(818) 399-9905 · Open 9 AM–9 PM, 7 Days a Week · ★★★★★ 4.9 · 500+ Reviews · Van Nuys Airport
Santa Monica gave Los Angeles a century of aviation — and now its airport is winding down. Westside pilots have already found their next home: 25 minutes over the 405 at Van Nuys, where LA Flight School trains on full-length runways with no expiration date.
The story is well known on the westside: Santa Monica Airport's runway was cut to 3,500 feet in 2017, the jets departed, and the field is scheduled to close for good at the end of 2028. Flight schools there face shrinking operations and an ending clock — a tough place to start a multi-year aviation journey.
Van Nuys is the opposite bet. It is a permanent, professionally towered general-aviation powerhouse where your training can run uninterrupted from first lesson to airline interview. Start here and you will never need to transfer schools, re-fly evaluations or learn a new airport mid-course.
Pick up the 405 north from the 10, ride it over the Sepulveda Pass, exit Burbank Boulevard and turn up Balboa — we are on the airport's west side at 7900 Balboa Blvd., Suite D3, about 25 minutes from Ocean Avenue when the freeway cooperates. Sepulveda Boulevard through the pass makes a reliable backup when the 405 jams. Parking is free at the door.
Every course below runs from KVNY — close enough to the coast that your first solo cross-country can trace the shoreline home.
From $229, with the classic westside route — out over the mountains to the Malibu coast — available on request. Book yours.
Structured, transparent and instructor-consistent: the $10,900 course westside students transfer in for. Course page.
A complete professional pipeline that will still exist when SMO does not. Details here.
Also serving nearby Beverly Hills, Encino and Sherman Oaks.
The westside's aviation story is not ending — it is moving over the hill. Come write your chapter at Van Nuys.
Real students, real first flights, real ratings — straight from Google and Yelp.
The fastest way to know if the left seat is for you is to stand on the flight line. Book a free consultation — or reach us whichever way you like.
Tour the school, meet your instructors, sit in the cockpit, and leave with a personal training plan and exact pricing. Your Discovery Flight fee is credited toward training when you enroll within 24 hours.
One minute, a few details, fast answers from a real person on our team.
