As anyone who follows California airports knows, 2018 was a very good year, and few more so than for SMF.

While the final numbers aren’t in, milestones for SMF in 2018 include:

Over 12,000,000 passengers served. Wow.... This is nothing short of phenomenal and includes eight straight months of over 1,000,000 pax. Before 2018, SMF had served over a million passengers in a month only twice in its history.

And while YOY growth has tapered off since August, year-end totals should show almost exactly 10% growth in 2018 and so far, 9 months have broken through that mark. As of October, YOY was 10.7%.

As of today, SMF serves 41 cities. Detroit makes 42. As noted elsewhere, just four years ago, SMF served 27 cities non-stop.

Here are some of the highlights for 2018 –

New Service Started:
Leon, Mexico – Volaris
Kona - Alaska
Houston (Hobby) – Southwest
New Orleans - Southwest
Orlando – Southwest
Austin – Southwest
St. Louis - Southwest

New Service announced:
Detroit – Delta
Maui – Hawaiian
Hawaii – Southwest

Increased Frequencies/Longer Seasonal:
Boston – JetBlue
Newark – United
San Diego – Alaska/Southwest
Chicago – United
Minneapolis – Delta
Long Beach – Southwest

New/Returning Airlines:
Denver – Frontier
Las Vegas – Frontier
Vancouver – Air Canada

And then, of course, there is freight. Not sure why the local media up there, not to mention the local Chamber and city leaders, haven't been trumpeting this to everyone.

Freight is up an astounding 78% through October and, at well over 200,000,000 million pounds through November, will shatter all previous pre-Mather records with the Christmas rush yet to be counted. Important to note that Mather is also up nearly 20% YOY.

No one in their wildest airport dreams could have predicted such an incredible year for SMF. It has been thrilling for an av-geek like me to sit in Concourse B 2-3 times a month and witness it. So many times, while watching the crowds at all hours of the day I kept thinking to myself, “Wow… This place has arrived!”

What does 2019 have in store? How will the new airport director, having held leadership positions in SFO and PDX, shape airline growth and facilities improvements. We’re already seeing increased and improved amenities, including new private lounges operated by Escape, what else does she have in mind?

Likely new service to what new cities?

How will the continuing intra-state battle between Alaska and Southwest play-out at SMF? We’re already seeing some impact as next summer Southwest and Alaska will combine for 18 departures a day between SMF and SAN.

What impact will new SCK-LAX service have? Very interesting that SFO officials worked with the Stockton airport to secure this. Did they have any discussions with SMF? Particularly since the new Director has such extensive SFO connections.

How will California’s hostile business climate impact SMF? With the recent election results, this difficult environment appears only to be getting worse. What does that mean for SMF?

For myself? I see at least one new airline in 2019, probably another LCC.

Also - Put me down for a new, morning flight to JFK. New service to FLL, PHL, and BNA. BOS goes year-round. Hobby goes daily, probably at 2x/day. Less likely, but possible is SAT. Intra-state I’ll go with SBA and BFL, and the return of seasonal PSP. I’ll go out on a limb here and say RDD(!) gets a morning flight. Additional frequency to Vancouver. Additional service to secondary/vacation market in Mexico.

Do either Alaska or Southwest increase service to feed Hawaii? I would think so: just so much capacity, but my gut says little, if any. I think they’ll be somewhat content to see how SMF performs on its own, at least for awhile.

Freight will continue a record pace for at least 2019 as Amazon gets increasingly confident with how well the SMF location works.

I think that SMF can ride out the miserable California business climate for at least 2019, if for no other reason than that companies want to be close to the State Capital for the same reason thieves rob banks: that’s where the money is.

After that though, an increasingly oppressive business climate will begin to take its toll, with perhaps Reno being the biggest beneficiary.

2018 was without a doubt the best year in SMF history. Can’t expect 2019 to match it, but it’s still going to be an incredible ride.

Here's to another great year at SMF. What are your thoughts?

WN could further expand at SMF by (a) bringing back SMF-MCI nonstop service, (b) adding SMF-BNA and SMF-SAT nonstop service, and (c) extending SMF-HOU nonstop service to daily nonstop service.

jplatts wrote:

WN could further expand at SMF by (a) bringing back SMF-MCI nonstop service, (b) adding SMF-BNA and SMF-SAT nonstop service, and (c) extending SMF-HOU nonstop service to daily nonstop service.

Agree with MCI. Should have thought of that...

WilliaminSD: You can surely tell from the airport's passenger numbers that travel is up....a lot!

Another way is to look at the lines for Peet's Coffee in Terminal A in the morning.

Justapax wrote:

WilliaminSD: You can surely tell from the airport's passenger numbers that travel is up....a lot!

Another way is to look at the lines for Peet's Coffee in Terminal A in the morning.

Can't say much about Terminal A, but by June of last year, I was seeing lines at Peet's in Concourse B, on the slower (non-Southwest) side, well into the afternoon, sometimes even up to closing around 7:00 pm. Had NEVER seen that before 2018.

