United Airlines delays return of Denver route to Sonoma County airport

United Airlines has decided to delay the resumption of its Santa Rosa to Denver flight by more than three months, Charles M. Schulz–Sonoma County Airport officials said Tuesday .

United, which was set to relaunch service to San Francisco and Denver in early June, has pushed Denver back to Sept. 8, said Airport Manager Jon Stout. So far, United remains on track to resume its San Francisco flights on June 4. The airline had paused all service on Nov. 1 because of the pandemic and announced its impending June return last month, as reported by the Business Journal at the time.

On the other hand, Avelo Airlines — the new Burbank-based commercial carrier that launches April 28 — is reporting solid bookings at the Sonoma County facility since it began taking reservations on April 8 with its introductory fares as low as $19, said Stout.

“They are pleased with the response,” he said. “Whether or not people are comfortable in flying yet, that is what we will see.”

Alaska Airlines and American Airlines — the two commercial carriers currently servicing the Santa Rosa airport — also have seen an increase in bookings, Stout said.

As reported Monday, passenger volume at the Santa Rosa facility in March more than doubled from February.

The two airlines in March collectively flew 13,822 passengers, compared with 6,644 in February. The passenger figure for March was 30% below the level of a year before, when the coronavirus pandemic began.

But while March’s year over year passenger numbers show signs of recovery, Stout noted the airport over the past year saw higher traffic in October and November, with passenger volume at 19,021 and 17,733, respectively.

Alaska Airlines, which brings the most business to the Sonoma County facility, last month flew 10,840 passengers, down 18.4% from March 2020. Alaska’s load factor — the measure of how full its airplanes were on average — was 52%, down 52.9% from a year earlier. Alaska in February carried 4,868 passengers.

American Airlines in March flew 2,982 passengers through the Sonoma County airport, down 32% from the year prior. The carrier’s load factor was 72%, down 20% from March 2020. American in February flew 1,776 passengers.

If the state fully reopens on June 15, as Gov. Gavin Newsom stated last week, Stout said he would expect to see a corresponding increase in the regional airport’s activity, though tempered.

“I don’t believe we’ll get quite to 2019 activity levels, but I still expect that once the state is open, by the end of the year we should be roughly around 75% to 80% of 2019 levels,” he said. The airport closed out 2019 having flown 488,179 passengers, an all-time high, and was on track to reach the half-million mark in 2020.

“It will take a while for things to spool up,” Stout said. “People have definitely been returning, but not in the large numbers if it was a full reopening.”

On the construction front, with few passengers on-site due to ongoing pandemic restrictions, progress on the airport’s $31 million terminal improvement and modernization project is moving along faster than expected, Stout noted.

“We’re actually looking to shave about two months off of the schedule right now” barring any unforeseen changes, Stout said. The project, currently expected to wrap up in October 2022, may be finished by late summer 2022, he said.

The airport in November broke ground on the project that will add 33,000 square feet of new construction and 7,000 square feet of renovation. Once construction is complete, the terminal’s total square footage will be approximately 56,000 square feet, as reported previously by the Business Journal.