Sacramento International Airport (SMF)

[urban_encounter]

Originally Posted by Son of Travis

. I don’t want to force anyone to go mask free, and there’s the difference. I leave it up to the individual to choose for themselves. But for those who still wear them, please don’t try to tell me it’s based on science.

Screw you.

You two bed-wetting clowns just make me laugh. Thanks…

Happy flying everyone!

Hey Travis, my comment wasn’t directed at you (or anyone for that matter).
I was simply saying that I don’t care what people do. I lean libertarian when it comes to personal responsibility and accountability. So if people want to wear a mask or not, I couldn’t care less; it’s simply not my place to tell others what they should or should not do.

Anyway, thanks for the SMF updates. Your always spot on with your information.

[Son of Travis]

Originally Posted by urban_encounter

Hey Travis, my comment wasn’t directed at you (or anyone for that matter).
I was simply saying that I don’t care what people do. I lean libertarian when it comes to personal responsibility and accountability. So if people want to wear a mask or not, I couldn’t care less; it’s simply not my place to tell others what they should or should not do.

Anyway, thanks for the SMF updates. Your always spot on with your information.

It's all good brother. My reply was not directed at you either, just the Buffoon Brothers who seem so eager to keep the misery going despite, "The Science!"

Btw - Southwest is going to 3x/day to Chicago Midway starting 9/13/2021. As I said... it's all good.

Add: According to Cindy Nichols, Airports Director for Sac County, TSA throughput is now at 88% of 2019 levels and the airport is on track for a full recovery within 12-18 months. If anything, the airport has been timid in its airport traffic projections post lockdown...

[202_Cyclist]

Originally Posted by urban_encounter

Hey Travis, my comment wasn’t directed at you (or anyone for that matter).
I was simply saying that I don’t care what people do. I lean libertarian when it comes to personal responsibility and accountability. So if people want to wear a mask or not, I couldn’t care less; it’s simply not my place to tell others what they should or should not do.

Anyway, thanks for the SMF updates. Your always spot on with your information.

This libertarian ideology falls short when someone else's irresponsibility harms and threatens the lives of others. We have two young children who are not responsible for the COVID vaccine and who can't wear a mask. Someone else's choice to be reckless (there were more than 50,000 new COVID cases yesterday and more than 400 more deaths) puts people who are not able to be vaccinated at risk.

Despite all this happy talk from Son of Travis, we have cancelled our flights for later this summer because of the resurgent coronavirus.

Again, 99.5% of people who are hospitalized for COVID are unvaccinated. If people here want to continue blathering QAnon nonsense and conspiracy theories, they are going to be debating alone.

[CAGeoNerd]

Originally Posted by 202_Cyclist

This libertarian ideology falls short when someone else's irresponsibility harms and threatens the lives of others. We have two young children who are not responsible for the COVID vaccine and who can't wear a mask. Someone else's choice to be reckless (there were more than 50,000 new COVID cases yesterday and more than 400 more deaths) puts people who are not able to be vaccinated at risk.

Despite all this happy talk from Son of Travis, we have cancelled our flights for later this summer because of the resurgent coronavirus.

Again, 99.5% of people who are hospitalized for COVID are unvaccinated. If people here want to continue blathering QAnon nonsense and conspiracy theories, they are going to be debating alone.

Didn't mention it either but was supposed to fly to LA in early August and we cancelled that- same thing, concern for unvaccinated kids. Still doing what we can to avoid it ourselves given you can still get sick and don't want to be a breeding ground for it to mutate- that's the bigger issue everyone with a nonchalant approach to this don't seem to care about either.

[Son of Travis]

Despite all this happy talk from Son of Travis, we have cancelled our flights for later this summer because of the resurgent coronavirus

was supposed to fly to LA in early August and we cancelled

And there was much rejoicing from your fellow passengers I'm sure...

While I won't let this thread about the spectacular return of air travel to SMF despite the angry wishes of others get too far sidetracked, if you're afraid for your children (the CHILDREN!), then stay da'fuque home.

You've made the choice that's best for you.

I'll make the choice that's best for me. That's how this whole "choice" thing works. And please note, my choice doesn't threaten the life of anyone, so stick it...

[202_Cyclist]

This pandemic has really brought out the best and also the worst in people.

Piss off.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/covid-d...d-boy-georgia/

[Son of Travis]

Originally Posted by 202_Cyclist

This pandemic has really brought out the best and also the worst in people.