I forgot to mention the gradual renovation of Terminal/Concourse A. Holding areas upgraded, new bridges, expanded security area, new restaurants and central court. I once read that total costs were to approach $300,000,000. Sure doesn't seem like it, but maybe a lot of the mechanical systems were replaced. Anyone confirm that number?

From 2016. Looks like it was for the airport at large, not just Terminal A.

https://sacramento.cbslocal.com/2016/06 ... rovements/

williaminsd wrote:

From 2016. Looks like it was for the airport at large, not just Terminal A.

https://sacramento.cbslocal.com/2016/06 ... rovements/

Hmm the article did a poor job at explaining what the $300mil in upgrades are for and said that it would occur over a 5 year period so apparently there is some more improvements to come. I wonder if anyone can chime in on what the $300mil upgrades include. I know the airport has been doing taxiway work and the 34R/16L runways is currently closed for that reason.

Anyways, excellent analysis on where the airport stands today and going into the future.

HOU going daily is definitely likely as well as the addition of BNA. MCI I could maybe see after the new terminal. I'm still wondering if MSY and AUS are sustainable, but then again, BOI and GEG seem to be holding on.

If WN decides to do more transcons (or redeyes), I could see SMF-EWR.

Wouldn't be surprised to see AS doing SMF-BUR or maybe DL doing SMF-LAS to go along with some of their other CA-LAS routes.

Not sure how much demand there is, but SMF-MIA/FLL could be an opportunity.

During the first six months of 2019, published seat capacity is up 11.6% at SMF versus the same period in 2018 - and that doesn't include any SMF-Hawaii routes that Southwest is expected to announce shortly. SMF is on very solid footing for the first half of 2019, and depending on the economy, should expect another banner traffic year this year.

ericm2031 wrote:

HOU going daily is definitely likely as well as the addition of BNA. MCI I could maybe see after the new terminal. I'm still wondering if MSY and AUS are sustainable, but then again, BOI and GEG seem to be holding on.

There is more than enough demand for SMF-AUS nonstop service since there was an average of 322 passengers traveling between SMF and AUS per day in Q2 2018, which is more than enough demand to fill a WN 737-700 plane. There might even be enough demand for a 2nd daily nonstop to AUS from SMF on WN since WN is currently the only airline serving AUS nonstop from SMF.

There is also likely enough demand for WN to add daily nonstop service to SAT from SMF since there was an average of 222 passengers a day traveling between SMF and SAT in Q2 2018.

jplatts wrote:

ericm2031 wrote:

HOU going daily is definitely likely as well as the addition of BNA. MCI I could maybe see after the new terminal. I'm still wondering if MSY and AUS are sustainable, but then again, BOI and GEG seem to be holding on.

There is more than enough demand for SMF-AUS nonstop service since there was an average of 322 passengers traveling between SMF and AUS per day in Q2 2018, which is more than enough demand to fill a WN 737-700 plane. There might even be enough demand for a 2nd daily nonstop to AUS from SMF on WN since WN is currently the only airline serving AUS nonstop from SMF.

There is also likely enough demand for WN to add daily nonstop service to SAT from SMF since there was an average of 222 passengers a day traveling between SMF and SAT in Q2 2018.

Also to note is that the SMF-AUS is on a 738 most days of the week so that to me is a good indicator that it is a successful route.

Anyone notice that UA right now has 4 red eyes now departing almost daily to their hubs in IAH,ORD,EWR,IAD? Thats a whole lot more than AA which has 2 reds to DFW and CLT respectively, and DL that has a single redeye to ATL. I know in the summer season all 3 majors have more red eyes, but it seems to me UA is running their summer red eye schedule right now...in January which with February are the two least busy months at SMF historically.
From what I remember, the summer red eyes tend to be:
UA: IAH,ORD, EWR, IAD
AA: DFW, CLT, (PHX to connect to a red eye)
DL: ATL, MSP, (DTW starting this summer)

Perhaps an 0800 departure to MIA via AA to catch departures to South America?

smflyer wrote:

Anyone notice that UA right now has 4 red eyes now departing almost daily to their hubs in IAH,ORD,EWR,IAD? Thats a whole lot more than AA which has 2 reds to DFW and CLT respectively, and DL that has a single redeye to ATL. I know in the summer season all 3 majors have more red eyes, but it seems to me UA is running their summer red eye schedule right now...in January which with February are the two least busy months at SMF historically.
From what I remember, the summer red eyes tend to be:
UA: IAH,ORD, EWR, IAD
AA: DFW, CLT, (PHX to connect to a red eye)
DL: ATL, MSP, (DTW starting this summer)

I believe United is still running its December holidays schedule through this week. Take a look next week. UA has no redeyes.

UALifer wrote:

smflyer wrote:

Anyone notice that UA right now has 4 red eyes now departing almost daily to their hubs in IAH,ORD,EWR,IAD? Thats a whole lot more than AA which has 2 reds to DFW and CLT respectively, and DL that has a single redeye to ATL. I know in the summer season all 3 majors have more red eyes, but it seems to me UA is running their summer red eye schedule right now...in January which with February are the two least busy months at SMF historically.
From what I remember, the summer red eyes tend to be:
UA: IAH,ORD, EWR, IAD
AA: DFW, CLT, (PHX to connect to a red eye)
DL: ATL, MSP, (DTW starting this summer)

I believe United is still running its December holidays schedule through this week. Take a look next week. UA has no redeyes.

