Sacramento International Airport (SMF)

[Son of Travis]

Originally Posted by 202_Cyclist

"With the CDC acknowledging that the mask requirement is little more than theater at this point, hopefully it soon gets dropped and Americans don’t have to fly muzzled anymore. That should also boost counts."

Leave your Qanon conspiracy theories out of this thread. You are only making yourself appear more foolish. More than 600,000 people have died from this pandemic you think is a hoax.

It is really amazing (and sad) to see people who think they are big, tough, guys whine and cry like little babies because they have been asked to put on a mask so we don't kill our neighbors and lose another 600,000 lives.

"Estimates suggest that as a result of the implementation of these mandates, more than 200,000 COVID-19 cases were averted by May 22, 2020. The findings suggest that requiring face mask use in public could help in mitigating the spread of COVID-19."

https://www.healthaffairs.org/doi/10...aff.2020.00818

Poor thing... you just can't help yourself lol.

Your impotent yelping remains unimpressive.

Cry harder.

[CAAndrew]

Originally Posted by urban_encounter

knowing that we can’t mitigate and eliminate all risks.

I'd just like to take a moment to point out that you're giving people too much credit, here. It's less that they're accepting they can't eliminate all risks, as that implies a nuanced and thoughtful consideration of available information. Rather, fatigue is setting in and people, even the cautious ones, are becoming stir crazy.

If we're going to be discussing passenger counts and travel patterns, we may as well be doing it from a sound starting point about how people think and act.

[Son of Travis]

SMF typically posts its monthly pax counts mid-month, but the word out of them so far is that May looks great. SMF is now averaging over 870 flights per week and with the changes coming in June, could crack 900/week soon.

Some of those changes include:

• Midway goes to 2x/day on Southwest 6/1.

• HNL goes widebody on Hawaiian 6/2 (A330 service has been extended to 8/15!).

• Dallas goes to 5x/day on American starting 6/4.

• EWR daily on United starting 6/4.

• American switches its flight to Chicago to a redeye starting 6/4.

• HOU goes daily on Southwest starting 6/5.

• Boston returns on JetBlue on 6/10.

• Spirit starts new service to Orange County (SNA) on 6/10 (Tickets start at $57!)

• JFK goes to 4x/week on JetBlue starting 6/14.

• BOI goes to 2x/day on Alaska and replaces the Q400 Turboprop with E175 jets on both flights 6/17.

Those changes alone account for over 40 flights/week (not all are daily) and that would do it. 900 flights/week is about 300 more per week than just last February, or an astounding 40+ more flights per day.

The two busiest markets out of SMF are SEA and SAN, each of which average in the high 80s per week.

Some of the Fed’s numbers have been released and in Q1 2021, SMF was the 36th busiest airport in the country with nearly 1.3m passengers. This placed it just ahead of New Orleans and Washington-Reagan.

At 870 flights per week, SMF remains the 4th busiest airport in California.

My next flight is to PHX this Wednesday. The flight is, of course, sold-out…

[urban_encounter]

Originally Posted by Son of Travis

SMF typically posts its monthly pax counts mid-month, but the word out of them so far is that May looks great. SMF is now averaging over 870 flights per week and with the changes coming in June, could crack 900/week soon.

Some of those changes include:

• Midway goes to 2x/day on Southwest 6/1.

• HNL goes widebody on Hawaiian 6/2 (A330 service has been extended to 8/15!).

• Dallas goes to 5x/day on American starting 6/4.

• EWR daily on United starting 6/4.

• American switches its flight to Chicago to a redeye starting 6/4.

• HOU goes daily on Southwest starting 6/5.

• Boston returns on JetBlue on 6/10.

• Spirit starts new service to Orange County (SNA) on 6/10 (Tickets start at $57!)

• JFK goes to 4x/week on JetBlue starting 6/14.

• BOI goes to 2x/day on Alaska and replaces the Q400 Turboprop with E175 jets on both flights 6/17.

Those changes alone account for over 40 flights/week (not all are daily) and that would do it. 900 flights/week is about 300 more per week than just last February, or an astounding 40+ more flights per day.

The two busiest markets out of SMF are SEA and SAN, each of which average in the high 80s per week.

Some of the Fed’s numbers have been released and in Q1 2021, SMF was the 36th busiest airport in the country with nearly 1.3m passengers. This placed it just ahead of New Orleans and Washington-Reagan.

