Sonoma County airport Thanksgiving traveler surge spurs parking expansion planning

As Christmas approaches, officials at Charles M. Schulz–Sonoma County Airport are looking for parking solutions after a higher-than-expected passenger crush in November.

“We filled up both of our long-term parking lots, filled up the short-term lot and scrambled to find street parking,” said Airport Manager Jon Stout. “I'm not aware of anybody missing their flights, but it definitely created anxiety and stress.”

In response to the Thanksgiving crush, the airport is upping its social media messaging and encouraging Christmas travelers to make reservations for the parking lots, and also recommending people use alternatives for getting to the airport, such as being dropped off or using Airport Express.

Airport officials are also working to smooth out the situation for the future, Stout said. Solutions could include using the lots of neighboring businesses to provide overflow parking.

Overall, demand has been up for the entire year. At the end of this month, the airport is expected to exceed 600,000 passengers served, its highest total ever.

Eleven months into the year, the commercial airlines servicing the airport have flown 569,764 passengers, already well ahead of the record 488,000 passengers in 2019, airport officials said Friday.

In looking at the flight schedule for all of December, Stout said he is feeling “pretty confident” about hitting a new record.

“We should (end up) at around 605,000 to 608,000 passengers,” he said.

Meanwhile, the three commercial air carriers serving the airport in November — Alaska Airlines, American Airlines and Avelo Airlines — collectively flew 52,360 passengers through the facility. That was up 3.9% from a year earlier but below the 59,939 passengers flown in October.

American Airlines last month flew 8,382 passengers through Santa Rosa — 112.6% more than November 2021.

Alaska Airlines in November flew 34,424 passengers through the regional airport, up 3.4% from a year earlier.

Avelo, which flies from Santa Rosa to its Burbank hub, as well as Las Vegas and Palm Springs, in November flew 9,554 passengers through the Sonoma County airport, down 15.9% from November 2021.

United Airlines, which had a resumed some operations at the airport after the pandemic, has shut down altogether and will not return.

“I was being hopeful,” he said. “But from a business perspective, this way they don't have to continue to pay rent for the facilities they were occupying.”

United had served the San Francisco and Denver markets from Santa Rosa. The airline had resumed service to San Francisco in August 2021, but had pushed back the Denver restart date, most recently to Jan. 4, 2023. Its final flight was last month.