Wingtips56 wrote:

williaminsd wrote:

BA744PHX wrote:

The article your mentioned is from March 2020 a year old right now, and Y4 SMF-MLM is not bookable either

Well sh*t...

Oh, so it is. Drat. Shows me not to knick info from those Oregonians!

I should have clarified this on the Oregon thread when I initially posted this, sorry for all the confusion.

If you download the "flightview" app (free version), you can actually see flights that are scheduled even if they are not yet bookable. The desktop version for flightview is very buggy; the mobile app has a much better user interface in my opinion.
1). Download the "flightview" app (free version)
2). After you open the app, tap "By Route" near the top right-hand side.
3). For Departure Airport, enter "SMF"
4). For Arrival Airport, enter "MLM"
5). For "Enter airline name or code", type in "Y4" (which is Volaris' IATA code).
6). For "Departure Date", enter Nov. 4, 2021
7). Tap "Find Flight"

You should be able to see Volaris' loaded SMF-MLM schedule despite it not being bookable at the moment. I don't know when Volaris will open the route up for bookings, but I imagine that it'll be pretty soon.

dolphinflyer wrote:

The airport processed over 11,500 TSA Throughput yesterday - the highest figure in over a year!

Also, JetBlue's inaugural flight departed this morning for Cancun and went out over 85% full. The route is a winner and off to a great start!

Finally, preliminary figures show that February traffic stats outshine January stats - a first in recent history, esp. considering that Feb has 3 less days than Jan. Overall, things are looking up at SMF!!!

Excellent news for the SMF-CUN route, hopefully it continues to be successful for the long term and nudges JetBlue to add FLL and open up a swath of connection opportunities with service to LAX. Planning a trip to south Florida for the summer and would def like a non-stop option there! Completely anecdotal, but I have a lot of my millennial aged friends here in Sac that think JetBlue is the best airline in the US. With that said, I would put my bets that any leisure route B6 launches out of SMF would be successful...unless Southwest is there competing against them. Southwest does have that cult like following in Sac, many of my friends start their search for an airfare on southwest.com rather than any of the other fare aggregator websites.

Flightradar showed 111 departures scheduled for yesterday @ SMF. This is an increase of nearly 21% since 2/21, a mere three weeks ago, when only 88 departures were scheduled.

Although several of these flights were canceled due to poor weather in Denver, an increase of over 20% in less than a month of the slowest day on the week is outstanding and further evidence that passengers are rightfully regaining confidence and returning to the skies.

Alaska loaded May 20th schedule changes on Saturday. While things could still change, some pleasant surprises. SMF-SAN jumps to 5x! Originally it was planned at 3x then jumping to 4x in May so this is a welcome treat!

USAavdork wrote:

Alaska loaded May 20th schedule changes on Saturday. While things could still change, some pleasant surprises. SMF-SAN jumps to 5x! Originally it was planned at 3x then jumping to 4x in May so this is a welcome treat!

Thank you USAavdork and is absolutely confirmed at AS website.

And there's more... starting 6/4 it shows frequency going to 6/x day!

That's the most Alaska has ever flown in the SMF-SAN market. All E175s, 456 seats a day.

With WN showing 9x/day in June... that's 15x/day to San Diego. Still off from the 20+ we sometimes saw pre-lockdown, but much better than we might have hoped for just a few weeks ago.

What great news!

I too am thrilled to see AS seriously back in the SMF-SAN market! As I just posted over on the AS-thread, I'm unclear as to why they dropped the market completely but it seemed like a permanent drop and not just a COVID-thing.

In any case, they are back and I particularly like to see those 60-70 daily F seats offered! THAT'S something the competition can't offer!

Spread the word folks! There will soon be a choice back in the SAN-market!

bb

AC4500 wrote:

Wingtips56 wrote:

williaminsd wrote:

Well sh*t...

Oh, so it is. Drat. Shows me not to knick info from those Oregonians!

I should have clarified this on the Oregon thread when I initially posted this, sorry for all the confusion.

