Who Runs The Airliner Now? Bar Rescue Update (Los Angeles, CA)

The Airliner, a century-old music venue and bar in the Lincoln Heights neighborhood of Los Angeles, was featured on the Bar Rescue episode "Not Cleared for Takeoff," which aired July 1, 2018. The episode depicted a storied venue that had fallen into disrepair under an owner who had lost his passion for the business, leaving the space run down and its live-music identity fading. Jon Taffer's team refreshed the bar and stage areas and rebuilt the drink and event program to bring back the venue's role as a neighborhood music spot; for the recon and grand reopening, the show brought in the band American Authors to perform.

The bar's name was not changed as part of the relaunch. Despite the rescue, the original iteration of The Airliner did not survive long term. According to Eater LA (August 2023) and the Los Angeles Times (September 2023), the bar had gone out of business by 2019, and the space sat closed for several years afterward. Both outlets reported that new owners, led by an operator named Nguyen and his partners, took over the space and reopened it in the fall of 2023 under the same Airliner name, with a substantially reworked pan-Asian bar-food menu, natural wines, and a renovated upstairs sound room.

Two independent, dated news sources — Eater LA and the Los Angeles Times — both confirm the same-name reopening under new ownership. The bar's own current website lists active hours, a menu, and an events calendar at the same 2419 N Broadway address, and has been covered again since reopening by outlets including Resy and additional Eater LA features on notable new Los Angeles restaurants. In short, according to Eater LA and the Los Angeles Times, The Airliner's Bar Rescue-era ownership had closed the business by 2019, but the name and the address survived: new owners revived it in 2023 as a still-operating bar and music venue carrying the same name the show featured.