I fly on board JSX, a semi-private carrier that offers a “Just Simple Experience” for all.
The spacious 1-1 layout of JSX’s E145 aircraft (Photo: AirlineGeeks | Joey Gerardi)
JSX is a unique air carrier. It operates under Part 380, meaning the company is a “Public Charter” operator. It offers a semi-private experience while also operating scheduled flights between smaller airports surrounding larger cities, although it does operate to a few large airports, such as Las Vegas and Los Angeles.
A JetSuiteX Embraer E135 parked, before changing its branding to JSX (Photo: AirlineGeeks | Albert Kuan)
The carrier used to be called JetSuiteX, but then rebranded to JSX around 2019.
My journey started at McClellan-Palomar Airport, which is located in Carlsbad, California, about an hour drive north of downtown San Diego. A small airport that, up until the day I took this flight, didn’t receive service from a major carrier. My flight today would be to Scottsdale Airport, which is a smaller airport located north of Phoenix.
The curbside of Carlsbad airport (Photo: AirlineGeeks | Joey Gerardi)
I walked into the terminal and you could immediately see JSX’s ticket counter, along with a screen listing its departures right behind it. At the time of writing this article, JSX flies to four destinations from Carlsbad: Las Vegas twice a day, Phoenix via Scottsdale once a day, flights to Oakland starting this month which will operate four times a week, and seasonal flights to Taos, New Mexico.
The JSX counter in Carlsbad (Photo: AirlineGeeks | Joey Gerardi)
Once you check in, agents print out a receipt with your seat assignment on it, versus a boarding pass, which was unique. The agents were very professional and courteous under pressure when multiple people showed up right before check-in cut off, especially since they had multiple flights on the ground at the same time.
Under normal circumstances, the carrier does offer snacks and drinks at FBO locations, but since this is a passenger terminal shared with other two other companies, JSX does not offer anything like that at this location.
The hallway leading to the departures area (Photo: AirlineGeeks | Joey Gerardi)
Because JSX is a Part 380 carrier, none of the aircraft in its fleet can have more than 30 seats. This is fine for the Embraer E135, as they normally only have 30 seats anyways, which are in a 1-2 configuration, however the Embraer 145 aircraft usually has 50 seats.
To remedy this while also having that semi-private experience, JSX has this aircraft in a 1-1 configuration, and on the side that usually has two seats, the carrier has instead put cupholders as well as a table.
The spacious 1-1 layout of JSX’s E145 aircraft (Photo: AirlineGeeks | Joey Gerardi)
To also make the aircraft feel more spread out, JSX has removed the overhead bins, which adds more headspace, giving a small and cramped aircraft, a more roomy feeling.
The flight was delayed a little bit going out of Carlsbad, as the aircraft was coming in from Las Vegas, and that airport had air traffic control issues on the day of my flight leading to some minor delays not only for my flight, but also the Taos flight.
Once my aircraft landed in Carlsbad, passengers deplaned rather quickly, and we started our boarding process for the flight.
In Carlsbad, once it’s time to board you go out the side door of the terminal to the fence gate and there is a small scanner which you walk-through before going out to the aircraft, but it’s super simple and still feels like that private experience. Once you are through the scanner, you show your ID as well as the boarding receipt.
Where you board the JSX aircraft in Carlsbad (Photo: AirlineGeeks | Joey Gerardi)
My seat for this flight was 7C, A window on the right side of the aircraft, which is also closest to the cupholders/table.
A JSX Embraer E135, my ride over to Scottsdale (Photo: AirlineGeeks | Joey Gerardi)
My ride for the flight was one of JSX’s Embraer E145s, which was in the 1-1 configuration and carried the tail number of N922JX. The aircraft was originally delivered to Continental Express in December 1999, went to ExpressJet in July 2001, and then finally came to JSX in August 2022.
Prior to leaving Carlsbad, the single flight attendant took all of our drink orders, which were served to all the passengers once we got in the air.
It was not a completely full flight, so we boarded rather quickly and after a short taxi to the runway we were in the air bound for Scottsdale.
Taking off from Carlsbad onboard JSX (Photo: AirlineGeeks | Joey Gerardi)
The weather was kind of gloomy, so unfortunately, there was not much scenery to be had departing from Carlsbad. However I was able to see the coast before going into the clouds for pretty much the remainder of the flight.
Flying into the clouds, en route to Scottsdale (Photo: AirlineGeeks | Joey Gerardi)
When we got to part of the flight that was relatively smooth, the flight attendant started her drink service. They had many different drink options, alcoholic, as well as nonalcoholic, along with the seasonal and temporary, and new items as well. I ordered Buffalo Trace Bourbon, which was a seasonal option that they had during my flight, and it was presented nicely along with a stir stick with the company’s logo on it.
The inflight drink menu on JSX (Photo: AirlineGeeks | Joey Gerardi)
The flight was rather bumpy, so the flight attendant had to sit down every couple of minutes if the turbulence became heavy. This was highly uncharacteristic of the area as the weather is usually very pleasant in Southern California and Arizona.
After taking off, we quickly climbed to our cruising altitude of 29,000 feet. The carrier usually has a snack selection as well, but because of the short flight and the rough air, there was no time for the snack service on this trip.
As previously mentioned, the weather was gloomy, so there wasn’t much to see, but some of the cloud formations were pretty along the route. But even without scenery, there is still plenty to do on the flight, as JSX offers Starlink Wi-Fi, which was fast and offered speeds on my flight up to 121 mbps. This is free for all passengers.
To complement the free Wi-Fi on board, they also offered power outlets on the flight so you can keep your devices charged with one at every seat located on the wall next to you.
Power outlets on JSX (Photo: AirlineGeeks | Joey Gerardi)
I was so wrapped up in the Wi-Fi and doing stuff online that I never realized how quickly the flight was going by, and it wasn’t long after getting to cruise that we started our descent towards the Scottsdale area.
At cruising altitude, heading to Scottsdale (Photo: AirlineGeeks | Joey Gerardi)
Only about a year ago, in January 2024, JSX moved their Phoenix operations from Sky Harbor to Scottsdale in favor of the smaller airport. Moving airports from Sky Harbor also reduced the taxi time, which made it quicker to turn aircraft around.
Descending into Scottsdale (Photo: AirlineGeeks | Joey Gerardi)
We landed in Scottsdale at 4:53 p.m., after just 56 minutes of flying time. The way JSX is set up for arrivals is by having passengers wait on the aircraft until your checked bags are unloaded, which takes maybe five minutes. They then put the bags next to the aircraft door and you can collect them as soon as you get off, that way you don’t have to go to a baggage claim.
Arriving into Scottsdale (Photo: AirlineGeeks | Joey Gerardi)
As mentioned, they now compete indirectly with American on the route as the airline started flying Phoenix to Carlsbad, on February 13. However, even at a small airport like Carlsbad, flying on JSX is still a lot quicker and simpler than flying American given the cutoff for JSX check-in is 20 minutes before departure time, whereas American’s is 45 even at a small airport like Carlsbad.
JSX jets in Scottsdale (Photo: AirlineGeeks | Joey Gerardi)
So, despite now competing with each other, the service between JSX and American still differs greatly, JSX will probably continue to get the majority of passengers that are just going to the Phoenix area, whereas American will probably get more connecting passengers that are going onward to other places. However, if JSX does add one stop service from Carlsbad to other locations through Phoenix, that may shake up the game even more.
A video of the strip report can be found below:
Editor’s Note: JSX provided AirlineGeeks with a seat on this flight, but this trip report is an objective portrayal of the events and is in no way swayed by that aspect.
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