Mammoth Mountain Ski Area, Mammoth Lakes ready for first Horizon Air flight

Dec. 18 is a big day for Mammoth Lakes and Mammoth Mountain Ski Area. It'll mark the first day of airline service from Los Angeles in many years.

A fire drill was held recently at Mammoth-Yosemite Airport, using old buses set ablaze, to test the readiness and response times of local firefighters.

I just checked the Horizon Air website, and there are no seats available for the first flight from LAX to Mammoth-Yosemite Airport. That flight is scheduled to touch down at 3:25 p.m. (Horizon Air will offer daily service through April 12.)

But there are seats available for the next day, and they cost $149 each way. This makes me wonder a) Is the shattered economy responsible for this 65-minute flight, during peak holiday season, not being full?, and b) Do skiers and snowboarders prefer the traditional method of accessing Mammoth, via automobile?

Sure, it's a five-hour drive on a good day, but the drive is one of anticipation and increasingly beautiful scenery, as U.S. 395 transitions from high desert to Eastern Sierra terrain, with majestic snow-capped peaks to the left and the sprawling Owens Valley to the right.

Both factors probably are in play. My perfect plan would be to drive to Mammoth with friends and fly back and catch a cab from LAX to my home in Redondo Beach. Might have to try that experiment this season.

--Pete Thomas

Photo: A Horizon Air turboprop plane touches down at Mammoth-Yosemite Airport during a test run in October. Credit: Peatross / MMSA

Comments

[bob]

300 bucks is a lot to go to mammoth. Plus you have to get a ride from the airport into town? You can use that money and go to Denver or Utah for better snow.

[falcon]

$300 + rental car is a bit much, and factor in the time it takes to get in and out of LAX from any outlying area like the Valley and you might as well drive. Are there shuttles from the village to the airport? Especially with gas less than $2 a gallon. How can you go to Mammoth and not stop at the hot springs or the Schaats bakery in Bishop?

Sounds like something more for the skiiers who live in Beverly Hills than it does for the hardcore guys.

[J Reece]

The one problem with the driving alternative is all the maniacs on the two-lane stretch of 395 south of Ridgecrest, desperate to pass even on blind curves, hills, and dips. Many don't seem to be snow-crazed LA skiers, but meth-crazed desert rats.

[Snow1122]

The best way to get to Mammoth from LA is to drive during early am hours, barely any traffic then.Avoid the rush hour traffic.
$300 round trip a bit expensive for avid skiers.

[Liz]

The flight was great! Thank you Rusty! Roads out of LA were closed…but smooth sailing to 4 feet of fresh powder! No waiting at the Horizon Terminal, quick check in. Bags have to be checked in minimum 40 min before the flight. A quick one hour flight with beautiful scenery the whole way; Free shuttle to town. As much as I love the drive up 395, good for the summer trips; the flight was fun and not as tiring as the drive. On the return, ski until 2:30pm, catch the 4pm flight to LAX …be home for dinner.

[Liz]

$160 - $200 rt

[Ryan G]

DO NOT FLY TO MAMMOTH LAKES FROM ANYWHERE OTHER THAN LAX! Several weeks ago, my fiance and I booked flights from San Diego to Mammoth on Horizon Airlines. Horizon codeshares with American Eagle from San Diego to LAX, so I was able to book the whole thing on Horizon website. Well last Thursday, we flew to LAX from San Diego, had a two-hour layover, and then found out the flight was cancelled due to weather in Mammoth, and that no other flights were available all weekend. So they said they would refund us the flights, but since we flew on a codeshare airline from San Diego, they couldn't just refund our flight on site, it would have to go through accounting department. Please note, that when I booked the flights, it showed $99 each way from LAX to Mammoth and $99 each way from San Diego to Mammoth, so no additional fee for flying from San Diego. Well when it comes to refunds they don't quite see it that way. The Horizon accounting department broke it down t0 $45 each way from San Diego to LAX and $45 each way from LAX to Mammoth.
What this boils down to is a $90 refund per ticket. So we paid $50 to park our car at the airport in San Diego for the weekend, and $200 on a rental car to drive from LA to Mammoth (plus a few tanks of gas). So basically, after the "partial" refunds they are giving us, ended up costing about $575!! So DEFINITELY NOT WORTH IT! Plus, the flights in and out of Mammoth for the next 3 days in a row were cancelled due to weather. It would make way more sense if they flew to Bishop Airport and offered bus service to Mammoth from there.

[Tammy P]

We are considering driving from Yosemite to Mammoth around the 15th of April in a hire car with 3 children in the hope of snow. We hear there has been a few big dumps lately. My husband and I are arguing over how long it will take to get there and how long it will take to drive from Mammoth to San Diego a couple of days later. We are yet to book accomodation and would like to know when they close the mountain. We are trying to search all of this over the net as we live in South Australia.