Ahh I see, that makes a lot more sense now.

dfwjim1 wrote:

Perhaps an 0800 departure to MIA via AA to catch departures to South America?

Perfect mission for one of the 319's being acquired from frontier.

Numbers released for November show healthy YOY gains at SMF lead by an unexpectedly huge jump in international passengers.

For the 7th straight month, over a million passengers were served at SMF totaling 1,067,574 and bringing the year to date count to 11,016,880, breaking the 11 million passenger barrier for the first time in the airport’s history.

Southwest again placed #1 in total passengers served, dominating SMF with 578,473, an increase of nearly 55,000 over November 2017, or over 1800 per day.

United mainline saw the biggest gain by percentage, posting an increase of almost 20%. That still wasn’t good enough to displace American as the #2 carrier. Both airlines served nearly 100,000 mainline pax in November.

Delta continued it’s slow but steady climb at SMF with a better than 6% YOY gain.

While Alaska mainline saw about an 8% drop, Alaska/Skywest was up a phenomenal 48%.

United/Skywest was up over 18%.

Frontier’s new service averaged nearly 160 pax a day.

International traffic is up a whopping 36% in November, bolstered by new international service from Southwest and Air Canada.

Aeromexico traffic was relatively flat, but Volaris, with new service to Leon, showed solid gains of over 12%.

Total pax count for 2018 is up 10.6% through November.

Freight continued its record-breaking pace at SMF with over 18.6 million pounds processed in November bringing the year-to-date total to an unheard of 214,108,890 lbs, up over 68% from last-year.

Obviously, SMF will shatter the previous total passenger count record of 10,912,080 set in 2017. And with a greater than expected pax count in November, it only needs about 980,000 to reach 12,000,000. Last year, December’s total count was 945,090, so even a 9% gain gets it over the hump, if just barely.

To reach 13,000,000 in 2019, SMF needs growth of about 8.3%.

PS - Sun Country announced new SMF-MSP service today. Red-eye service starts May 23, Flt #411 - 4x/week. Ar SMF 10:55 pm. Returns to MSP @ 11:55 pm. (One-way fare starts at $118!) Nice way to start the year!

Thanks for the update Williaminsd!
News article if anyone wants to read more about Sun Country expansion into SMF:

https://www.bizjournals.com/sacramento/ ... rport.html

Dolphinflyer, any idea as to which terminal/gate Sun Country will be using?

Pre-departure Champagne up front on Alaska 3455 SMF-SAN this afternoon. That's a first...

williaminsd wrote:

Pre-departure Champagne up front on Alaska 3455 SMF-SAN this afternoon. That's a first...

Passenger next to me had a pre-departure champagne on the AA CLT-SMF route last month. Didn't know any airline had champagne/sparkling wine domestically, always thought it was an intl business class thing.

Well, it's official. December 2018 traffic figures have been released and SMF handled 1,033,883 passengers during the month, marking a 9.4% increase yoy on an 8.6% seat capacity increase yoy for the month. December was the eighth consecutive month that SMF handled in excess of one million passengers, a feat not achieved since July 2007.

During CY2018, SMF handled 12,049,398 passengers, marking a 10.1% increase yoy on a 7.8% seat capacity increase yoy.

BTW - SMF seat capacity during the first six months of 2019 is projected to increase 11.6% versus 1H2018 figures, so SMF is well-positioned to continue this impressive growth through at least the first half of the year.

dolphinflyer wrote:

Well, it's official. December 2018 traffic figures have been released and SMF handled 1,033,883 passengers during the month, marking a 9.4% increase yoy on an 8.6% seat capacity increase yoy for the month. December was the eighth consecutive month that SMF handled in excess of one million passengers, a feat not achieved since July 2007.

During CY2018, SMF handled 12,049,398 passengers, marking a 10.1% increase yoy on a 7.8% seat capacity increase yoy.

BTW - SMF seat capacity during the first six months of 2019 is projected to increase 11.6% versus 1H2018 figures, so SMF is well-positioned to continue this impressive growth through at least the first half of the year.

Wow, great numbers. Thanks for the update. Do you know which airlines are adding the bulk of that capacity?

amadorE175 wrote:

dolphinflyer wrote:

Well, it's official. December 2018 traffic figures have been released and SMF handled 1,033,883 passengers during the month, marking a 9.4% increase yoy on an 8.6% seat capacity increase yoy for the month. December was the eighth consecutive month that SMF handled in excess of one million passengers, a feat not achieved since July 2007.

During CY2018, SMF handled 12,049,398 passengers, marking a 10.1% increase yoy on a 7.8% seat capacity increase yoy.

BTW - SMF seat capacity during the first six months of 2019 is projected to increase 11.6% versus 1H2018 figures, so SMF is well-positioned to continue this impressive growth through at least the first half of the year.

Wow, great numbers. Thanks for the update. Do you know which airlines are adding the bulk of that capacity?