If you download the "flightview" app (free version), you can actually see flights that are scheduled even if they are not yet bookable. The desktop version for flightview is very buggy; the mobile app has a much better user interface in my opinion.
1). Download the "flightview" app (free version)
2). After you open the app, tap "By Route" near the top right-hand side.
3). For Departure Airport, enter "SMF"
4). For Arrival Airport, enter "MLM"
5). For "Enter airline name or code", type in "Y4" (which is Volaris' IATA code).
6). For "Departure Date", enter Nov. 4, 2021
7). Tap "Find Flight"

You should be able to see Volaris' loaded SMF-MLM schedule despite it not being bookable at the moment. I don't know when Volaris will open the route up for bookings, but I imagine that it'll be pretty soon.

So it is, and also, Y4 launches other routes in next nov

BJX-LAS-BJX.... 2 weekly
BJX-DFW-BJX....2 weekly
ZCL-DFW-ZCL....2 weekly
OAX-ORD-OAX...1 weekly
MLM-SEA-MLM...2 weekly

and those mentioned: MLM-PDX-MLM and MLM-SMF-MLM .... 2 weekly in each

So excited about the 6x daily SAN service! I'm glad all these airlines are giving WN a run for their money on their most lucrative SMF routes. Theres nothing I like more than some competition!

In other news, I creeped on the seating chart on JetBlue's upcoming CUN flights and the Mo/We services seem to be somewhat empty (but may fill up more on departure date after Blue Basic fares check in), but the Sat service next week appears nearly full again just like the inaugural service. So it def looks like B6 will continue the trend of filling seats to CUN! Cant wait to fly this route soon.

Attn Sac peeps: The trusted traveler program CLEAR goes live at the airport beginning tomorrow! CLEAR will be available in both Terminal A & B, and provides members with a valet-style pre-TSA vetted service. Delta and United premier members receive discounted membership rates with CLEAR. SMF is offering you greater choice in air travel!

https://www.clearme.com/

dolphinflyer wrote:

Attn Sac peeps: The trusted traveler program CLEAR goes live at the airport beginning tomorrow! CLEAR will be available in both Terminal A & B, and provides members with a valet-style pre-TSA vetted service. Delta and United premier members receive discounted membership rates with CLEAR. SMF is offering you greater choice in air travel!

https://www.clearme.com/

Awesome news for more choice and a new amenity for flyers in SMF. However I personally don’t see any added value over pre check which is a lot cheaper and billed once every 5 years. Maybe they’ll have shorter lines than pre-check once travel picks back up?

During February 2021, SMF handled 366,956 passengers, marking a 60.7% decline YoY on a 42.7% seat capacity decrease. The February figures reflect a MoM passenger increase of 4.1% on a 11.9% seat capacity decrease versus January 2021.

This marks the first time in recent history where February traffic figures outperformed January figures (with three less days in the month!) Based on MTD TSA Throughput figures for March 2021, SMF will likely exceed 500k total pax – the first time achieving such a monthly level since before the start of the COVID-19 crisis.

SMF is experiencing tremendous traffic demand recovery this month with 8 of the past 15 days posting TSA Throughput in excess of 10,000 and surpassing 12k yesterday for the first time in over a year since the COVID-19 crisis began. We will easily clear over 500k total pax handled this month and it's hoped that this performance, buoyed by spring break and cabin fever, is sustainable over the longer term. This, coupled with Southwest's announcement yesterday of resumption of SMF-AUS daily nonstop service beginning May 9. Things are looking up!

What's the possibility that AS could make SMF a focus city (e.g. announce some P2P routes from there)? In comparison to other California airports, SMF seems to be on the rise in terms of returning pax numbers. Would gate space be an issue (since AS and WN both share Terminal B)?

I could see AS eventually launching SMF-AUS, SMF-PAE, SMF-PSP, SMF-SLC, SMF-LAX, SMF-LAS, SMF-GEG, SMF-SNA (if slots are available).

Maybe even SMF-ANC/Hawaii as well, although I believe they've already tried the latter...

AC4500 wrote:

What's the possibility that AS could make SMF a focus city (e.g. announce some P2P routes from there)? In comparison to other California airports, SMF seems to be on the rise in terms of returning pax numbers. Would gate space be an issue (since AS and WN both share Terminal B)?

I could see AS eventually launching SMF-AUS, SMF-PAE, SMF-PSP, SMF-SLC, SMF-LAX, SMF-LAS, SMF-GEG, SMF-SNA (if slots are available).

Maybe even SMF-ANC/Hawaii as well, although I believe they've already tried the latter...

