Charles M. Schulz-Sonoma County Airport poised to break passenger traffic record this year

The surge of Americans returning to air travel amid the waning pandemic has lifted passenger numbers to record levels at Charles M. Schulz-Sonoma County Airport, where year-end traffic is on pace to be up by nearly 30% over the previous high mark in 2019.

The airport is poised to serve as many as 625,000 passengers by the end of 2022, far surpassing the 2019 figure of 488,000, said Jon Stout, the airport manager.

Last month alone, the regional hub saw 56,528 passengers, up 25% from August 2021, with passenger totals so far this year at 398,688, up 71% from a year ago at this time and up about 200% from 2020, when traffic plunged to a 10-year low amid pandemic shutdowns.

The large increase, even over the 2021 rebound, is attributed to the greater comfort people feel flying now as the pandemic ebbs. That’s especially true of those who have put off traveling over the past two years because of health concerns, with more spots open up to handle additional crowds, tourism officials said.

“I knew things were coming back. I didn’t expect things to come back this quickly,” Stout said.

The increase is mirrored nationally, as there were 70.9 million airline passengers flying in June, which neared the 77.9 million level of June 2019 before pandemic, according to the U.S. Bureau of Transportation Statistics.

The growth, though, comes as airlines strain to keep up amid labor scarcity, especially with pilots, and increased fuel costs. Those pressures have led airlines to cut fall routes, causing a raft of disruptions and delays that has attracted the attention of Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigeg, who said last month that there needed to be a “refresh” on rules on how passengers are treated with the backlogs.

Sonoma County’s airport has not been immune to the cuts even amid the uptick in passengers.

Aha Airlines, which this summer launched a nonstop route between its hub at Reno-Tahoe International Airport and Santa Rosa, stopped service last month after filing for bankruptcy. On Nov. 1, United Airlines is set to suspend service out of the Santa Rosa airport, citing pilot shortages for the move.

American Airlines this month dropped from two daily round-trip flights from Phoenix to one. Alaska Airlines, the dominant carrier at the airport with almost 60% of the traffic, has reduced various flights for its six West Coast destinations out of Santa Rosa, Stout said.

Airport traffic has been buoyed especially by upstart Avelo Airlines, which launched service in April 2021 to Hollywood Burbank Airport with its low-cost fares and 737 airplanes that can handle more passengers. The Houston-based airline has since expanded to five flights a week from its hub. It also has another four weekly flights from Las Vegas to Santa Rosa.

On Nov. 11, Avelo will offer twice weekly service to Palm Springs International Airport as a seasonal route.

“The advance bookings have told us that is going to be very strong,” Stout said.

Avelo is now the No. 2 carrier at the airport with almost 20% of the overall traffic, Stout said, serving 80,113 passengers this year through August.

“I really think the story of Avelo at Schulz has been a little bit under the radar,” said Travis Christ, head of marketing for Avelo. “It’s been a real serendipitous relationship that has been created.”

The airline has seen particular growth from the Southern California area, and not just from tourists, but passengers who may have family here or second homes, Christ said.

The traffic also has been strong among with local residents who want to fly to the Los Angeles area and avoid the hassle of travel through the San Francisco and Los Angeles airports. That group includes Meredith Rennie of Windsor, who used Avelo last year to fly down to watch her beloved Giants play the Dodgers at Dodger Stadium.

“It was so convenient and to get in and out of the airport,” Rennie said of travel through Hollywood Burbank. She also was impressed with the cleanliness of the plane. “I remember telling a friend of mine, I said, ‘I think this is the cleanest plane that I have been on my entire life,’” she added.

The Los Angeles area has been a particularly important market for Sonoma County Tourism, the local agency responsible for marketing tourism. That’s especially the case for airline passengers, who represent about 36% of overall visitor traffic into the county, said Todd O’Leary, vice president of marketing and communications for the agency.

Sonoma County Tourism hosted an outreach event for travel industry personnel and media in West Hollywood this spring to highlight the trend.

“Their frequency (of flights) is definitely a bright spot for us,” O’Leary said of Avelo’s routes to Burbank.