According to the published November traffic report, the majority of the growth is coming from WN and UA (WN due to added routes and capacity and UA capacity mainly to their west coast hubs). WN had the most growth, but UA had the most growth percentage wise with about 20% yoy if I remember the report correctly. DL seems to be on a steady growth curve that seems to be accelerating and AA is flat at essentially no change in traffic yoy, but remain the top legacy carrier by passenger count at SMF. UA is quickly encroaching on that and it looks like UA may take the top position this year if AA doesn't start adding capacity soon.

I think its great to see the increase in demand above the increase in supply, this is a good signal for further growth an d the 11.6% in added capacity for the first half of this year is just confirmation for that. According to the OAG changes, it seems to me that some of this added capacity is coming in the form of earlier starts to seasonal services that typically start in summer but now encroaching on spring time service starts. The other capacity I see is increased intra-california/west coast capacity coming in from WN and AS. As dolphin flyer noted, none of these numbers even factor in the planned WN Hawaii service!

Frequenting the airport, I haven't had any substantial issues with crowding at the airport and it seems to be operating pretty smoothly. The TSA lines in the morning are sometimes long, but good thing I have pre-check! Its nice to finally see the airport operate at the capacity it was meant to handle and not like during the recession when sometimes during the day terminal A seemed like the deserted areas of former hub airports like PIT/CLE. The only thing I might point out is that the A1-A5 gate area tends to get very crowded in the mornings as AA/DL use some stretched out 739s and 321s to their hubs in the morning, but I'm sure that can be mitigated if DL would keep their regional aircraft on the A1-5 side and their mainline out of the A10-17 side which I think would really help to spread the crowds in the morning.

The newly remodeled airside of terminal A looks very nice now that its complete and if it was my first time in, I would think its a brand new terminal. The baggage claim area however is showing some signs of age and I think just changing out the ugly tile floors to matching flooring of terminal B would help out a ton. Terminal B arrivals seems to get crowded sometimes, but now they moved the uber/lyfts into the parking lot so that should help out as well as directing more passengers to use door 3/4 for pick ups should help. I don't frequent terminal B that often, but last time I was there I noticed they switched the side of boarding/deboarding from the people mover on the airside. Its now boarding through the "inside" doors between the two train tracks and de-boarding on the outside doors. This is great because this allows arriving passengers to use either train that comes to the airside instead of waiting for one train to make a full round trip! I didn't realize the utility of this until you see several WN flights coming in at once and that might cause a log jam for the people movers, so essentially they've essentially doubled the people mover capacity by making a very small change.

amadorE175 wrote:

dolphinflyer wrote:

Well, it's official. December 2018 traffic figures have been released and SMF handled 1,033,883 passengers during the month, marking a 9.4% increase yoy on an 8.6% seat capacity increase yoy for the month. December was the eighth consecutive month that SMF handled in excess of one million passengers, a feat not achieved since July 2007.

During CY2018, SMF handled 12,049,398 passengers, marking a 10.1% increase yoy on a 7.8% seat capacity increase yoy.

BTW - SMF seat capacity during the first six months of 2019 is projected to increase 11.6% versus 1H2018 figures, so SMF is well-positioned to continue this impressive growth through at least the first half of the year.

Wow, great numbers. Thanks for the update. Do you know which airlines are adding the bulk of that capacity?

In terms of seat capacity growth during the first six months of 2019 at SMF, the airlines showing the largest increases yoy are: AS +12.5%, DL +11%, HA +23.3% (new daily OGG n/s), UA +24% (adding ORD #3 and IAH #3 seasonally when extra capacity permits) and WN +9.6% (and that's excluding whatever new flights they add to Hawaii from SMF). Overall, very healthy first half of the year.

smflyer wrote:

williaminsd wrote:

Pre-departure Champagne up front on Alaska 3455 SMF-SAN this afternoon. That's a first...

Passenger next to me had a pre-departure champagne on the AA CLT-SMF route last month. Didn't know any airline had champagne/sparkling wine domestically, always thought it was an intl business class thing.

AS has La Marca Prosecco available onboard, it's nice to still see it domestically on non-Hawaii flights

Looks like some added frequencies from UA are on deck for this summer according to the OAG thread:
UA IAH-SMF JUN 2>3[2] JUL 2>3[2] AUG 2>3[1.5]
UA ORD-SMF JUN 2>3[2] JUL 1.9>3[1.8] AUG 1.8>2[2]

No new destinations but I'll take increased frequencies and larger aircraft.

smflyer wrote:

Terminal B arrivals seems to get crowded sometimes, but now they moved the uber/lyfts into the parking lot so that should help out as well as directing more passengers to use door 3/4 for pick ups should help. I don't frequent terminal B that often, but last time I was there I noticed they switched the side of boarding/deboarding from the people mover on the airside. Its now boarding through the "inside" doors between the two train tracks and de-boarding on the outside doors.