I'm not sure if SMF is big enough for two airlines to have focus cities there, with WN already pretty entrenched. I can definitely see AS doing LAX, GEG (didn't they do that once?), and PSP (ditto, didn't they do that once?)...but I feel like LAS is too competitive and would be a bloodbath for them, PAE would not have enough traffic, SNA definitely has demand but slots are the issue, and SLC/AUS are just probably not going to happen.

flyfresno wrote:

AC4500 wrote:

What's the possibility that AS could make SMF a focus city (e.g. announce some P2P routes from there)? In comparison to other California airports, SMF seems to be on the rise in terms of returning pax numbers. Would gate space be an issue (since AS and WN both share Terminal B)?

I could see AS eventually launching SMF-AUS, SMF-PAE, SMF-PSP, SMF-SLC, SMF-LAX, SMF-LAS, SMF-GEG, SMF-SNA (if slots are available).

Maybe even SMF-ANC/Hawaii as well, although I believe they've already tried the latter...

I'm not sure if SMF is big enough for two airlines to have focus cities there, with WN already pretty entrenched. I can definitely see AS doing LAX, GEG (didn't they do that once?), and PSP (ditto, didn't they do that once?)...but I feel like LAS is too competitive and would be a bloodbath for them, PAE would not have enough traffic, SNA definitely has demand but slots are the issue, and SLC/AUS are just probably not going to happen.

Yeah, I guess you're probably right. Here's where my thought process is:

- I guess WN recently announcing SMF-AUS probably wouldn't give AS too good of a chance on that route, although it could hypothetically get a decent boost if AA were to codeshare on that route.
- AS currently has a ton of traffic on SEA-SMF, which has made SMF-SEA the busiest route from Sacramento at the moment. With that much traffic, I'm sure that at least a little bit of that demand comes locally from the Everett/Mukilteo area, which could definitely spill over from SEA to PAE in order to support a daily E175 SMF-PAE flight.
- AS has been known to be very competitive at SLC. (e.g. SLC-LAX/SAN/SFO). With that in mind, I wouldn't necessarily rule this one out yet.

I could see AS grow at SMF too, just not to the level of a focus city. I think most the growth for them at SMF will be from additional frequencies from existing routes and maybe a few new routes to places such as LAX, SLC, and SNA.

AC4500 wrote:

What's the possibility that AS could make SMF a focus city (e.g. announce some P2P routes from there)? In comparison to other California airports, SMF seems to be on the rise in terms of returning pax numbers. Would gate space be an issue (since AS and WN both share Terminal B)?

I could see AS eventually launching SMF-AUS, SMF-PAE, SMF-PSP, SMF-SLC, SMF-LAX, SMF-LAS, SMF-GEG, SMF-SNA (if slots are available).

Maybe even SMF-ANC/Hawaii as well, although I believe they've already tried the latter...

I don’t think southwest would be happy with that at all

alohashirts wrote:

I could see AS grow at SMF too, just not to the level of a focus city. I think most the growth for them at SMF will be from additional frequencies from existing routes and maybe a few new routes to places such as LAX, SLC, and SNA.

I just can't see SLC. Maybe back when they tried their mini-hub there, but all of their SLC routes are to hubs (plus SAN, whether or not you consider that a hub for them). I think they know that DL would eat them for lunch on that route, especially with essentially zero connecting traffic on either end.

Wneast wrote:

AC4500 wrote:

What's the possibility that AS could make SMF a focus city (e.g. announce some P2P routes from there)? In comparison to other California airports, SMF seems to be on the rise in terms of returning pax numbers. Would gate space be an issue (since AS and WN both share Terminal B)?

I could see AS eventually launching SMF-AUS, SMF-PAE, SMF-PSP, SMF-SLC, SMF-LAX, SMF-LAS, SMF-GEG, SMF-SNA (if slots are available).

Maybe even SMF-ANC/Hawaii as well, although I believe they've already tried the latter...

I don’t think southwest would be happy with that at all

Well of course not...

If AS expands at SMF, then WN would surely respond as long as they have enough gate space/aircraft to do so.

AC4500 wrote:

Wneast wrote:

AC4500 wrote:

What's the possibility that AS could make SMF a focus city (e.g. announce some P2P routes from there)? In comparison to other California airports, SMF seems to be on the rise in terms of returning pax numbers. Would gate space be an issue (since AS and WN both share Terminal B)?