Piss off.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/covid-d...d-boy-georgia/

You sound upset and frightened. I suggest you stay home. Forever.

While the death of a child is a tragedy, he didn't contract the disease by flying a commercial airliner (as millions of children do weekly). So once again, and despite your ever-so-impressive tantrums, your angry, ignorant narrative collapses.

Sorry capon, but air travel is well on its way back and all your squealing won't change that.

According to Airlines for America, the industry trade group linked below, here are the latest stats (through last week):

Weekly average domestic load factor: 88.6% (2019 - 89.1%).

7-Day rolling change vs. pre-pandemic onboard count: ~85% of 2019.

Domestic business travel: 47% of 2019.

Domestic business travel revenue: 45% of 2019.

Total airline revenue: 1Q21 - 37.9%, 2Q21 - 62.5%, Est 3Q21 - ~80%.

This is all good stuff except to those who demand that their own fear dictate everyone else's actions.

Nope...

That's not a conspiracy. It's not "happy talk."

Those are the facts.

Deal.

https://www.airlines.org/

[urban_encounter]

Originally Posted by 202_Cyclist

This libertarian ideology falls short when someone else's irresponsibility harms and threatens the lives of others.

Again, 99.5% of people who are hospitalized for COVID are unvaccinated. If people here want to continue blathering QAnon nonsense and conspiracy theories, they are going to be debating alone.

I’ve been a nurse for 27 years and I review hospital cases everyday for most major health plans. I have a pretty good idea of what Covid is and is not doing in our area hospitals and last time I checked there was no surge locally.

I’m vaccinated and I honestly don’t care what anyone else does, I’m responsible for myself. When I’m out and about I don’t get close enough to anyone to possible infect them. If you and your family are out and about stay away from people if you’re afraid.

But you need to face the reality that Covid will be with us indefinitely. It’s not going to go away. Living in a state of irrational paranoia is not based on science. Children have such a minuscule risk of serious illness that it defies logic why people are paralyzed by fear. Maybe you’re concerned because your kids have asthma or cystic fibrosis or whatever. Hopefully it’s nothing too serious. But if that’s the case, then maybe your best option is either talk to their doctor to allay your fear or stay home indefinitely. But you will never mitigate all risk.

[Son of Travis]

But you need to face the reality that Covid will be with us indefinitely. It’s not going to go away. Living in a state of irrational paranoia is not based on science. Children have such a minuscule risk of serious illness that it defies logic why people are paralyzed by fear. Maybe you’re concerned because your kids have asthma or cystic fibrosis or whatever. Hopefully it’s nothing too serious. But if that’s the case, then maybe your best option is either talk to their doctor to allay your fear or stay home indefinitely. But you will never mitigate all risk.

This is so spot on. It is here. It is never going away. It originated in China and was unleashed upon the world. It's a miracle we developed an effective vaccine(s) for it so quickly.

You can either deal (by taking a proactive approach, getting vaccinated and moving forward with your life) or squeal (by cowering in fear and only occasionally lifting your head to screech at others for the crime of "living.").

I choose the former.

I don't want to get sidetracked by reasons for this fear-porn that so many have eagerly accepted, but that's why getting vaccinated is such an easy call.

Then it doesn't matter what anyone else does and you can get back to enjoying life and prospering.

If you think your children are at risk and that this risk, miniscule as it is, outweighs all other considerations, it's your decision to keep them home.

But you don't get to decide that for me.

Even left-leaning publications like New York Magazine are saying "The Kids are Alright."

I'll link it below if anyone dares read something that challenges their narrative, but here are paragraphs two and three:

It may sound strange, given a year of panic over school closures and reopenings, a year of masking toddlers and closing playgrounds and huddling in pandemic pods, that, according to the CDC, among children the mortality risk from COVID-19 is actually lower than from the flu. The risk of severe disease or hospitalization is about the same.

This is true for the much-worried-over Delta variant. It is also true for all the other variants, and for the original strain. Most remarkably, it has been known to be true since the very earliest days of the pandemic — indeed it was among the very first things we did know about the disease. The preliminary mortality data from China was very clear: To children, COVID-19 represented only a vanishingly tiny threat of death, hospitalization, or severe disease.

And please note this isn't some "mask" study from May of 2020. This was published just over a week ago on 7/12/2021.

Of course we can go back and forth to find articles to validate bias, but no one will ever call New York Magazine a bastion of Conservative ideology.

So stay home if you want to. Hold your kids prisoner as well if that is your wont.