Did it ever operate with boarding on the outside doors? I only ever remember boarding on the inside doors but I also didn't go into Terminal B for its first year.

smflyer wrote:

The only thing I might point out is that the A1-A5 gate area tends to get very crowded in the mornings as AA/DL use some stretched out 739s and 321s to their hubs in the morning, but I'm sure that can be mitigated if DL would keep their regional aircraft on the A1-5 side and their mainline out of the A10-17 side which I think would really help to spread the crowds in the morning.

Went through Terminal A and the renovations look good but it seems like there's way less seating than before. It is fairly crowded now with bigger aircraft in the morning.

amadorE175 wrote:

No new destinations but I'll take increased frequencies and larger aircraft.

smflyer wrote:

Terminal B arrivals seems to get crowded sometimes, but now they moved the uber/lyfts into the parking lot so that should help out as well as directing more passengers to use door 3/4 for pick ups should help. I don't frequent terminal B that often, but last time I was there I noticed they switched the side of boarding/deboarding from the people mover on the airside. Its now boarding through the "inside" doors between the two train tracks and de-boarding on the outside doors.

Did it ever operate with boarding on the outside doors? I only ever remember boarding on the inside doors but I also didn't go into Terminal B for its first year.

smflyer wrote:

The only thing I might point out is that the A1-A5 gate area tends to get very crowded in the mornings as AA/DL use some stretched out 739s and 321s to their hubs in the morning, but I'm sure that can be mitigated if DL would keep their regional aircraft on the A1-5 side and their mainline out of the A10-17 side which I think would really help to spread the crowds in the morning.

Went through Terminal A and the renovations look good but it seems like there's way less seating than before. It is fairly crowded now with bigger aircraft in the morning.

I could be wrong if the people mover boarding process airside has changed as I rarely fly out of B and may be confusing myself. I just remember previously people waiting on one side of the track and then flocking over when they notice the people mover arriving on the other track.

And yeah the renovations definitely look super nice and I don't feel as jealous of not being able to fly out of B. I agree with you that it does seem to have less seating. I guess the airport decided to not go with the traditional rows and rows and rows of seats and instead went for this arrangement of seats that make some sort of aesthetic pattern? But its not space efficient so I guess they had to cut down on the number of seats? Or maybe the new fancy in seat power cost a lot more money than your vanilla airport seats so they purchased less? Or maybe they don't want you to park your butt down by the gate and want you up and about shopping in the shops in the airport so they can prop up their revenues to pay for the new seats lol.

But seriously, Dolphinflyer if you're reading this, please get DL/AA to stop crowding A1-A5 gate area. If im flying out of there in the morning there's usually no seats available and half of the people there are standing. I find myself chilling over in the A10-A13 area most of the time and then scurry on over to the A1-5 side when I get the notification on my phone when boarding has started.

Better idea, lets just shut down the entire A10-17 side and operate all legacy service out of A1-5. Turn SMF into a fake LaGuardia. lol jk.

Well, I don’t think anyone would doubt how much I have enjoyed watching SMF mature into a major airport over the last few years, nor could anyone doubt how much I have been an advocate for the airport and those who work there, but man, Sacramento International Airport is definitely experiencing some growing pains.

As someone who has used the airport for years, and at least 2x/month for the last two years, I've had the unfortunate experience of watching groundside service rapidly deteriorate.

So far, in 2019, it's reaching bottom. To make matters worse, the County airport staff seems completely unwilling to take any action to remedy and are absolutely rude when you complain.

Worst of all is the rental car shuttle service. Last Friday night, the line to board for the return to Terminal B stretched to the far end of the consolidated rental car building, which has to be at least 125’. Having missed the first shuttle because it was already filled to capacity, we waited over 20 minutes for the next to arrive.

Several of us finally called to register a complaint at the phone number provided, only to have County staff drone on about how the service is actually great and that their "typical" times are better than most airports.

When I finally called to ask who the boss is, she hung up on me. I understand that the phone had been lighting up in the previous 10 min, but hanging up when you ask for the name of the boss? Unacceptable.

The rental shuttle pick-up area is monitored and recorded by airport administration, so they undoubtedly know how bad the situation has become, but instead of doing something constructive about it, they instruct staff to reply with such inane and mindless, bureaucratic drivel like, "Sir, Friday nights are busy..." I could almost feel the yawn.

Please note that this is far from the first time the rental shuttle return took well over the alleged 15 minutes max to pick-up weary travelers eager to get home. It was, however, the first time I felt the service had devolved to the point of calling to complain, and I have to say the airport’s response was not encouraging.

SMF wants to position itself as Northern California's "easy" to use airport that is hassle-free. That was absolutely true a few years ago, but if customers have to start adding 30 or more minutes to drop-off your rental and get to terminal to make your flight, flyers will find an alternative (btw - when I said this to the person who answered the phone, her smug reply was, "That is your choice...").

Hopefully, airport administration will do more than instruct their rude employees to feed a line of bull to legitimate customer complaints and proactively address what is becoming an increasingly untenable experience.

If they don't, more customers will start looking to Oakland, Santa Rosa, Reno and other area airports through which to conduct their business in Northern California and northern Nevada.

Stockton airport is getting 2x/day service to LAX this year.

It may be worth a look...