I could see AS eventually launching SMF-AUS, SMF-PAE, SMF-PSP, SMF-SLC, SMF-LAX, SMF-LAS, SMF-GEG, SMF-SNA (if slots are available).

Maybe even SMF-ANC/Hawaii as well, although I believe they've already tried the latter...

I don’t think southwest would be happy with that at all

Well of course not...

If AS expands at SMF, then WN would surely respond as long as they have enough gate space/aircraft to do so.

I’m sure southwest would just go after them if they tried to do anything meaningful

flyfresno wrote:

alohashirts wrote:

I could see AS grow at SMF too, just not to the level of a focus city. I think most the growth for them at SMF will be from additional frequencies from existing routes and maybe a few new routes to places such as LAX, SLC, and SNA.

I just can't see SLC. Maybe back when they tried their mini-hub there, but all of their SLC routes are to hubs (plus SAN, whether or not you consider that a hub for them). I think they know that DL would eat them for lunch on that route, especially with essentially zero connecting traffic on either end.

That logic makes sense.

However, I'm willing to bet that most of Alaska's route network at LAX/SAN/SFO is O&D traffic. Connecting traffic on SLC-LAX/SAN/SFO-XXX is probably very minimal. Even though LAX, SAN and SFO are obviously larger markets than SMF, with the type of growth we're seeing at SMF along with their competitive history at SLC, it wouldn't surprise me to see them try SMF-SLC in the future.

SMF had a fantastic March with TSA Throughput up 55.3% MoM and representing 117% of March 2020 figures and 57% of March 2019 figures.
We should expect total passengers handled of app. 580k for the month, definitely exceeding expectations!

awesome march news!

Found this on YouTube. its a flight trip report on the little Pilatus PC-12 on Boutique that flies out of SMF. Thought it was interesting since I have no need to fly to Merced. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BEodRBWfuxw

Some good news for SANFan, I'm looking at the seating charts for todays resumption of SMF-SAN route and see only 3 seats available on the early flight and 6 seats available on the later flight today. thats 96% and 92% full flights on the first day! I wish nothing but success to AS on this route, this is much needed competition on this busy route.

smflyer wrote:

Some good news for SANFan, I'm looking at the seating charts for todays resumption of SMF-SAN route and see only 3 seats available on the early flight and 6 seats available on the later flight today. thats 96% and 92% full flights on the first day! I wish nothing but success to AS on this route, this is much needed competition on this busy route.

That is great to hear! Thanx for posting it.

And that gets me to wondering again why AS totally dropped the route last year only to bring it back with a vengeance in 2021?

AFAICT, the advance summer skeds continue to show increased frequencies in the market although the June 17 sked is not finalized yet.

Happy Easter everyone!

bb

SANFan wrote:

smflyer wrote:

Some good news for SANFan, I'm looking at the seating charts for todays resumption of SMF-SAN route and see only 3 seats available on the early flight and 6 seats available on the later flight today. thats 96% and 92% full flights on the first day! I wish nothing but success to AS on this route, this is much needed competition on this busy route.

That is great to hear! Thanx for posting it.

And that gets me to wondering again why AS totally dropped the route last year only to bring it back with a vengeance in 2021?

AFAICT, the advance summer skeds continue to show increased frequencies in the market although the June 17 sked is not finalized yet.

Happy Easter everyone!

bb

My guess why they dropped it pre-covid was that AS was short on planes (due to no MAXes showing up on property) and decided to use the planes on higher yielding routes. Now that business demand is down and leisure is up, they are trying to add leisure heavy routes since business heavy routes will be slow to recover. But the funny thing is SMF-SAN is a business heavy route, but maybe it has converted to a leisure route in the short term post-covid world?

The other thing is WN has been the only airline on the route for years so I would think most frequenters would go direct to WN's website for booking and not price compare because they aren't aware another airline serves the route. This would lead me to believe that price conscious flyers and non-frequent fliers would see AS as an option on the route when looking at kayak or whatever flight aggregator website. Then there is the strong WN market in SMF where some flyers dont consider anything but WN.

smflyer wrote:

Then there is the strong WN market in SMF where some flyers dont consider anything but WN.

Think this hit the nail on the head. It wasn't that there wasn't demand, it's that WN was/is really strong in SMF and AS was able to find routes with less or no competition elsewhere where it could get higher yields. Now, however, the landscape has changed.

