Santa Maria Public Airport

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For other airports named Santa Maria, see Santa Maria Airport.

Coordinates: 34°53′56″N 120°27′27″W / 34.89889°N 120.4575°W / 34.89889; -120.4575

Santa Maria Public Airport
Capt. G. Allan Hancock Field
SMX logo.png
IATA: SMX – ICAO: KSMX – FAA: SMX
Summary
Airport type Public
Owner Santa Maria Public Airport District
Serves Santa Maria, California
Elevation AMSL 261 ft / 80 m
Website SantaMariaAirport.com
Runways
Direction Length Surface
ft m
12/30 6,304 1,921 Asphalt
2/20 5,130 1,564 Asphalt
Statistics (2007)
Aircraft operations 62,480
Based aircraft 243
Source: FAA[1], airport website[2]

Santa Maria Public Airport (IATA: SMX, ICAO: KSMX, FAA LID: SMX), also known as the Capt. G. Allan Hancock Field, is an airport located three miles (5 km) south of the central business district of Santa Maria, a city in northern Santa Barbara County, California, United States.[1]

Contents

[edit] History

The airport was built by the United States Army during World War II, known as Santa Maria Army Air Field[3]. Its primary mission was to provide training for B-25 pilots, however flight training was abandoned by December of 1942. The field fell into a state of disuse until the arrival of the P-38 in September of 1943.

After the war, Santa Barbara County and the City of Santa Maria acquired the land and facilities through a series of two grants in 1948. In 1964 the Army Air Field was renamed Santa Maria Public Airport.

[edit] Facilities and aircraft

FAA airport diagram

Santa Maria Public Airport covers an area of 2,516 acres (1,018 ha) which contains two asphalt paved runways: 12/30 measuring 6,304 x 150 ft (1,921 x 46 m) and 2/20 measuring 5,130 x 75 ft (1,564 x 23 m).[1]

For the 12-month period ending December 31, 2007, the airport had 62,480 aircraft operations, an average of 171 per day: 79% general aviation, 19% air taxi, 2% military and <1% scheduled commercial. There are 243 aircraft based at this airport: 83% single-engine, 7% multi-engine, 6% helicopter, 3% jet, <1% glider and <1% ultralight.[1]

[edit] Expansion

The airport hopes to expand one of its runways in the hope to attract new airlines. It has opened an international customs facility on December 1, 2006, and airport officials hope that this would encourage new airlines to set routes to Santa Maria, though this has closed due to costs not covered. The airport has also undertaken negotiations with Frontier Airlines in 2007, in hopes of launching a route on the low cost carrier to its Denver hub.[4]Santa Maria is currently out of the running for the Denver-based flight. In August 2007 Allegiant Air added another route to Santa Maria from its newly proclaimed focus city at Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport. However the Phoenix-Santa Maria service has been discontinued in May 2008. Allegiant Air has also expanded air service from Las Vegas to Santa Maria adding a Monday flight to its schedule. Skywest, in late 2007 (which provides current service to Los Angeles International Airport several times a day), has plans to add routes to destinations such as Atlanta, Chicago, Denver, San Francisco, Salt Lake City, and other various key hubs. If Skywest approves of these routes Santa Maria Airport will be one of a few airports that would offer flights to major cities back east.

Airport officials have recently opened the new, approximately 4,000-square-foot (370 m2) baggage claim facility, and have repaired the cracks in the floor. It is one of the first airports on the Central Coast to use a state of the art baggage carousel (in a smaller scale) to deliver luggage to passengers.

A new passenger terminal holding room was recently opened. The old area was able to accommodate only 30 passengers. To handle the larger crowds of passengers that Allegiant Air flights bring, the new holding room accommodates 200 passengers and has enough room for a new cafe.

[edit] Usage

Nov 2007 to Oct 2008: 56,553 passengers (SkyWest), 53,294 passengers (Allegiant), total 109,847 passengers.[5] Nov 2008 to Oct 2009, 48,117 passengers (SkyWest), 37,570 passengers (Allegiant), total 85,687 passengers.[5]

[edit] Airlines and destinations

Airlines Destinations
Allegiant Air Las Vegas
United Express operated by SkyWest Airlines Los Angeles

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b c d FAA Airport Master Record for SMX (Form 5010 PDF), effective 2007-10-25
  2. ^ Santa Maria Public Airport, official site
  3. ^ http://www.militarymuseum.org/SantaMariaAAF.html
  4. ^ "Airport looking at new Frontier". Airport press release. March 2, 2007. http://www.santamariaairport.com/news/07/news030207.htm. 
  5. ^ a b [http://www.santamariatimes.com/news/local/article_bdd4f11a-d27c-11de-8c38-001cc4c002e0.html

[edit] External links

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Maria_Public_Airport"
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