Sonoma County airport passenger traffic slows in January amid omicron wave

After pausing its Dallas flights out of Charles M. Schulz–Sonoma County Airport for four months, American Airlines plans to restart service on Thursday, airport officials said Monday.

However, United Airlines, which shuttered flights to Denver in October 2020 in response to the pandemic, has pushed the return date from May 6 to June 3, according to Airport Manager Jon Stout.

The return-to-service date for Denver over the past couple of months has changed three times. No reason was given, but the carrier has frequently made such adjustments, he noted.

Passenger traffic in January at the Sonoma County airport dropped from December. That is not unusual early in the year, but it also was likely impacted by the highly contagious omicron variant of COVID-19, said Stout.

Even with COVID-19 cases diminishing and Gov. Gavin Newsom lifting most indoor-mask mandates on Tuesday, the airport will remain under Transportation Safety Administration rules, which are different than California’s.

“TSA still is mandating the use of masks in the terminal and airport buildings, as well as on the aircraft, and that goes until March 18,” Stout said.

That date may or may not change, depending on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s ongoing evaluations, he said.

Meanwhile, the four commercial air carriers servicing the Sonoma County airport — Alaska Airlines, American Airlines, United Airlines and Avelo Airlines — flew 31,643 passengers through the facility last month, up 423% from a year earlier.

Alaska Airlines in January flew 20,438 passengers through the Santa Rosa facility, up 388.4% from a year earlier, but nearly 7,000 fewer than December. The airline’s load factor — the measure of how full airplanes are on average — was 53%.

Avelo Airlines in January flew 6,933 passengers through the airport, about 5,000 fewer than December. Avelo’s load factor was 50%.

United Airlines in January flew 1,171 passengers compared to 1,693 in December. Its load factor last month was 52%. United’s service at the airport at this time in 2021 was suspended.

American Airlines in January flew 3,101 passengers through the Santa Rosa airport, up 66.3% from the year prior and 789 fewer passengers than December. American’s load factor last month was 71%.

“In looking at the advanced schedules, it looks like it will be a very busy spring and summer for the airport,” Stout said, noting he currently has information through September. If there are no additional COVID-19 impacts over the next six months, the airport in August will see between 16 and 19 departures per day, he said. For perspective, the highest number of departures a day for any month in 2019 was 16.

Meanwhile, the airport’s parking lot now has a new solar array, through a 5-year collaboration between the county of Sonoma and ForeFront Power, Stout said.

ForeFront owns the solar array and will maintain it for the next 20 years, during which time the airport will pay a fixed rate of 12.9 cents per kilowatt-hour, Stout said.

“At the 12.9 cents per kilowatt rate, we are anticipating saving about $3 million over the 20-year contract,” he said. The airport remains connected to the grid so if more power is needed than what the solar system generates, it would be provided by Sonoma Clean Power, which goes through PG&E. “It works out to about a 40% savings on electricity costs, independent of all other PG&E fees.”