airport – Enviro Updates

Sonoma County grand jury calls for greater oversight and resources at county airport

July 21, 2025

Emma Murphy & Martin Espinoza, PRESS DEMOCRAT

‘In effect, county leadership is treating the airport as if the significant traffic growth and larger facilities under management don’t require more resources, or more capable staffing,’ the civil grand jury said.

Despite years of sharp growth that has transformed Charles M. Schulz-Sonoma County Airport into a thriving, mid-sized commercial hub, county leaders have failed to provide the operation with the necessary resources and strategic planning it needs, the county’s civil grand jury has concluded in a new report.

The airport, which dates back to World War II, has reached the stage in its development that it could benefit from being its own agency, giving it greater autonomy to address pressing infrastructure and planning needs, the grand jury found.

The airport is currently a division within the county’s Public Infrastructure Department. The county ought to study whether to make it more of an independent entity, reporting directly to the Board of Supervisors, the grand jury recommended.

“In effect, county leadership is treating the airport as if the significant traffic growth and larger facilities under management don’t require more resources, or more capable staffing, than were needed to handle a much smaller business six years ago,” the jury states in its 8-page report.

Transportationairport, airport expansion, airport safety

Op-Ed: How busy should Sonoma County’s airport be?

June 1, 2025

John Reid, PRESS DEMOCRAT

Flying out of Santa Rosa is relaxing. I love it too. But it is like a tiger cub. Cute now, and very likely to get out of hand.

I wasn’t aware of how many planes fly in and out of Charles M. Schulz-Sonoma County airport until they started flying over my house.

That happened in 2024 when the Federal Aviation Administration opened a new flight path over the western part of the county. From 2019 to 2024, the number of Santa Rosa airport passengers increased 58% to around 772,000 a year. Traffic increased 20% last year alone. On one recent weekday, there were 19 commercial departures and various private jets — including Ventura Air Services’ 4:37 a.m. flight to Cabo, which woke me up.

Airplanes pollute. No way around it. They account for 2.5% of global energy-related carbon dioxide emissions, and 9% of U.S. transportation emissions, which is our largest category. They emit nitrous oxides and fine particulates. Even gas cars pollute less than planes per passenger. And aircraft dump noise pollution across the landscape. People lose sleep. Bird communication is interrupted. Batteries are too heavy for planes, so the only way to make them “sustainable” is to fly them less.

Land Use, Transportationair pollution, airport, airport expansion, noise

Sonoma County airport electric-car-rental plan faces power-supply bottleneck

December 25, 2022

Jeff Quackenbush, NORTH BAY BUSINESS JOURNAL

A plan for electric-vehicle fast chargers at an envisioned new car-rental facility at the Charles M. Schulz–Sonoma County Airport has hit a speed bump: A power provider says it could take several years to provide the large amount of electricity those chargers require.

The facility proposal is being updated for EV rentals to fit with California’s recently accelerated push to electrify transportation to cut emissions.

But a local bottleneck in the electrical grid has the project team exploring ways to lessen the anticipated multi-megawatt power demand from chargers needed to quickly get returned EVs ready for the next renter.

Plans for the consolidated rent-a-car facility have been in motion since late 2019, according to documents presented to the Board of Supervisors early this year. The five rental companies operating at the county-run airport want to increase the number of vehicles available and add joint services such as fueling stations for the fleets, automated car wash and a shop for light maintenance.

Climate Change & Energyairport, electricity grid, EV charging stations, PG&E

Heathrow third runway ruled illegal over climate change

February 27, 2020

Damian Carrington, THE GUARDIAN

Appeal court says decision to give go-ahead not consistent with Paris agreement

Plans for a third runway at Heathrow airport have been ruled illegal by the court of appeal because ministers did not adequately take into account the government’s commitments to tackle the climate crisis.

The ruling is a major blow to the project at a time when public concern about the climate emergency is rising fast and the government has set a target in law of net zero emissions by 2050. The prime minister, Boris Johnson, could use the ruling to abandon the project, or the government could draw up a new policy document to approve the runway.

The government is considering its next steps but will not appeal against the verdict. The transport secretary, Grant Shapps, said: “Our manifesto makes clear any Heathrow expansion will be industry-led. Airport expansion is core to boosting global connectivity and levelling up across the UK. We also take seriously our commitment to the environment.”

Johnson has opposed the runway, saying in 2015 that he would “lie down in front of those bulldozers and stop the construction”. Heathrow is already one the busiest airports in the world, with 80 million passengers a year. The £14bn third runway could be built by 2028 and would bring 700 more planes per day and a big rise in carbon emissions.

Johnson is thought to have been looking for a pretext to withdraw support for the extra runway and could make the argument for Birmingham to provide increased airpot capacity for London given that train journey times will be reduced by HS2.

