Sacramento International Airport (SMF) - Page 36

urban_encounter · #**701** Posted **Feb 4, 2019, 10:21 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rick'sSkyline

Yet another airline is coming to town! Starting in April, Contour Airlines will be starting new nonstop service between Sacramento and Santa Barbara. They will be using 30-seat Embraer regional jets. I hope this airline and the service will be successful! Welcome to town, Contour Airlines!

I’m actually excited about this.

I think it will be a popular route. Time will tell.

Son of Travis · #**702** Posted **Mar 13, 2019, 5:01 PM**

Am being told that Spirit Airlines will announce new service to Sacramento today with 3x/daily service to Las Vegas.

Service starts June 20, 2019.

More details to come...

Rick'sSkyline · #**703** Posted **Mar 17, 2019, 5:07 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Son of Travis

Am being told that Spirit Airlines will announce new service to Sacramento today with 3x/daily service to Las Vegas.

Service starts June 20, 2019.

More details to come...

I was quite surprised to hear that Spirit Airlines was coming to Sac. I certainly hope they will be successful, and decide to add more flights over time. And another surprise: a new nonstop on Southwest Airlines between Sacramento and Nashville starting May 5th!

j_deguzman10 · #**704** Posted **Mar 17, 2019, 3:24 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rick'sSkyline

I was quite surprised to hear that Spirit Airlines was coming to Sac. I certainly hope they will be successful, and decide to add more flights over time. And another surprise: a new nonstop on Southwest Airlines between Sacramento and Nashville starting May 5th!

Do you have a source for the Nashville flights?

Son of Travis · #**705** Posted **Mar 17, 2019, 6:08 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by j_deguzman10

Do you have a source for the Nashville flights?

Something strange about those Nashville flights. So far, they are only loaded for a month (ends June 7) and no "official" announcement from Southwest.

They would typically announce a flight like that before loading into schedule.

Southwest loaded this new schedule (through November 10, 2019) just three days ago.

Might have something to do with the "Max" grounding. Perhaps the flight was scheduled to switch to a Max effective June 8 and Southwest needs to get things sorted-out before extending sales.

But for now, Flight #1423 is scheduled to leave SMF daily at 12:55pm and arrive Nashville at 7:05pm. Return trip is Flight #1409 out of Nashville at 9:05am and arrives SMF at 11:45am.

Another item of note is that starting in August, Southwest's Sunday only service to Houston-Hobby goes daily.

SacTownAndy · #**706** Posted **Apr 2, 2019, 6:06 PM**

Hawaiian airlines announced new direct flights from SMF to Maui. Still wondering which island(s) Southwest will serve from here.

https://www.sacbee.com/news/business...228708129.html

urban_encounter · #**707** Posted **Apr 17, 2019, 4:00 AM**

Contour launches flights from Santa Barbara to Sacramento.
From KEYT TV

https://www.keyt.com/news/santa-barb...nto/1069629190

Son of Travis · #**708** Posted **Apr 28, 2019, 6:23 PM**

Looks like Boutique Air is coming to SMF, moving the EAS service from Merced-Oakland to Merced-SMF starting May 15.

Daily service lv MCE at 11:41, ar SMF at 12:21. Return trip Lv SMF at 1:00, ar MCE at 1:40. Apparently city/airline leaders think that Boutique can better utilize op agreements with United and American by connecting in Sacramento vs Oakland.

As of today, One-way fares as low as $28.00!

https://www.boutiqueair.com/flight_search

urban_encounter · #**709** Posted **Apr 29, 2019, 2:23 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Son of Travis

Looks like Boutique Air is coming to SMF, moving the EAS service from Merced-Oakland to Merced-SMF starting May 15.

Daily service lv MCE at 11:41, ar SMF at 12:21. Return trip Lv SMF at 1:00, ar MCE at 1:40. Apparently city/airline leaders think that Boutique can better utilize op agreements with United and American by connecting in Sacramento vs Oakland.

As of today, One-way fares as low as $28.00!

https://www.boutiqueair.com/flight_search

That’s a good pick up for SMF. Thank you SoT.

Son of Travis · #**710** Posted **Jul 28, 2019, 6:49 PM**

As many know, Southwest's SMF-Hawaii service was delayed due to issues with 737 Max.

Southwest recently announced it is closing EWR (Newark) later this year. I'm being told that those resources will be shifted to the delayed Hawaii service and that SMF-Honolulu service will start November 3, 1x daily.

Now there are few industries more rife with rumor than the airline industry, so take this for what it's worth, but am told we can expect the announcement within a month. San Diego service to be announced same day.

Keep fingers crossed...

SacTownAndy · #**711** Posted **Jul 29, 2019, 3:54 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Son of Travis

As many know, Southwest's SMF-Hawaii service was delayed due to issues with 737 Max.

Southwest recently announced it is closing EWR (Newark) later this year. I'm being told that those resources will be shifted to the delayed Hawaii service and that SMF-Honolulu service will start November 3, 1x daily.

Now there are few industries more rife with rumor than the airline industry, so take this for what it's worth, but am told we can expect the announcement within a month. San Diego service to be announced same day.

Keep fingers crossed...

So Southwest isn't going to fly into EWR anymore?

202_Cyclist · #**712** Posted **Jul 29, 2019, 7:02 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by SacTownAndy

So Southwest isn't going to fly into EWR anymore?

