closer to two-thirds."

Prices for U.S. jet fuel have nearly doubled since before the Iran war began, shaking up the aviation industry. This file photo shows a worker preparing to fuel a United Express jet at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, in Grapevine, Texas.

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Where are we heading? 

Despite their recent decline, short-hop flights are integral to the hub-and-spoke network, taking people from Colorado Springs to Denver, for instance, or from Birmingham to Atlanta.

But airlines have shifted more toward longer flights over the past decade, thanks largely to a new generation of narrow-body aircraft that are more efficient, making them an enticing option for longer-range routes. That's why the trendline favors routes such as the 501 to 750-mile category (e.g. Portland to Las Vegas, or Houston to Tampa), which grew by 11% to nearly 1.7 million scheduled flights in 2026. Flights of more than 750 and 1,000 miles each saw double-digit percentage gains, as well.

"Unfortunately for short-haul routes, the economics are not in their favor," says Ahmed Abdelghani, professor of operations management at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Florida. He notes that a smaller jet's higher costs must be borne by fewer passengers than a larger plane, prompting higher fares.

"Those new generation narrowbody aircraft will have much better economics than the smaller 50-seater, 70-seater aircraft," Abdelghani says, citing the newer jets' ability to spread costs over more than 160 seats, depending on how they're configured.

The newer planes align with airlines that prioritize route profitability, Abdelghani says. But he and Black both say that larger narrow-body planes aren't a good fit for every market – and as a result, smaller communities could see fewer flights and connectivity.

"The airports with the sharpest service losses tend to be small hub and non-hub airports," Black says, "and those markets are often built around shorter-distance flying." She notes that other problems, such as pilot shortages, are also affecting small markets. "As pilot availability tightened, airlines had to make decisions about where limited flying could be sustained," Black says.

As Abdelghani puts it, "The airline decides, OK, since now I'm going to fly only efficient aircraft, I'm going to sacrifice the routes that this aircraft doesn't fit."
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