Sonoma County airport sets ridership record

<p>A record 207,188 passengers took Alaska Airlines' flights to and from Santa Rosa in 2011, according to Charles M. Schulz-Sonoma County Airport.</p><p>The previous record was 204,734 set in 2008. Alaska has five flights a day from Santa Rosa to Los Angeles, Seattle, Portland and Las Vegas.</p><p>Ridership grew almost 9.8 percent in 2011, the airport said. Travel was down in 2009 and 2010 because of the nation's economic downturn.</p><p>In December, 16,541 passengers took Alaska's Santa Rosa flights, up 1.2 percent from 2010. The flights averaged 74 percent full last month.</p><p>The flights are operated by Horizon Air, Alaska's sister carrier. Alaska handles scheduling, ticketing, pricing and marketing. </p><p>Both airlines are part of Seattle-based Alaska Air Group.</p><p>Alaska's Horizon-operated flights carried 2.6 percent fewer passengers system-wide in 2011 as the carrier trimmed the size of its fleet, according to Alaska Air Group.</p>