Sonoma County airport puts finishing touches on yearslong construction project, releases July passenger figures

After more than a decade of planning and nearly three years of construction, Charles M. Schulz-Sonoma County Airport will formally unveil its completed $40 million terminal improvement and modernization project Wednesday, airport officials announced.

The finished product brings to fruition a renovation of 7,000 square feet, along with the addition of 33,000 square feet, which ultimately increases the terminal’s size to approximately 56,000 square feet.

Airport administrators are now focusing their efforts on stepping up flight frequencies and adding new markets. According to Airport Manager Jon Stout, such discussions with the airport’s three commercial carriers — Alaska Airlines, Avelo Airlines and American Airlines — are ongoing.

“Now, at this point, we are going to meet with Alaska at the end of September to have discussions about next year,” Stout said. “We are pushing for a couple of new markets with them.”

They are Ontario in Southern California, and Austin, Texas, he said.

“We don't expect an answer on that for quite a few months yet, but we are working with them to try and encourage those new routes,” Stout said. “And we're still working with Avelo on other markets, Boise, (Idaho) and some others.”

Earlier this year, Stout shared with the Business Journal additional markets targeted for the Santa Rosa facility. They are Provo or Salt Lake City in Utah; Chicago; Boston and New York. Denver also remains top of mind — whether with United again or another carrier.

Sun Country is also considering bringing back the seasonal service it offered to Minneapolis between 2017 and 2020.

“We provided them quite a bit of information about a month ago,” Stout said.

And talks continue with American Airlines to convince the carrier to make its seasonal flights to Dallas year-round. The flights, which continue to be popular, are scheduled to pause this year on Dec. 4, and resume Feb. 15, 2024, Stout said.

Meanwhile, airport officials have released passenger numbers for July, which show 55,025 people traveled through the regional facility, down 8.5% from a year prior. In June, 56,256 passengers traveled through the airport.

For the first seven months of the year, the airport’s three commercial carriers have collectively flown 351,243 passengers, up 2.7% from a year earlier, according to the figures. For comparison, during the pandemic, in July 2021 and July 2020, the airport flew 188,593 passengers and 118,602 passengers, respectively.

Looking at the airlines’ July figures individually, Alaska flew 38,061 passengers through the Sonoma County airport last month, up 10.7% from a year earlier. Its load factor — the measure of how full airplanes are on average — was 84%. The Seattle-based commercial air carrier, the largest serving the regional airport, flew 37,928 passengers through the airport in June.

Avelo Airlines, in July, flew 9,505 passengers through the regional airport, down 14.2% from a year earlier. Avelo’s load factor was 90%. In June, the air carrier flew 10,107 passengers through the airport.

And American flew 8,359 passengers through the regional facility last month, down 39.7% from the year prior. Its load factor was 89%. American in June flew 8,221 passengers through the facility.