I fly monthly, usually arriving on Saturday afternoons at SMF in Terminal 2. The car-rental shuttle service is irregular. Sometimes the wait is very long. For a while they used the system, one shuttle arrived and the other took off. I, too, hope for improvement.

I've never had to take the rental car shuttle but I've had problems with the economy lot shuttle. Long waits for the next bus are the biggest headache. I think they've separated them out so that busses only got to Terminal A or to Terminal B but at peak times it's still a bit of a wait.

I think the changes they've made to the ride share pick-ups are good. The interim solution they had at Terminal B for Thanksgiving was awful but the current setup of using underused roads (Lindberg Rd, I think) north of the Terminal B lot is good. My only hope it that they build some permanent shelters once they decide to keep the ride share pickups there. It's a longer walk than curbside but it's nicer than having airport ops yelling at drivers.

Never used the shuttles at SMF since im a quick uber to Natomas, but I definitely feel that frustration when you got your timing down only to have it messed up by unreliable service. The airport seems to be doing financially really well right now so im not sure why they are being so skimpy on the service.

So far I haven't had any of my bags come super late if I checked anything. Couple weeks ago, bags came out 30mins late at PIT. Good thing DL gives out 2500 sky miles when your bags take longer than 20 mins, otherwise I would've been annoyed.

On a side note, weren't there plans to build a terminal B garage that would have the rental car facilities built into it eliminating the need to hop onto a shuttle to the rental facility? I know several airports are laid out like this and I find it super convenient to use. I wonder if the terminal B garage will be built soon? Theres a pedestrian bridge to the west side of the terminal that leads to an elevator which im assuming is supposed to lead to the future parking garage.

looks like new service from Contour Airlines according to the SBA airport forum. Looks like April 16 start date. No announcement from Contour, SBA, or SMF yet:

SBA-SMF 12:10dep 13:30arr
SMF-SBA 14:25dep 15:35arr

viewtopic.php?f=3&t=1414383&p=21054029&hilit=smf#p21054029

lots of OAG changes mainly from WN increasing west coast frequencies over the summer months and slightly reduced services from B6 in the fall:

B6 JFK-SMF SEP 0.1>1.0[1.0] OCT 0>0.8[1.0]
B6 LGB-SMF SEP 0.2>2[2] OCT 0>1.7[2]
LF SBA-SMF APR 0>0.5[0] MAY 0>1.0[0] JUN 0>1.0[0] JUL 0>1.0[0] AUG 0>1.0[0] SEP 0>1.0[0] OCT 0>0.5[0]
UA ORD-SMF AUG 2>3[2] SEP 1.9>3[2.0]
WN BUR-SMF AUG 1.5>10[8] SEP 0>11[8] OCT 0>0.4[8]
WN DEN-SMF AUG 0.8>5[4] SEP 0>5[4]
WN LAS-SMF AUG 1.3>8[7] OCT 0>0.3[8]
WN LAX-SMF AUG 1.3>8[8] OCT 0>0.3[8]
WN LGB-SMF JUN 2>4[2] AUG 0.3>2[2] SEP 0>2[3]
WN MDW-SMF AUG 0.3>1.1[1.3] SEP 0>1.0[1.2]
WN ONT-SMF AUG 1.0>7[7] OCT 0>0.3[7]
WN PDX-SMF AUG 0.7>5[5] SEP 0>5[4]
WN PHX-SMF AUG 0.9>6[5] OCT 0>0.2[6]
WN SAN-SMF AUG 2>14[11] SEP 0>14[11] OCT 0>0.5[11]
WN SEA-SMF AUG 0.9>6[6] SEP 0>6[5] OCT 0>0.2[5]
WN SLC-SMF AUG 0.2>1.1[1.0] SEP 0>1.1[1.0]
WN SMF-SNA AUG 0.9>6[6] OCT 0>0.2[6]

Re: above OAG changes: Enilria did say October didn't fully load for WN, so ignore the OCT numbers. It also looks like the pre-change numbers above are wrong too, so I'd just look at the AUG new service numbers.

Hopefully the decrease for B6 SMF-JFK is temporary/seasonal.

For those of you who don't know Contour Airlines/LF, they picked up the Crescent City/CEC subsidy abandoned first by OO then by KS/PenAir, and started flying CEC-OAK daily last April. LF flies E-135s with only 30 seats for comfort. They have since expanded to add OAK-SBA-LAS-PGA and PGA-PHX. Currently the SBA-LAS and PGA legs are not daily, but will be expanding at the same time SMF-SBA starts flying. I hope you Smurfs all support the new service, which might encourage LF to connect SMF to ACV and CEC, which hasn't been served since OO's withdrawal.

Wingtips56 wrote:

Re: above OAG changes: Enilria did say October didn't fully load for WN, so ignore the OCT numbers. It also looks like the pre-change numbers above are wrong too, so I'd just look at the AUG new service numbers.

Hopefully the decrease for B6 SMF-JFK is temporary/seasonal.