At 870 flights per week, SMF remains the 4th busiest airport in California.

My next flight is to PHX this Wednesday. The flight is, of course, sold-out…

That second Midway flight for SWA is longer overdue. But why American decided to switch their flight to red eye service is curious.

[Son of Travis]

Today Southwest Airlines announced daily service to Palm Springs starting October 7, 2021. It's part of a significant expansion for Southwest at PSP, which only began flying there in November 2020. Southwest also announced flights out of PSP to Dallas (Love), Chicago (Midway) and Portland, OR as part of this expansion.

This route was last flown by Contour Airlines, but that service was canceled last year as another casualty of the economic lockdown.

Contour, which once also flew to 2x/day to Santa Barbara from SMF, has yet to resume service from Sacramento.

Also announced today is more Hawaii service as starting December 18 Southwest will serve Kona on the Big Island 4x/week. This route was previously served by Alaska and has been a priority target for airport staff.

In other Southwest news, the 1x/week flights to Cabo have been increased to 2x/week with flights both Saturday and Sunday. They are doing cartwheels in the Admin building today...

But why American decided to switch their flight to red eye service is curious.

Red-eyes are often more about the inbound city than the outbound. American may need additional aircraft for the morning bank at ORD and thus shifted some flights to red-eyes so they could get them out from the hub early the next morning. Also interesting is that with the shift, it went from 5x/week to daily.

SMF is now averaging over 870 flights per week and with the changes coming in June, could crack 900/week soon.

This week SMF smashed through the 900/week threshold and as of today stands at 985.

Btw - I'm told that Sacramento pax count for May could well exceed 800k. This would be a phenomenal increase and yet more evidence that few, if any, travelers give a cr@p about COVID.

[urban_encounter]

Originally Posted by Son of Travis

Today Southwest Airlines announced daily service to Palm Springs starting October 7, 2021. It's part of a significant expansion for Southwest at PSP, which only began flying there in November 2020. Southwest also announced flights out of PSP to Dallas (Love), Chicago (Midway) and Portland, OR as part of this expansion.

This route was last flown by Contour Airlines, but that service was canceled last year as another casualty of the economic lockdown.

Contour, which once also flew to 2x/day to Santa Barbara from SMF, has yet to resume service from Sacramento.

Also announced today is more Hawaii service as starting December 18 Southwest will serve Kona on the Big Island 4x/week. This route was previously served by Alaska and has been a priority target for airport staff.

In other Southwest news, the 1x/week flights to Cabo have been increased to 2x/week with flights both Saturday and Sunday. They are doing cartwheels in the Admin building today...



Red-eyes are often more about the inbound city than the outbound. American may need additional aircraft for the morning bank at ORD and thus shifted some flights to red-eyes so they could get them out from the hub early the next morning. Also interesting is that with the shift, it went from 5x/week to daily.



This week SMF smashed through the 900/week threshold and as of today stands at 985.

Btw - I'm told that Sacramento pax count for May could well exceed 800k. This would be a phenomenal increase and yet more evidence that few, if any, travelers give a cr@p about COVID.

That’s all awesome news.

[202_Cyclist]

Originally Posted by Son of Travis

Btw - I'm told that Sacramento pax count for May could well exceed 800k. This would be a phenomenal increase and yet more evidence that few, if any, travelers give a cr@p about COVID.

Because of vaccinations, the number of daily COVID deaths has gone from more than 4,000 per day under the Very Stable Genius to less than 400.

https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/us/

Do you think these people gave a crap about COVID?



cheers...

[Son of Travis]

Originally Posted by 202_Cyclist

Because of vaccinations, the number of daily COVID deaths has gone from more than 4,000 per day under the Very Stable Genius to less than 400.

https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/us/

Do you think these people gave a crap about COVID?



cheers...

Do you think anyone gives a crap about you? (Hint: no)

[202_Cyclist]

Originally Posted by Son of Travis

Do you think anyone gives a crap about you? (Hint: no)

This pandemic that has killed more than 600,000 Americans has really revealed both the best and worst of people.

[Son of Travis]

Originally Posted by 202_Cyclist

This pandemic that has killed more than 600,000 Americans has really revealed both the best and worst of people.

You mean like a whiny b*tch who is so vested in a narrative of death and economic misery for his fellow men & women that he has to sh!t on any sign that an air-traffic recovery is underway and that people can make their own educated choices about travel?