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

Airport expanding RON parking by adding 8 spaces near terminal A. Airport seems confident travel will rebound and extra RON spaces will be necessary. If I remember correctly, most RON spaces would be filled up during the pre-covid times during the summer months in both A & B RON spaces. For anyone wondering where exactly the RON spaces will go, according to the airport master plan, it will be built in the square dirt patch directly east of gate A17, specifically the dirt patch enclosed by taxiways C1, C2, D and Y1. Good news!

It does appear 2 of the RON spaces directly north of the north pier of terminal A have been removed during repaint and reposition of some the A gates recently to make space for the re-addition of gate A13. A13 does appear to be operational again according to FlightAware

During March 2021, SMF handled 577,212 passengers, marking a 9.3% increase YoY on a 33.7% seat capacity decrease and a 39.8% decline in flight departures. The March figures reflect a MoM passenger increase of 57.3% on a 27.6% seat capacity increase and 24.9% increase in flight departures versus February 2021. This marks the first YoY monthly passenger increase since February 2020. The traffic recovery continues!

United Airlines will resume daily nonstop service between SMF and EWR beginning June 3, 2021. Flight operates as an evening WB and redeye return EB (with a/c swap at SMF). This marks a great milestone in SMF's traffic recovery and is a testament to the sustainability of that recovery.

SMF handled 335,000 TSA Throughput during April 2021, marking a 13% increase MoM vs. March.
Separately, HA is upgauging daily SMF-HNL flights from A321 to A332 during the month of June 2021.
Summer 2021 seat capacity at SMF is looking strong!

dolphinflyer wrote:

SMF handled 335,000 TSA Throughput during April 2021, marking a 13% increase MoM vs. March.
Separately, HA is upgauging daily SMF-HNL flights from A321 to A332 during the month of June 2021.
Summer 2021 seat capacity at SMF is looking strong!

Woohoo! Excited for the bounce back in traffic and HA up gauging to A332. Hopefully A332 becomes a permanent fixture at SMF in the near future.

And speaking of the EWR service, I'll be on the EWR-SMF segment on 6/7 and the seats seem to be filling up.

During April 2021, SMF handled 680,000 passengers, representing 63% of April 2019 totals. The April figures reflect a MoM passenger increase of 18% on a 1% seat capacity increase and 3% increase in flight departures versus March 2021.

April results are a testament to SMF’s continued, sustainable passenger demand recovery following the COVID-19 crisis. May 2021 seat capacity is projected to rise 12% MoM, and corresponding passenger demand is expected to increase accordingly.

smflyer wrote:

dolphinflyer wrote:

SMF handled 335,000 TSA Throughput during April 2021, marking a 13% increase MoM vs. March.
Separately, HA is upgauging daily SMF-HNL flights from A321 to A332 during the month of June 2021.
Summer 2021 seat capacity at SMF is looking strong!

Woohoo! Excited for the bounce back in traffic and HA up gauging to A332. Hopefully A332 becomes a permanent fixture at SMF in the near future.

And speaking of the EWR service, I'll be on the EWR-SMF segment on 6/7 and the seats seem to be filling up.

I think the HA upgrade could be from the surplus A330 sitting around from grounded International flights. When they come back I can see the A330’s going back to A321.... just my view

dolphinflyer wrote:

During April 2021, SMF handled 680,000 passengers, representing 63% of April 2019 totals. The April figures reflect a MoM passenger increase of 18% on a 1% seat capacity increase and 3% increase in flight departures versus March 2021.

April results are a testament to SMF’s continued, sustainable passenger demand recovery following the COVID-19 crisis. May 2021 seat capacity is projected to rise 12% MoM, and corresponding passenger demand is expected to increase accordingly.

With the increasing numbers I was hoping to see SWA go double daily to HNL and OGG... oh well

SMF needs nonstop flights to KOA and LIH way more than it needs double-daily WN flights to HNL or OGG!

dolphinflyer wrote:

SMF needs nonstop flights to KOA and LIH way more than it needs double-daily WN flights to HNL or OGG!

If WN sees the traffic there, I would expect them to start a split flight as they are planning at a number of gateways -- 4x weekly to KOA and the other 3 days to LIH. This is what they are going to do for starters at SAN and PHX I believe. (Rumors have it that they plan on going daily in the markets after a while.)

bb

SMF's May TSA Throughput Counts totaled 414k, up 24% MoM vs. April stats and representing 73% of 2019 figures. Another consecutive month of fantastic passenger demand recovery!