For those of you who don't know Contour Airlines/LF, they picked up the Crescent City/CEC subsidy abandoned first by OO then by KS/PenAir, and started flying CEC-OAK daily last April. LF flies E-135s with only 30 seats for comfort. They have since expanded to add OAK-SBA-LAS-PGA and PGA-PHX. Currently the SBA-LAS and PGA legs are not daily, but will be expanding at the same time SMF-SBA starts flying. I hope you Smurfs all support the new service, which might encourage LF to connect SMF to ACV and CEC, which hasn't been served since OO's withdrawal.

I will add here that LF's airplanes are pretty comfy with the 36-inch pitch in their E-135's. They have very friendly service. I flew them once so far between OAK and CEC about 1 month after they began service. I will be flying them again later this month on the OAK-SBA route, roundtrip. I hope the Sac folks take advantage of their service...or lose it.

there is no reduction from B6 on JFK-SMF. It's one of their best non-premium transcon routes. The lower number is due to October not being complete yet.

I wouldn't be surprised if JetSuitex flies into one of the sacramento area airport this year.

tphuang wrote:

there is no reduction from B6 on JFK-SMF. It's one of their best non-premium transcon routes. The lower number is due to October not being complete yet.

I wouldn't be surprised if JetSuitex flies into one of the sacramento area airport this year.

Oh that's good to hear that the schedule isn't complete. I knew something was up with the WN numbers, but thankfully its the same case with B6.

I'm really hoping B6 would add service to FLL and seeing the "reduction in service" made me think that SMF might not be as strong of a market for B6, but its good to hear that SMF is one of their best transcons, albeit a redeye. I really hope B6 gets service to FLL sometime soon and think it would do pretty well since there's no other nonstop to the Miami area. If not soon, I can really see B6 getting some good use out of those A220s coming into the fleet soon and I bet that would really get FLL started if they can't justify an A320 right now. With that said, I bet the BOS service would also be upgraded to year round service with the A220 during the off peak months.

The most recent WN fact sheet for SMF shows up to 93 daily departures. Hawaii will add a few flights and if some of the more recent adds become daily, they will be getting dangerously close to 100 daily flights...very impressive.

I'm showing -800/MAX8 on a lot of routes next summer, including a lot of the newer routes, so if those stick...even more impressive.

https://www.bizjournals.com/sacramento/ ... 8ifQ%3D%3D

Looks the like the airport has cancelled its plans to develop the area directly south of the airport and rather focus on improving the existing facilities that are nearing their operational capacity as passenger traffic continuously increases at SMF. Although disappointing that we won't see any development of hotels/restaurants near the entrance of the airport, im glad the airport management has chosen to focus on making sure existing facilities can handle the increased passenger counts and preparing for an even busier future.

smflyer wrote:

https://www.bizjournals.com/sacramento/news/2019/02/17/airport-shelves-plan-to-find-master-developer-for.html?ana=e_sac_bn_newsalert&mkt_tok=eyJpIjoiT0Raak9XUXdOekZoTTJZNSIsInQiOiJYcG40T21WZkdBdGlicjAwY2hcL1FURTl5WTJBTkY3NjdVQ0R6VWlwcEp6MlplbExNbFZXNENoUUxEQkp1ZkRzQ0dBMkIxdkd4dDFqT3pzaWRabHNcL09cL3NqYWJqZGluSTA0M0dDaCtHdXExQWVkMEZSNTNHdDFxTlwvdUl5SDI4UW8ifQ%3D%3D

Looks the like the airport has cancelled its plans to develop the area directly south of the airport and rather focus on improving the existing facilities that are nearing their operational capacity as passenger traffic continuously increases at SMF. Although disappointing that we won't see any development of hotels/restaurants near the entrance of the airport, im glad the airport management has chosen to focus on making sure existing facilities can handle the increased passenger counts and preparing for an even busier future.

Hey 'Flyer. Can you post some highlights from article?

I can't get around firewall.

Thank you!

williaminsd wrote:

smflyer wrote:

https://www.bizjournals.com/sacramento/news/2019/02/17/airport-shelves-plan-to-find-master-developer-for.html?ana=e_sac_bn_newsalert&mkt_tok=eyJpIjoiT0Raak9XUXdOekZoTTJZNSIsInQiOiJYcG40T21WZkdBdGlicjAwY2hcL1FURTl5WTJBTkY3NjdVQ0R6VWlwcEp6MlplbExNbFZXNENoUUxEQkp1ZkRzQ0dBMkIxdkd4dDFqT3pzaWRabHNcL09cL3NqYWJqZGluSTA0M0dDaCtHdXExQWVkMEZSNTNHdDFxTlwvdUl5SDI4UW8ifQ%3D%3D

Looks the like the airport has cancelled its plans to develop the area directly south of the airport and rather focus on improving the existing facilities that are nearing their operational capacity as passenger traffic continuously increases at SMF. Although disappointing that we won't see any development of hotels/restaurants near the entrance of the airport, im glad the airport management has chosen to focus on making sure existing facilities can handle the increased passenger counts and preparing for an even busier future.

Hey 'Flyer. Can you post some highlights from article?

I can't get around firewall.

Thank you!

Sure thing. I'm not sure how the copyrights work on this forum so I'll just quote some thing the new airport director Cindy Nichol's was quoted in the article.

