American Airlines makes conflicting moves at Charles M. Schulz-Sonoma County Airport

American Airlines, which next month will pause its seasonal flights between Dallas-Fort Worth and Charles M. Schulz–Sonoma County Airport, has pushed back its resumption date by three months, airport officials said Friday .

The Dallas flights, set to pause Dec. 4, were initially scheduled to return Feb. 15, but the resumption date has been delayed to May 6, Airport Manager Jon Stout said.

“The airport was disappointed, and we haven't been able to get an answer or response as to why,” he said.

American Airlines didn’t shed much more light on its decision.

“As part of our network evaluation, we routinely will adjust start dates for seasonal services across our network,” Jay Singh, spokesman for the Fort Worth-based American Airlines, said in an email statement. “There are many factors involved that we consider, so I, unfortunately, don’t have a specific reason to share.”

At the same time, however, American will be switching out the planes it flies from the Santa Rosa facility to accommodate more passengers.

“Next summer, we will be flying an Airbus A319 with 128 seats instead of the Embraer E175, with 76 seats, between DFW and STS,” Singh said.

The bigger planes would raise American’s profitability at the Sonoma County airport, which suggests the commercial carrier may be considering making the Dallas flight year-round at some point, Stout said.

Meanwhile, the airport remains on track to finish the year having serviced about 630,000 passengers, roughly 3% higher than the 615,000 passengers flown in 2022, Stout said.

“This year has been a little more interesting than last, just because there's been a lot of changes with what some of our partners have been doing on frequencies and ‘upgauging’ of aircraft (or adding seats to existing jets),” Stout said. “The passenger demand is still there, it's still solid.”

For the month of October, 62,305 passengers traveled through Santa Rosa, up 3.9% from a year prior. In September, the airport serviced 62,229 passengers.

For the first 10 months of the year, the airport’s three commercial carriers — Alaska Airlines, Avelo Airlines and American Airlines — collectively flew 533,337 passengers, up 3.1% from October 2022. The total through September of this year was 471,032 passengers.

American Airlines last month flew 11,795 passengers through the regional airport, up 14.3% from a year earlier. Its load factor — the measure of how full airplanes are on average — was 87%. American in September flew 10,434 passengers.

Alaska Airlines in October flew 38,942 passengers through the Sonoma County airport, up 3.1% from a year prior. Its load factor was 87%. Alaska flew 40,991 passengers through the airport in September.

And Avelo Airlines flew 11,568 passengers in October, up 16.2% from a year earlier. Its load factor was 73%. Avelo in September flew 10,804 passengers through the county facility.

Avelo on Nov. 3 resumed its seasonal nonstop service to Palm Springs from the Sonoma County airport after suspending the flights June 19, as previously reported. It was expected Avelo — which launched the service at the Santa Rosa facility one year ago — would resume the flights later in the year, after the Southern California desert resort’s scorching-hot summer was over, Stout told the Business Journal in a July 29 report.

To date, Avelo has flown more than 14,000 travelers between the two destinations, according to the airline.

The Palm Springs-Sonoma County route will operate one flight per day twice a week, on Mondays and Fridays, until early January, according to Avelo. Starting Jan. 8, the airline will operate one flight per day four days a week, on Mondays, Thursdays, Fridays and Sundays.