Alaska Airlines has cut two more flights out of Santa Rosa, dropping routes to Portland and Orange County starting Friday, the latest in a series of local service reductions amid the sharp national downturn in air travel.
The route suspensions, which Alaska Airlines described as temporary, come a week after the Seattle-based carrier halved its number of daily flights serving Charles M. Schulz-Sonoma County Airport. Alaska, Sonoma County’s primary commercial airline, will now limit service to once-daily flights between Seattle, Los Angeles and San Diego.
Sonoma County’s other two air carriers, United Airlines and American Airlines, also have made cuts to curb costs and align with a vastly narrowed market for air travel during the global coronavirus pandemic. The reductions leave the regional air hub with an average of six departures a day, or down about two-thirds of the 19 daily flights it expected this year.
It’s a stark reversal of fortunes after the airport just posted its 10th straight year of annual passenger growth.
In 2019, the regional airport served more than 488,000 passengers, equating to a monthly average of about 40,600 travelers. Initial data for March showed the airport with fewer than 10,000 departing passengers, down about 40% from the same time last year.
“We were expecting a record year,” Sonoma County airport manager Jon Stout said. “We just want to get past the current situation and then see how the recovery effort goes, then start looking at projections. Until that happens, I’m not willing to put too much of a forecast out there.”
Passenger totals since the county’s stay-home order went into effect March 18 have hit all-time lows. So far in April, the airport has had a single-day low of 12 people passing through security, and a high of 32, according to initial counts.
“It doesn’t make sense to keep large schedules,” Stout said, noting hopes of returning service to all markets eventually, even if it means less frequency of flights each day.
Dr. Sundari Mase, Sonoma County’s health officer, said Thursday that flights may be riskier than other forms of travel, citing concerns over recirculated air on airplanes and unavoidable close contact with numerous people at airports.
So far, Sonoma County has seen that people who have been infected with the virus after travel haven’t necessarily gone to places where there are a lot of cases, she said, meaning there may be more infections occurring on planes than public health experts currently know. With sporting events canceled, as well as business conferences and vacations put on hold, Mase said “there aren’t a lot of good reasons for people to be traveling on planes” right now.
Meanwhile, United on Wednesday suspended its popular nonstop route to Denver through at least the end of the month, Stout said. The 50-seat flight previously had averaged better than 90% capacity, leading the airline to add a second daily direct flight beginning in June. That plan also is now shelved.
In addition, United is canceling its daily route between Santa Rosa and San Francisco on a day-to-day basis, Stout said.
American Airlines on the other hand reintroduced its nonstop flight to Dallas/Fort Worth as planned on Tuesday. American was forced, however, to hold off on return of its daily route to Los Angeles when regional carrier Compass Airlines ceased operations at the start of the month due to financial pressures related to the ongoing crisis causing much of business and industry nationwide to come to a halt.
American also has been canceling one of its two daily flights to Phoenix on a day-to-day basis. That will continue at least until the end of April, Stout said.
The decision in February by discount carrier Sun Country Airlines to pull its seasonal service between Minneapolis-St. Paul and Las Vegas from the local market for at least the year is contributing to the service decline.
Staff Writer Tyler Silvy contributed to this report.
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