Sonoma County airport readies to open new terminal, launch Palm Springs flights

Next month, Charles M. Schulz-Sonoma County Airport plans to open its new terminal and begin service to Palm Springs.

“It’s been a long-sought-after destination,” Airport Manager Jon Stout said Thursday.

Nonstop service between Palm Springs and the Santa Rosa facility by Avelo Airlines starts Nov. 11. Avelo, which also flies to Burbank and Las Vegas, will operate its Palm Springs flights on Fridays and Mondays. The Business Journal first reported the news on Aug. 4.

And on Nov. 16, the Sonoma County airport will open its new terminal to the public, Stout said, marking a core milestone in its approximately $40 million improvement and modernization project that kicked off two years ago. Work on the airport master plan began in 2012, as previously reported.

The new terminal will have 238 seats, four ticket counters and two gates to the aircraft, as reported by The Press Democrat on April 13.

Also Thursday, the airport released September figures showing 457,465 passengers used the facility so far this year, up 61.3% from a year earlier, and up 209.9% from September 2020.

Going back to pre-pandemic figures, the airport in September 2019 flew 361,981 travelers, ending the year setting a record of 488,000 passengers served.

The airport remains on track to eclipse that record by the end of this year, Stout said. However, flight cutbacks and less-than-full planes may mean closing the year with closer to 600,000 passengers flown rather than forecasts earlier this year that were as high as 650,000.

The four commercial air carriers that currently service the airport — United Airlines, Alaska Airlines, American Airlines and Avelo Airlines — in September collectively flew 58,777 passengers through the facility, up 17.7% from a year earlier, and up from the 56,528 passengers flown in August, according to airport officials.

United Airlines flew 1,555 passengers through the facility last month, down 39.2% from a year earlier. Its load factor — the measure of how full airplanes are on average — was 56%. The airline on Nov. 1 will suspend indefinitely all operations at the Santa Rosa facility, as previously reported by the Business Journal.

Alaska Airlines in September flew 40,510 passengers through Santa Rosa, up 23.6% from a year earlier. The airline’s load factor was 73%.

American Airlines last month flew 8,169 passengers through the regional airport, up 2.9% from September 2021. The carrier’s load factor was 84%.

Burbank-based Avelo Airlines in September flew 8,543 passengers through the Sonoma County airport, up 27.6% from September 2021. Its load factor was 56%.