Never flying again is probably best for you and everyone else who otherwise would have had to share a cabin with you.

Just stop demanding the rest of us muzzle ourselves or otherwise put our lives on hold because you're afraid...

https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2021...hole-time.html

[CAGeoNerd]

It's attitudes like that which will keep this thing going for months if not years, keep it mutating into new, potentially worse variants, and cause needless suffering and deaths.

It's not about "fear." That's he stupidest talking point I hear people try to babble, like they're some kind of tough guys that aren't afraid! It's about reducing the potential for it to mutate into worse things and not having it overwhelm medical facilities that need to treat people. It's about wanting things to go back to normal. It's really just basic consideration for living in a shared society.

[Son of Travis]

Originally Posted by CAGeoNerd

It's attitudes like that which will keep this thing going for months if not years, keep it mutating into new, potentially worse variants, and cause needless suffering and deaths.

It's not about "fear." That's he stupidest talking point I hear people try to babble, like they're some kind of tough guys that aren't afraid! It's about reducing the potential for it to mutate into worse things and not having it overwhelm medical facilities that need to treat people. It's about wanting things to go back to normal. It's really just basic consideration for living in a shared society.

REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

Btw - I'm headed out for Happy Hour on yet another gorgeous Friday afternoon in San Diego. No one will be wearing masks. No one will get or give COVID. And you can just eff right off about it...

[urban_encounter]

Originally Posted by CAGeoNerd

It's attitudes like that which will keep this thing going for months if not years, keep it mutating into new, potentially worse variants, and cause needless suffering and deaths.

It's not about "fear." That's he stupidest talking point I hear people try to babble, like they're some kind of tough guys that aren't afraid! It's about reducing the potential for it to mutate into worse things and not having it overwhelm medical facilities that need to treat people. It's about wanting things to go back to normal. It's really just basic consideration for living in a shared society.

Ok maybe I missed how this thing started to begin with but why is this even being talked about on the Airport thread??? Travis gives us updates on SMF that are pretty detailed. Can we please just go back to discussing the airport?


Gracias

[Son of Travis]

In the GREATEST rejection of COVID hysteria yet… j/k.

Been a lot of talk about jet fuel shortages across the west over the last month. How is SMF impacted?

SMF’s in pretty good shape and in short-term should not feel any pinch. Most of Northern California is fed by the 20” line operated by Kinder Morgan (KM), which is fed by the numerous refineries in the Benicia/Martinez area and pumped northeast about 65 miles to the company’s West Sacramento facility. It is then transferred to a 12” line operated by Wickland Pipelines for the 10-mile (or so) trip to the SMF fuel farm, which was built in 2005 and is located midway between the runways north of the terminals.

I believe Houston-based Kinder Morgan (KM) is one of the largest energy suppliers in North America and its main Norcal line also provides other petroleum products throughout the region including diesel and gasoline as well as jet fuel to SFO, OAK, and Travis AFB.

After leaving West Sac, the line continues to Rocklin at 12”, where it then splits to serve Chico to the north and Reno and the Fallon NAS to the east. In addition to the West Sacramento facility, KM also operates a terminal and pump station in Rancho Cordova.

Wickland Pipelines is an independent operator that runs the 125,000-barrel capacity storage facility at SMF. It provides 100% of the airport’s jet fuel and has similar arrangements/facilities at SJC and SNA.

Once the fuel arrives at the airport, it has typically been pre-ordered by the airlines months in advance based on anticipated demand and then distributed per the respective orders. So really, all the jet fuel stored at the airport is the airline’s fuel, not the airport’s. The airport is merely storing it for them.

Part of the shortage now is for airports requiring their jet fuel to be trucked-in (I'm told primarily due to labor shortages.), even if just a few miles as is the case at RNO and FAT.

With the fuel farm onsite and large storage capacity, SMF doesn’t have to worry about that and should not experience any difficulties satisfying fuel needs for now.

[CAGeoNerd]

Originally Posted by Son of Travis

No one will get or give COVID. And you can just eff right off about it...

The power of positive thinking!

[Son of Travis]

Originally Posted by CAGeoNerd

The power of positive thinking!

A good time was had by all...

[NikeFutbolero]

You guys have turned this thread into a shit show, acting like a bunch of damn kids fighting online.

[Son of Travis]

Well keep fingers crossed, but this would be some pretty good news. Am told the recent schedule load for Air Canada includes the return of service to SMF from Vancouver.