You may have stumbled onto something...

[Son of Travis]

Some more info re the new Southwest service to Hawaii. The Kona flights are alternating with additional service to Maui. So while Kona is served 4x/week, M/W/F/Su, Maui goes to 10 flights a week with 2x/day on Tu/Th/Sa.

This announcement was all part of Southwest's Fall schedule release earlier this week. Some other nuggets include:

Doubling the present service to Burbank, LAX, and Long Beach to 10x/day, 8x/day, and 4x/day respectively.

Increasing SAN to 10x/day.

And tripling service to ONT with 6x/day.

Systemwide, Southwest is at 94% of 2019 ASM (Available Seat Miles) in June.

Going to 10x/day to BUR is seen as a pre-emptive shot at Avelo, the new airline based there. While there has been no official word about Avelo coming to SMF (and not much chatter), Southwest enjoys a monopoly on this lucrative segment and as Avelo acquires more jets, SMF seems like a natural fit.

Another clear sign of the incredible rebound at SMF is the return of late evening travel. Last year at this time there were no flights leaving SMF after about 9:00, and few after 6:00.

A quick look at last night's schedule shows 14 flights departing SMF at around 9:00 or later including service to New York (2x), Guadalajara (2x), Mexico City, Boston, Charlotte, Dallas and Chicago. Total flights scheduled from SMF yesterday was 173 (including cargo), a record since lockdown started.

Btw - with the huge June flight increase, SMF now serves 41 cities with pax service. That's >87% of 2019's June total, which was a record.

Also note that a great milestone was reached yesterday. The TSA throughput count for the first time since the lockdown started surpassed 2,000,000 passengers. That's 74% of the 2019 number and an astounding 400% higher than last year.

Important to remember that's 74% of last year's total with international flights to most areas still at strangulation levels, although that's beginning to change.

Here again is the link to the TSA page showing daily counts.

https://www.tsa.gov/coronavirus/passenger-throughput

We should have May numbers for SMF posted next week. Keep fingers crossed for 800,000.

Enjoy this beautiful weekend everyone...

[Son of Travis]

Btw - I'm told that Sacramento pax count for May could well exceed 800k. This would be a phenomenal increase and yet more evidence that few, if any, travelers give a cr@p about COVID.

Well the May numbers have been out for awhile now and as hoped for, SMF smashed through the 800,000 passenger mark with 831,904.

Every airline is not just up from last year, but up spectacularly.

Some of the biggest gains by percentage are Frontier, up 2056% from May 2020; Spirit, with its new service to Orange County is up 1120%, Delta, up 505%; JetBlue is up 495%, even Boutique Airlines, with its 2x daily service to Merced, is up 63%!

In another stunning example of how quickly Sacramentans are returning to the skies. May of 2020 saw the Alaska Airlines group (all Alaska branded flights including Alaska, Horizon and Skywest) carry 4,904 passengers at SMF. Last May that number increased to… 71,423, a mere 1356% over last year!

Southwest, by far the largest carrier at SMF, was up by well over 300,000 in May and looks to approach 90 flights a day this fall.

All the majors’ operations are up significantly. United is up to 15 departures a day, five times what they had in May/June of 2020 (two to DEN, one to SFO), and now has 3 redeyes alone to New York, Chicago and Houston.

Internationally, SMF carried over 29,000 pax this past May. In May of 2020, the international pax count out of SMF was… zero.

AeroMexico has gone from 7x/week to 10x/week on SMF-GDL. Some nights have four departures (with Volaris) between the two cities.

All-in, SMF was up 466% over May 2020. So yeah, good stuff.

I’m told June’s numbers look good, but not as good as they could have been due to equipment and labor shortages at Southwest and American, who apparently didn’t anticipate just how quickly Americans would return to the skies. These shortages resulted in many cancellations at both airlines right as the peak travel season is kicking-in.

SMF remains the fourth busiest airport in California and consistently breaks 1000 flights per week. As of today it sits at 1018. I’ve seen it as high as 1022. #5 is San Jose @ 861 followed by Oakland @ 830.

Seattle remains the #1 destination for SMF with 108 flights over the next week (been as high as 115).

Rounding out the top ten are:

#2 LAX
#3 SAN
#4 PHX
#5 DEN
#6 LAS
#7 SNA
#8 SLC
#9 PDX
#10 DFW

Saturday mornings must be festive in Concourse B as within a couple of hours four flights leave for Hawaii and one each to Cabo and Cancun.