So nice to see Hawaiian Airlines’ A330 back in Sac. The 278-seat widebody Pualani jet to HNL will grace SMF daily through August 15 due to increased passenger demand. This plane has 47% more seats than the A321neo that normally flies the route. Mahalo, Hawaiian!

Hey SMF-guys, I just wondered what you're hearing about the SMF-SAN flights on AS lately -- anecdotal or otherwise?

I see that on the close-to-finalized August 17 sked that was downloaded last night, AS is holding steady with 6 weekday flights, 5 on Sundays and 4 on Saturdays. That seems surprisingly solid and has certainly been either increasing gradually or holding steady since the service was re-started in April. I'm thrilled to see it actually.

The one intra-CA route from SAN in which WN appears to be pouring it on is, yep, SMF. According to my research, they will offer ~9 flights on their schedule starting today! So it seems WN has picked their battle and seems intent on not making it easy for AS to stay in the market.

One thing I notice is that about half of the n/b AS flights are in the evening - 5 or later; s/b are a bit more daytime-heavy. I would have expected more during the daytime for commuters to make quick jaunts up-and-back (or down-and-back) but there seem to be lots of seats offered in the evening. Does that indicate more leisure travelers and fewer business folks or something else? I'm not complaining, just curious.

I hope in '22 we'll maybe see an added frequency or two, and maybe even some mainline return to some of the intra-ca markets including SMF-SAN.

Congrats to SMF on all the good recovery news that I see on your thread! Hopefully everything holds together and the mo will continue upward for both our fine cities.

bb

SANFan wrote:

Hey SMF-guys, I just wondered what you're hearing about the SMF-SAN flights on AS lately -- anecdotal or otherwise?

I see that on the close-to-finalized August 17 sked that was downloaded last night, AS is holding steady with 6 weekday flights, 5 on Sundays and 4 on Saturdays. That seems surprisingly solid and has certainly been either increasing gradually or holding steady since the service was re-started in April. I'm thrilled to see it actually.

The one intra-CA route from SAN in which WN appears to be pouring it on is, yep, SMF. According to my research, they will offer ~9 flights on their schedule starting today! So it seems WN has picked their battle and seems intent on not making it easy for AS to stay in the market.

One thing I notice is that about half of the n/b AS flights are in the evening - 5 or later; s/b are a bit more daytime-heavy. I would have expected more during the daytime for commuters to make quick jaunts up-and-back (or down-and-back) but there seem to be lots of seats offered in the evening. Does that indicate more leisure travelers and fewer business folks or something else? I'm not complaining, just curious.

I hope in '22 we'll maybe see an added frequency or two, and maybe even some mainline return to some of the intra-ca markets including SMF-SAN.

Congrats to SMF on all the good recovery news that I see on your thread! Hopefully everything holds together and the mo will continue upward for both our fine cities.

bb

I think the SMF-SAN morning/daytime heavy schedule and SAN-SMF evening heavy schedule is just as you said more leaning towards leisure traveller at this point in time. There is going to be a lot more leisure traveling to SAN than to SMF so the scheduling reflects travelers trying to maximize their time in San Diego. The old schedule that AS operated had a more even schedule with the short lived mainline service operating the SMF turn back to SAN in the evening. This tells me business travelers on both ends preferred to return to their cities in the evening or start their trip the night before. I think as business travel slowly returns, we should see the schedule even out and hopefully see mainline service return. I think AS will stick on this route this time given the additional frequencies making it easier for business travelers to get the right preferred time slot.

smflyer wrote:

SANFan wrote:

Hey SMF-guys, I just wondered what you're hearing about the SMF-SAN flights on AS lately -- anecdotal or otherwise?
bb

I think the SMF-SAN morning/daytime heavy schedule and SAN-SMF evening heavy schedule is just as you said more leaning towards leisure traveller at this point in time. There is going to be a lot more leisure traveling to SAN than to SMF so the scheduling reflects travelers trying to maximize their time in San Diego. The old schedule that AS operated had a more even schedule with the short lived mainline service operating the SMF turn back to SAN in the evening. This tells me business travelers on both ends preferred to return to their cities in the evening or start their trip the night before. I think as business travel slowly returns, we should see the schedule even out and hopefully see mainline service return. I think AS will stick on this route this time given the additional frequencies making it easier for business travelers to get the right preferred time slot.