The court’s ruling is the first major ruling in the world to be based on the Paris climate agreement and may have an impact both in the UK and around the globe by inspiring challenges against other high-carbon projects.

Air, Climate Change & Energy, Transportationairport, airport expansion, climate goals, ghg emissions, Paris Climate Agreement

Charles M. Schulz-Sonoma County Airport sets record for January passengers

February 19, 2020

Kevin Fixler, PRESS DEMOCRAT

The popularity of Charles M. Schulz-Sonoma County Airport continues to grow, with the regional hub recording its highest-ever passenger count for the month of January.

Nearly 37,000 commercial passengers traveled through the local airport during the first month of 2020, which represented a 30% increase from the same time last year. In January 2019, Sonoma County airport counted another record for the month, with 28,400 passengers — an 8% gain from the prior year.
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County airport adding more flights to major hubs

With the addition of new routes, including the introduction of nonstop flights to Denver and Dallas/Fort Worth in 2019, the local airport set a new record last year with more than 488,000 passengers. The all-time high maintained a decadelong streak of annual growth.

The airport, which began offering commercial service in 2007, expects to add three more flights later this year, which at its peak will bring the number of daily departing flights to 19. American Airlines already launched a second daily flight to Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport on Feb. 13. Starting March 19, Alaska Airlines will add a second daily route to each of San Diego and Orange County.

Source: https://www.pressdemocrat.com/news/10727039-181/charles-m-schulz-sonoma-county-airport

Air, Climate Change & Energy, Sustainable Living, Transportationairport, airport expansion, climate goals, ghg emissions, tourism

UK airports must shut to reach 2050 climate target, new research concludes

February 19, 2020

Paul Brown, CLIMATE NEWS NETWORK

The reasoning behind the report is that technologies to cut greenhouse gas emissions, like carbon capture and storage, will not be developed in time and on a large enough scale to make a difference to emission reductions by 2050.

If it is to achieve its target of net zero climate emissions by 2050, all UK airports must close by mid-century and the country will have to make other drastic and fundamental lifestyle changes, says a report from a research group backed by the government in London.

With the UK due to host this year’s round of crucial UN climate talks in Glasgow in November, a group of academics has embarrassed the British government by showing it has currently no chance of meeting its own legally binding target to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to nothing within 30 years.

Their report, Absolute Zero, published by the University of Cambridge, says no amount of government or public wishful thinking will hide the fact that the country will not reach zero emissions by 2050 without barely conceivable changes to policies, industrial processes and lifestyles. Its authors include colleagues from five other British universities.

All are members of a group from UK Fires, a research program sponsored by the UK government, aiming to support a 20% cut in the country’s true emissions by 2050 by placing resource efficiency at the heart of its future industrial strategy. The report was paid for under the UK Fires program.

As well as a temporary halt to flying, the report also says British people cannot go on driving heavier cars and turning up the heating in their homes.

The government, industry and the public, it says, cannot continue to indulge themselves in these ways in the belief that new technologies will somehow save them – everyone will have to work together to change their way of life.

Because electric or zero-emission aircraft cannot be developed in time, most British airports will need to close by the end of this decade, and all flying will have to stop by 2050 until non-polluting versions are available.

Electrification of surface transport, rail and road, needs to be rapid, with the phasing out of all development of petrol and diesel cars immediately. Even if all private cars are electric, the amount of traffic will have to fall to 60% of 2020 levels by 2050, and all cars will have to be smaller.

Climate Change & Energy, Transportationair travel, airport, all-electric, climate goals, ghg emissions, no fly movement

Sonoma County reviewing pitches for two large hotel projects near Santa Rosa airport

January 13, 2020

Kevin Fixler, THE PRESS DEMOCRAT

Developers are proposing to build a pair of large hotels near Charles M. Schulz-Sonoma County Airport, more than tripling the number of hotel rooms to serve travelers at the growing transportation hub.

The two projects, each more than 100 rooms, could help the Santa Rosa airport draw more regional travelers who currently head to Bay Area hubs in San Francisco, Oakland, San Jose and even east to Sacramento to catch their flights, according to local airport and economic development officials.

The developments, which would open next year, are working their way through the county’s permit review process. The first, a six-story, 166-room luxury Hyatt Place, would offer conference rooms, a roof deck and restaurant about 300 yards away from the airport. The second, a four-story, 101-room Tru by Hilton, would be located near the Highway 101 offramp.

They would join the existing hotel near the airport, a 90-room Hilton Garden Inn next to the highway that also provides meeting spaces for guests.

Air, Climate Change & Energy, Land Useair pollution, air travel, airport, airport expansion, number of flights, tourism, tourism impacts