“The Sacramento County Department of Airports (Department) has identified the need for further strategic planning on future use of airport land,”
“With airport operational needs at the forefront, it is necessary for the Department to re-evaluate land uses at SMF to determine highest and best use of airport land.”
"the airport’s parking, rental car area, vehicle lanes and other components are all approaching capacity and/or in need of refurbishment."
The article then goes on to discuss the various number of hotels already under construction or proposed in the nearby North Natomas community so the airport is considering that as competition to its own hotel proposals.

Paul Petrovich's led team was the winner of the development project and was quoted “I agree the needs of the airport’s logistics must take precedence and she made the right decision,” he said. “If a mistake was made by committing lands needed for airport operations, it would have put the airport in an untenable position.”.
I believe Petrovich has some minority ownership of the Sacramento Kings so he is a prominent member of the Sacramento business community I presume.

New OAG change with F9 going daily on the SMF-LAS route starting May. I'm glad that F9 is increasing service and bringing some competition to WN on this route.
F9 LAS-SMF MAY 0.6>1.0[0] JUN 0.6>1.0[0] JUL 0.6>1.0[0]

Dolphinflyer, you got us an update on the Jan traffic at SMF?

Volaris increasing service to 2x daily 2 days a week in the summer starting July. According to a flight search both flights will remain red-eyes and depart 90mins from each other.

Y4 GDL-SMF JUL 1.0>1.3[0.9] NOV 0>1.0[0.9] DEC 0>1.0[1.1]

smflyer wrote:

New OAG change with F9 going daily on the SMF-LAS route starting May. I'm glad that F9 is increasing service and bringing some competition to WN on this route.
F9 LAS-SMF MAY 0.6>1.0[0] JUN 0.6>1.0[0] JUL 0.6>1.0[0]

Dolphinflyer, you got us an update on the Jan traffic at SMF?

In January 2019, SMF handled 913,429 passengers, up 9% yoy on a seat capacity increase of 11.7% yoy. Delta, Hawaiian and United registered especially strong yoy gains for the month.

B6 flight 162 diverted to Sioux City (SUX) this morning due to an apparent medical emergency: https://siouxlandnews.com/news/local/je ... ux-gateway

The February 2019 traffic numbers are in. SMF handled 860,854 passengers during Feb 2019, an increase of 9.2% yoy on a seat capacity increase of 18.4% yoy. Hawaiian, United and Volaris registered some of the biggest gains with double-digit growth yoy.

ericm2031 wrote:

The most recent WN fact sheet for SMF shows up to 93 daily departures. Hawaii will add a few flights and if some of the more recent adds become daily, they will be getting dangerously close to 100 daily flights...very impressive.

I'm showing -800/MAX8 on a lot of routes next summer, including a lot of the newer routes, so if those stick...even more impressive.

WN has its next schedule extension on Thursday, and WN is likely to announce SMF-HNL nonstop service on Thursday.

WN could also bring back SMF-MCI nonstop service since MCI is one of the top destinations traveled to from SMF that isn't currently served nonstop from SMF.

There are also a few more nonstop routes within the contiguous U.S. that could be added by WN out of SMF such as SMF-BNA and SMF-SAT.

Is WN likely to announce any other new nonstop routes out of SMF apart from SMF-HNL such as SMF-OGG, SMF-KOA, SMF-BNA, or SMF-SAT on Thursday?

Looks like NK will be starting up service on the SMF-LAS route June 20 going 3x daily. This is very welcome news as WN still has somewhat of a stranglehold on the route even with F9 on the route. I guess this kind of seals the coffin on any possible AS service to LAS.

https://www.nasdaq.com/press-release/lo ... 0313-00710

jplatts wrote:

ericm2031 wrote:

The most recent WN fact sheet for SMF shows up to 93 daily departures. Hawaii will add a few flights and if some of the more recent adds become daily, they will be getting dangerously close to 100 daily flights...very impressive.

I'm showing -800/MAX8 on a lot of routes next summer, including a lot of the newer routes, so if those stick...even more impressive.

WN has its next schedule extension on Thursday, and WN is likely to announce SMF-HNL nonstop service on Thursday.

WN could also bring back SMF-MCI nonstop service since MCI is one of the top destinations traveled to from SMF that isn't currently served nonstop from SMF.

There are also a few more nonstop routes within the contiguous U.S. that could be added by WN out of SMF such as SMF-BNA and SMF-SAT.

Is WN likely to announce any other new nonstop routes out of SMF apart from SMF-HNL such as SMF-OGG, SMF-KOA, SMF-BNA, or SMF-SAT on Thursday?

Although I'd like to see some of those routes you mentioned added, I feel like WN may stay put with what they have at SMF for the time being. They added a lot of new routes last year so they need to still digest that. In addition, dolphin flyer just showed that the Feb month saw 18% increase in capacity but only a 9% jump in traffic from the year ago period. Compare this with last year where we saw many months of higher traffic increases than capacity increases. So this to me seems to indicate we're reaching a plateau on the growth curve. But I could be wrong since most of the growth recently has been coming from HA, UA, and DL so that can skew the way you look at the data. Lets hope for some new routes tomorrow!