Nationally the charade of COVID today is clearly reflected by the daily TSA count, which is now routinely above 2,000,000. Even more incredible is that at SMF over the July 4 holiday, 3 of the 5 days posted counts better than 2019.

Of course this isn’t to say we’re all the way back, missing major destinations from the SMF 2019 roster include Detroit, Baltimore, Orlando, New Orleans, and Vancouver.

July is traditionally the busiest month at SMF, and those flying now can attest to how slammed the airport is as it struggles to keep up with demand. This is true at every airport across the nation now, at least in my experience. I connect a lot at PHX and often we’re forced to wait on the ramp for our gate to clear.

SMF projects about 860k in July. They are officially projecting about 820k in June, the decrease due to the operational issues noted above. While 820k represents a great come-back, it’s about 400k off from 2019. That’s still a huge number, but all the signs remain pointed in the right direction.

We’ll know soon enough.

Happy flying everyone…

[Son of Travis]

WOW! Am told today that when June's numbers come out next week, they will show SMF pax count at over 975k! That's >150k more than the official airport projections from just six weeks ago and a STUNNING REJECTION of COVID fear.

That's over 82% recovered from 2019's all-time record passenger count.

Looking forward to a packed SMF on my next trip there first week in August.

Now if we could only get rid of those stupid-@ss masks...

[CAGeoNerd]

Originally Posted by Son of Travis

WOW!a STUNNING REJECTION of COVID fear.

Now if we could only get rid of those stupid-@ss masks...

Yeah, or people are vaccinated and more comfortable to travel now after a year cooped up, and loosened restrictions enable anti-maskers and anti-vaxxers to go out and do as they please regardless.

Unsurprisingly, cases are going up, positivity test rates are going up.. So hold on to your masks because we're heading back into that territory and especially when schools start back up in the fall.

The absolute stupidest thing to come out of this pandemic has been the politicization of public health.

[Son of Travis]

Originally Posted by CAGeoNerd

Yeah, or people are vaccinated and more comfortable to travel now after a year cooped up, and loosened restrictions enable anti-maskers and anti-vaxxers to go out and do as they please regardless.

Unsurprisingly, cases are going up, positivity test rates are going up.. So hold on to your masks because we're heading back into that territory and especially when schools start back up in the fall.

The absolute stupidest thing to come out of this pandemic has been the politicization of public health.

Gawd you squeal like a bee-ach. It's almost like you want things to stay bad.

I am 100% vaccinated and can't give, nor can I get, the virus.

If you are 100% vaccinated, there is precisely zero reason to continue wearing a mask and you are following "the science."

If you are 100% vaccinated and are still wearing a mask, you are not following "the science" and are, instead, a member of a cult.

If you are not vaccinated and afraid of COVID then stay da'fuque home and let the rest of us move forward with our lives, including air travel.

For whatever reasons, nearly a million Sacramentans (pending confirmation) rejected the fear and returned to the skies.

Maybe you're just used to being muzzled and feel it levels the playing field for you. Would explain a lot of your posts.

The absolute stupidest thing to come out of this pandemic has been the politicization of public health

You run a close second...

[urban_encounter]

Originally Posted by Son of Travis

WOW! Am told today that when June's numbers come out next week, they will show SMF pax count at over 975k! That's >150k more than the official airport projections from just six weeks ago and a STUNNING REJECTION of COVID fear.

That's over 82% recovered from 2019's all-time record passenger count.

That is incredible news for SMF.

[urban_encounter]

Originally Posted by CAGeoNerd

Yeah, or people are vaccinated and more comfortable to travel now after a year cooped up, and loosened restrictions enable anti-maskers and anti-vaxxers to go out and do as they please regardless.

Agree that people are feeling more comfortable and probably many are also frustrated and have grown tired of the on again off again mask mandates. The government in California love to say that they’re guided by science. Unfortunately that’s not the reality. There has been nothing scientific guiding the State government’s response to Covid.

I have no problem with masks or no masks. I wore them until the State lifted it’s mask mandate. A lot of people still wear them and that’s their right. But I wonder if those people who still mask up understand why they’re masking? Is it to protect themselves against contracting Covid or is it to protect anti-vax’ers ? If I’ve been vaccinated, I will not get seriously ill if I contract it. I’m not going to wear a mask indefinitely to protect those who refuse to get a vaccination.