The new schedule shows YVR-SMF returns 10/31/2021 with a single daily flight that arrives SMF at 11:01am and leaves for Vancouver at 11:40am.

Inbound flight is #8596 and outbound is #8595. Equipment remains a pre-lockdown CRJ900 seating 76, 12 of which are in First Class.

The Canadian government recently loosened COVID restrictions allowing vaccinated Americans to enter starting 8/9, so maybe this upload is a reflection of that.

I have a call in to a couple of contacts to verify, but nothing back as of now.

We'll see...

[Son of Travis]

Official number won’t be posted for a couple weeks, but word from the airport today is that SMF will shatter all expectations with over 1,000,000 pax in July.

That is nothing short of spectacular and represents the first monthly count exceeding a million passengers since December 2019.

Let’s get the pandemic pachyderm out of the room now. A million passengers is a complete rejection of COVID fear. This unambiguous rejection of the fear/hysteria is absolutely relevant to this conversation because of the devastating impact the economic lockdown had, and continues to have, on air traffic.

If the million-plus passenger count holds, it represents an increase of over 600,000 passengers from July 2020.

In a metro area of about 2.5 million people, over 1 million passengers in a single month chose to fly again (half-a-million individuals). That’s not some nefarious conspiracy theory. It’s not “politicizing” public health. It’s a fact that supports the clear trend we have seen since early this year: fewer people care enough about COVID to stop them from flying.

Even if you feel that the fear-rejection is a mistake, and it is an opinion shared by many, there can be no other interpretation but that people are getting on with their lives.

As previously noted, July is typically the #1 month for travel out of SMF and we can expect growth to slow and eventually weaken over the coming months.

As we move into August, SMF is peaking at about 1035 scheduled flights per week. These are the top-10 markets as of this morning:

#1 SEA - 115 flights/week
#2 LAX - 100 flights/week
#3 SAN - 90 flights/week
#4 DEN - 73 flights/week
#5 LAS - 69 flights/week
#6 PHX - 69 flights/week
#7 SNA - 52 flights/week
#8 SLC - 41 flights/week
#9 PDX - 40 flights/week
#10 BUR - 37 flights/week


I spotted these changes on the recent United schedule load. It’s a bit of a mixed-bag, but overall good with a net increase of one flight in August.

UA goes to 4x day to ORD on 8/25/2021. +1
UA goes to 5x/day to DEN 8/1/2021. +1
UA goes to 2x/day to IAH 8/22/2021 losing the redeye. -1

Statewide, Flightaware posted a rebound metric showing July 2021 operations as a percentage of July 2019.

With a few exceptions that shouldn’t surprise anyone, California (and nearby) airports look good.

LGB – 133% of 2019 - #2 in nation.
RNO – 112% - #9
SNA – 110% - #10
FAT – 105% - #16
ONT – 93% - #39
SMF – 85% - #48
BUR – 85% - #50
LAX – 77% - #61
OAK – 76% - #66
SAN – 75% - #68
SJC – 64% - #75
SFO – 57% - #80

Btw – Only New York’s La Guardia Airport ranked lower than SFO with the return of barely half of its 2019 flight count.

That’s it for now, but simply incredible news re the traffic rebound at SMF, assuming a million-plus is confirmed mid-month.

Happy flying everyone!

[SacTownAndy]

Originally Posted by Son of Travis

#1 SEA - 115 flights/week
#2 LAX - 100 flights/week
#3 SAN - 90 flights/week
#4 DEN - 73 flights/week
#5 LAS - 69 flights/week
#6 PHX - 69 flights/week
#7 SNA - 52 flights/week
#8 SLC - 41 flights/week
#9 PDX - 40 flights/week
#10 BUR - 37 flights/week

Just out of curiosity, why is SEA the #1 destination from SMF? I know it's an Alaska hub, but is Alaska carrying that many passengers out of SMF? I would think the Southwest or United hubs like LAX, LAS, PHX, DEN, etc would be more frequent. Seattle seems like an odd place for a layover- opposite direction from just about everywhere else people fly to from here.

[CAGeoNerd]

Originally Posted by SacTownAndy

Just out of curiosity, why is SEA the #1 destination from SMF? I know it's an Alaska hub, but is Alaska carrying that many passengers out of SMF? I would think the Southwest or United hubs like LAX, LAS, PHX, DEN, etc would be more frequent. Seattle seems like an odd place for a layover- opposite direction from just about everywhere else people fly to from here.

A lot of flights to the east coast connect in Seattle. It is odd but a lot of it is Alaska