The E190 will service Long Beach, Los Angeles and San Diego beginning in May

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SEATTLE - JetBlue's CEO today will unveil the nation's first E190 to fly to Seattle. The plane will service Long Beach, Los Angeles and San Diego next month as airlines compete in a sort of air gold rush to gain a bigger share of the California market.

Southern California-bound passengers will enjoy features the airline hopes will snag a chunk of the California market, including:

- More legroom

- 36 channels of DIRECTV

- XM satellite radio

- Fox inflight movies

- No middle seat

JetBlue is the latest airline aggressively entering the air wars on the west coast. Virgin America recently began nonstop flights to San Francisco and on Tuesday they'll launch their nonstop to Los Angeles as they try to grab customers from Alaska Airlines and other carriers.

But Alaska isn't taking this sitting down. They too announced they are beefing up their service to the Golden State with more flights and double mileage plan miles for frequent flyers most of 2008.

"We're no stranger to competition on the West Coast. We've been at this a long time," said Steve Jarvis, of Alaska Airlines. "We believe we have more to offer with a robust schedule that's convenient and frequent."

Customers are optimistic that competition will bring better deals.

"I think it's good for Seattle. Hopefully the airfares will go low but I'm going to stay loyal to Alaska," said Brian Hoffman.

"It's based on price for me, and convenience of nonstop," said Karen Inderbatzin.

New service to LAX and San Diego begins in May. Seats are assigned. All travel is ticketless and all fares are one way.