Thanks for the feedback 'flyer. I do agree that the timing supports leisure more than business travelers. And that's fine with me!

I do expect that AS will keep the route this time and give WN some much-needed and worthy competition!

bb

SANFan wrote:

smflyer wrote:

SANFan wrote:

Hey SMF-guys, I just wondered what you're hearing about the SMF-SAN flights on AS lately -- anecdotal or otherwise?
bb

I think the SMF-SAN morning/daytime heavy schedule and SAN-SMF evening heavy schedule is just as you said more leaning towards leisure traveller at this point in time. There is going to be a lot more leisure traveling to SAN than to SMF so the scheduling reflects travelers trying to maximize their time in San Diego. The old schedule that AS operated had a more even schedule with the short lived mainline service operating the SMF turn back to SAN in the evening. This tells me business travelers on both ends preferred to return to their cities in the evening or start their trip the night before. I think as business travel slowly returns, we should see the schedule even out and hopefully see mainline service return. I think AS will stick on this route this time given the additional frequencies making it easier for business travelers to get the right preferred time slot.

Thanks for the feedback 'flyer. I do agree that the timing supports leisure more than business travelers. And that's fine with me!

I do expect that AS will keep the route this time and give WN some much-needed and worthy competition!

bb

And now with a WN passenger at SMF on a SMF-SAN flight punching a flight attendant leaving her face bloody and two missing teeth, maybe more passengers will choose to fly AS to avoid any perceived crazy passengers that fly WN. lol

Southwest Airlines shows SMF more LUV this fall with the following new nonstop flights:

SMF-PSP 2x/day beginning Oct 7
SMF-KOA 4x/week (M/W/F/Su) beginning Dec 19
SMF-OGG grows to 10x/week (+Tu/Th/Sa) beginning Dec 19

WN is also adding additional flights on the following routes beginning in November:

SMF-BUR 10 (+5 vs Jun 2021)
SMF-LAX 8 (+4 vs. Jun 2021)
SMF-LGB 4 (+2 vs. Jun 2021)
SMF-ONT 6 (+2 vs. Jun 2021)
SMF-SAN 10 (+2 vs. Jun 2021)

dolphinflyer wrote:

Southwest Airlines shows SMF more LUV this fall with the following new nonstop flights:

SMF-PSP 2x/day beginning Oct 7
SMF-KOA 4x/week (M/W/F/Su) beginning Dec 19
SMF-OGG grows to 10x/week (+Tu/Th/Sa) beginning Dec 19

WN is also adding additional flights on the following routes beginning in November:

SMF-BUR 10 (+5 vs Jun 2021)
SMF-LAX 8 (+4 vs. Jun 2021)
SMF-LGB 4 (+2 vs. Jun 2021)
SMF-ONT 6 (+2 vs. Jun 2021)
SMF-SAN 10 (+2 vs. Jun 2021)

Awesome news! The march to 100 WN deparatures/day continues. I think we were at 90ish daily departures pre-covid with WN

During May 2021, SMF handled 806,291 passengers, marking a 23.4% decrease YoY vs. May 2019 on a 25.8% seat capacity decrease and a 29.6% decline in flight departures. The May figures reflect a MoM passenger increase of 18.7% on a 11.5% seat capacity increase and 12.2% increase in flight departures versus April 2021.

June 2021 seat capacity is projected to rise 15.7% MoM, and TSA Throughput is expected to rise 16.6% versus May 2021 figures based on MTD stats.

Yesterday marked a significant milestone in SMF's COVID-19 traffic recovery when TSA throughput totaled 18.925 compared with a throughput of 18,586 on July 1, 2019. It's the first time since the start of the pandemic that we've surpassed the total for the same day in 2019!

During the July 4th holiday weekend, SMF TSA throughput traffic exceeded 2019 levels on 3 of 5 days, further indicating that SMF is experiencing healthy COVID-19 traffic recovery.

awesome news to see SMF rebounding! Kind of surprised there's not more new route announcements other than WN to KOA and PSP

During June 2021, SMF handled 981,378 passengers, marking a 17% decrease YoY vs. June 2019 on a 17% seat capacity decrease and a 19% decline in flight departures. The June figures reflect a MoM passenger increase of 18% (150,284 passengers) on a 16% seat capacity increase and 19% increase in flight departures versus May 2021.