[enigma99a]

Originally Posted by urban_encounter

Agree that people are feeling more comfortable and probably many are also frustrated and have grown tired of the on again off again mask mandates. The government in California love to say that they’re guided by science. Unfortunately that’s not the reality. There has been nothing scientific guiding the State government’s response to Covid.

I have no problem with masks or no masks. I wore them until the State lifted it’s mask mandate. A lot of people still wear them and that’s their right. But I wonder if those people who still mask up understand why they’re masking? Is it to protect themselves against contracting Covid or is it to protect anti-vax’ers ? If I’ve been vaccinated, I will not get seriously ill if I contract it. I’m not going to wear a mask indefinitely to protect those who refuse to get a vaccination.

Exactly. In LA the overwhelming majority of new cases are from unvaccinated people. Not only have vaccinated people removed their masks but unvaccinated as well. It’s too bad there is no vaccine passport to prove you are OK to be w/o a mask indoors. But I am not going to mask up anymore, as I am immune to serious illness from the virus. If they are not afraid of a *fake* virus, then they will learn the hard way

[202_Cyclist]

Originally Posted by CAGeoNerd

Yeah, or people are vaccinated and more comfortable to travel now after a year cooped up, and loosened restrictions enable anti-maskers and anti-vaxxers to go out and do as they please regardless.

Unsurprisingly, cases are going up, positivity test rates are going up.. So hold on to your masks because we're heading back into that territory and especially when schools start back up in the fall.

The absolute stupidest thing to come out of this pandemic has been the politicization of public health.

Son of Travis is a QAnon true-believer. No amount of science or logic will work with this cult.

The sad thing is we are seeing natural selection happen in real time. Another sad thing is so much of this could have been prevented.

[Son of Travis]

WOW! Am told today that when June's numbers come out next week, they will show SMF pax count at over 975k! That's >150k more than the official airport projections from just six weeks ago and a STUNNING REJECTION of COVID fear.

June 2021 is published and as hoped for (by most), SMF shattered all expectations with an absolutely fantastic passenger count of... 981,378!

This is so far beyond anyone’s, including the airport’s, most optimistic projections that it strains credulity.

All major airlines are up and up BIGLY over 2020. On a percentage basis, the YUGE winner is Jetblue with a YOY increase of almost 2000%. Jetblue presently has three destinations out of SMF: JFK, Boston and Cancun, all of which appear to be doing spectacularly well.

Other percentage gains include United @ >600%, Alaska @ <600%, Spirit @ >500%, Frontier ~300%, Delta >250%, American ~200%.

Hawaiian, with its return to widebody service to HNL (and A321 to Maui) carried 25,695. In June 2020 Hawaiian carried… zero.

International traffic (still all through gates B8 and B10 btw ), was up around 350% at 30,399.

Every airline is crushing it at SMF and despite the squealing of some, it indeed represents an utter and complete rejection of the COVID fear. Sure, a lot of reasons go into the decision to fly again, but all of them mean that the fear of COVID is no longer a strong enough consideration to keep them on the ground and nearly a million Sacramentans agreed with that in June of this year.

All the metrics are up from May 2021. Pax count up 18%; seat capacity up 16%; departures up 19%. All of this is incredible news.

SMF remains the fourth busiest airport in California followed by San Jose and Oakland. That is unlikely to change until we see a more robust return of international traffic. Both SJC and OAK typically best SMF internationally and do so by enough of a margin to leap ahead in total flight and pax count. But until that happens, SMF is beating both of these airports by about 150 flights a week and should hold strong through the end of year.

As noted previously, July is typically the busiest month at SMF, but June’s going to be a hard act to follow. The airport projects a total count of around 860,000. We’ll see. Keep fingers crossed.

All in all… what an incredible June of 2021 at SMF. So good to see the airport busy again!

I have no problem with masks or no masks. I wore them until the State lifted it’s mask mandate. A lot of people still wear them and that’s their right.

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.

These are the same fools who for the last year and a half screeched that we had to follow, “the science!” Now “the science” says if you’re vaccinated, masks are unnecessary (that’s how vaccinations work), but they are so vested in the cult of misery that they demand we all remain muzzled.

Screw you.

So hold on to your masks because we're heading back into that territory and especially when schools start back up in the fall.

Son of Travis is a QAnon true-believer. No amount of science or logic will work with this cult.

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

Happy flying everyone!