Correct. Southwest is moving its New York-area flights to LaGuardia, and Southwest will also continue to serve Islip.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/25/b...es-newark.html

Son of Travis · #**713** Posted **Mar 9, 2020, 6:59 PM**

Not sure if this has made the local news yet, but JetBlue will add an afternoon departure from SMF to JFK 4x/week starting June 12 through September 7. The present redeye will continue to operate daily, as will United's redeye for Newark, which starts up again later this month.

Flights are Mo/Wed/Fri/Sat and am told they leave at 1:05, although that is not confirmed.

I think this will be the first scheduled daytime departure for NYC in airport history. Pretty cool...

urban_encounter · #**714** Posted **Mar 13, 2020, 2:48 AM**

Travis, since you work in the industry, where do you see the airline industry in a year considering everything going on in relation to Covid-19?

sactivity · #**715** Posted **Feb 15, 2021, 4:08 PM**

I know this means diddly-twat given the current pandemic situation, but it appears that Sac International outpaced San Jose for the first time in history. Sacramento with 5,583,052 passengers, San Jose with just 4,711,577. It's fun to muse what might've been in a normal year.

Son of Travis · #**716** Posted **Feb 21, 2021, 6:33 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by sactivity

I know this means diddly-twat given the current pandemic situation, but it appears that Sac International outpaced San Jose for the first time in history. Sacramento with 5,583,052 passengers, San Jose with just 4,711,577. It's fun to muse what might've been in a normal year.

SMF had greater pax numbers than SJC for a brief period I believe in mid-2000s. SJC's online records only go back to 2016, so I couldn't verify, but I followed the counts between the airports back then and remember the celebrations among staff when it occurred.

It only lasted for a few months.

Typically, the big difference between SMF and SJC is international traffic. SMF is confined to a few cities in Mexico and Canada while SJC enjoys service to those locations plus flights to Europe and Asia.

With COVID, international traffic has been crippled and SJC has suffered accordingly.

Domestic traffic between the airports is pretty even.

During most of the pandemic, SMF has consistently been the 4th busiest airport in California (by flight count) after LAX, SFO, and SAN.

Not sure how common knowledge this is, but JetBlue starts non-stop service from SMF to Cancun in March.

Son of Travis · #**717** Posted **Feb 21, 2021, 6:47 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by urban_encounter

Travis, since you work in the industry, where do you see the airline industry in a year considering everything going on in relation to Covid-19?

I haven't worked in the industry for years, but still know many people who do. I doubt this will come as a surprise to anyone, and we're already seeing the trend, but everyone I know says the same thing: Business travel stays low throughout 2021; leisure will explode this summer (2021).

So look for previously unheard of flights as airlines try to find something to do with their aircraft stock, even if that means robust creativity with new routes (see SMF-Cancun above).

So much business traffic depends on conventions/trade shows. Those appear to be dead through 2021.

Schedules are changing almost daily, but right now starting in June, SMF has 16 flights a day loaded for SEA. 8x/day on Alaska, 4x/day each on Southwest and Delta.

We'll see if that holds, but SEA has been the #1 destination out of SMF throughout 2020 averaging 60-70 flights a week since last summer.

Alaska also returns to the SMF-SAN market in April @ 3x/day going up to 4x/day in the summer. Alaska abandoned this route to Southwest early in the pandemic.

My contact at SMF says to look for Puerto Vallarta before the end of the year...

Btw - United's early morning flight to Denver is on the recently returned Boeing 737 Max. This SMF-DEN flight was one of the first regularly scheduled with the notorious aircraft...

urban_encounter · #**718** Posted **Mar 4, 2021, 2:49 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Son of Travis

I haven't worked in the industry for years, but still know many people who do. I doubt this will come as a surprise to anyone, and we're already seeing the trend, but everyone I know says the same thing: Business travel stays low throughout 2021; leisure will explode this summer (2021).

So look for previously unheard of flights as airlines try to find something to do with their aircraft stock, even if that means robust creativity with new routes (see SMF-Cancun above).

So much business traffic depends on conventions/trade shows. Those appear to be dead through 2021.

Schedules are changing almost daily, but right now starting in June, SMF has 16 flights a day loaded for SEA. 8x/day on Alaska, 4x/day each on Southwest and Delta.

We'll see if that holds, but SEA has been the #1 destination out of SMF throughout 2020 averaging 60-70 flights a week since last summer.

Alaska also returns to the SMF-SAN market in April @ 3x/day going up to 4x/day in the summer. Alaska abandoned this route to Southwest early in the pandemic.

My contact at SMF says to look for Puerto Vallarta before the end of the year...

Btw - United's early morning flight to Denver is on the recently returned Boeing 737 Max. This SMF-DEN flight was one of the first regularly scheduled with the notorious aircraft...

Thank you Travis. I always appreciate your updates because you’re never wrong.

Future__Mayor · #**719** Posted **Mar 28, 2021, 7:37 PM**

Does anyone know how many gates at SMF can handle international arrives, and which gates they are?

202_Cyclist · #**720** Posted **Mar 30, 2021, 1:15 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Future__Mayor

Does anyone know how many gates at SMF can handle international arrives, and which gates they are?

All of the gates can probably handle international arrivals. It is the availability of customs and border protection staff that is the limiting variable.