Sonoma County airport officials vow to push for Denver flights

Efforts to woo another airline to the Charles M. Schulz-Sonoma County Airport hit a patch of turbulence last week when Frontier Airlines, one of the carriers on the airport’s wish list, left Sonoma County off a list of 42 new markets it plans to enter this spring.

Though disappointed by the decision, airport and business leaders vowed to continue courting Frontier and other carriers to offer flights from Santa Rosa to Denver.

“We’re not giving up,” airport manager Jon Stout said. “It just means we have to change how we approach the airline.”

Stout plans to reach out again to Frontier and United Airlines about offering flights to Denver, a route that could open up the East Coast to Sonoma County residents. However, it will be a challenge because both airlines operate routes out of San Francisco.

“It’s a very important point for us,” he said about the flights to Denver, which would allow travelers to fly to New York City and other major cities without the hassle of driving to the San Francisco or Oakland international airports.

“With United, we think the potential customers could be 200,000 a year,” Stout said.

It would open a whole new market for the county, said Jonathan Coe, president of the Santa Rosa Chamber of Commerce. The Denver route not only could encourage more people to visit Sonoma County, but also make it easier for local businesspeople to travel to the East Coast, he said. That would make the area more attractive to businesses that want to relocate or open offices here, Coe said.

“That would be very powerful if we could tell people, ‘Yes, fly right into the Wine Country,’” said Coe, who sits on the airport’s Airline Attraction Committee.

It won’t be an easy task, though.

Stout, who attends three to five airline conferences a year, said he started conversations eight years ago with Frontier, as well as other carriers. However, the airlines raised concerns over the runway at the Santa Rosa airport. In 2014, the runway was extended by 885 feet to 6,000 feet, giving the airport a better chance of attracting major airlines with jets capable of flying to hubs like Phoenix and Salt Lake City.

Once the county completed the $55 million runway expansion that allowed larger planes to land, Stout returned to the carriers. However, they were starting to wrestle with major challenges, including airline mergers, pilot shortages and customer service problems, Stout said.

“As we were going through the (expansion) project, the pilot issues became more, then more issues came up and the interest waned,” he said.

With its new routes announced Thursday, Frontier focused on larger hubs on the east side of the country, Stout said. It added several flights to Atlanta, Philadelphia and Orlando, Fla.

“They (Frontier) didn’t do anything in smaller markets,” he said. “Airlines are a numbers-driven game.”

Stout said he would continue to talk with Frontier and United about adding service between Santa Rosa and Denver. With Virgin Airlines’ plan to start operating three daily flights from San Francisco to Denver, Stout said, the county may be able to convince a rival carrier to compete by starting a route to Santa Rosa.

Meanwhile, he’s talking to Alaska Airlines about bringing back flights to Las Vegas. He also is continuing conversations with American Airlines about a route to Phoenix and with Allegiant Air about routes to Las Vegas and Mesa, Ariz.

He said the airport almost reached a deal with regional carrier SkyWest to offer flights to Phoenix. However, he said, the carrier later learned that its contract with American Airlines wouldn’t allow for that, putting a halt on the route, which Stout had hoped to start last November.

“SkyWest is talking to American to amend their contract and allow it,” he said on Friday.

Stout said he’s staying optimistic, especially after considering how long it took to land Horizon Air, Alaska Airlines’ sister carrier that first started providing nonstop services from Santa Rosa to Los Angeles and Seattle in 2007.

The airline now offers flights to Portland and will start flying to Orange County in March. Last year, it served 263,142 passengers at the Sonoma County airport, a 10 percent increase from the previous year.

Stout expects ridership to rise to 300,000 passengers this year at the airport, where county officials are looking at nearly doubling the size of the terminal, providing more room for passengers.

“It took us almost four and a half years to get Horizon to Sonoma County,” Stout said. “It’s a long process.”

You can reach Staff Writer Eloísa Ruano González at 521-5458 or eloisa.gonzalez@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @eloisanews.