Sonoma County Airport airline passenger growth levels off in July

Passenger traffic into and out of Charles M. Schulz–Sonoma County Airport leveled off last month, rising less than 1 percent from a year before, according to new data.

The gain in traffic was 0.9 percent, figures show, with 45,202 passengers compared to 44,804 in the previous July, according to the county of Sonoma, which runs the airport, located just north of Santa Rosa. The July figure was a new high for the facility, facility officials said.

Passenger usage slowed from June, which had 4.3 percent more carried by airlines than the previous June.

The year-to-date figures showed stronger increases. Through July, the number of passengers who boarded or got off an airplane — 'deplaned' or 'enplaned,' in industry jargon — on scheduled service at the north Santa Rosa airport was 245,129, up 8.4 percent from that pace in 2017, according to the county.

Alaska, United and American airlines use the Wine Country airport regularly. Sun Country Airlines resumed seasonal service from Minneapolis–St. Paul to the airport June 29, and it is set to begin service to Las Vegas Aug. 30.

That destination was served briefly by Allegiant Air, which no longer flies out of Santa Rosa.

By airline, the figures show that Alaska Airlines's July traffic increased by 3.4 percent to 33,696 passengers. Load factor — a metric for how full the seats are — was 82 percent for the month, up 5.1 percent from July 2017.

At 182,038 passengers for the first seven months of the year, Alaska's passenger count was down 1.2 percent from that pace in 2017.

In July, American Airlines passengers totaled 3,839, down 25.7 percent from 12 months before. Load factor for that carrier in June was 79 percent, up 23.4 percent from the previous June.

The year-to-date count was 26,073 passengers, a 25.9 percent jump from 2017.

American began service between Santa Rosa and Phoenix in February 2017 and added a second flight in July.

United Airlines began service between Santa Rosa (airport code STS) and San Francisco (SFO) on June 8, 2017. It carried 5,855 passengers last month, up 16.4 percent from the previous July. Last month's load factor was 71 percent, up from 55 percent the previous July.

Year to date, the airline served 34,977 passengers.

Sonoma County Airport has applied for federal funds to expand United service to Denver.

Sun Country's seasonal service drew 1,812 passengers in July at an 80 percent load factor, the airport reported.

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