"Terminal buffer zone removed at Sonoma County, California airport"

October 27, 2001

Buffer zone removed at airport
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT SANTA ROSA, CA


The Charles M. Schulz-Sonoma County Airport removed a 300-foot buffer
zone around the airport terminal on Friday, re-opening a short- term
parking lot and letting vehicles drive up to the terminal curb for the
first time since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

The zone had been required by the Federal Aviation Administration as a
security measure, but the federal agency relaxed those rules for small
airports on Friday, said Dave Knight, assistant Sonoma County public
works director.

The removal of the buffer zone should improve the business climate at
the airport, Knight said.

Owners of the terminal restaurant, the Sellini Grille, had complained
that business suffered because parking for patrons was not close enough,
and the rental car agencies had to park cars more than a block away.

Meanwhile, as the security zone was being relaxed Friday, workers at
United Express, Sonoma County's only commercial air carrier, were
preparing to leave when airline service ends on Tuesday.

United Express announced in August it was discontinuing the service Oct.
30 because it was unprofitable.

The service between Sonoma County and Los Angeles and San Francisco was
carrying 65,000 passengers a year.

"It's very sad," said Brooke Erdman, manager of the United Express
station, which was being run by SkyWest Airline of St. George, Utah.

SkyWest employs four full- and 10 part-time workers in Santa Rosa, most
of whom will be laid off.

SkyWest is leaving behind its ticket counters, baggage handling and
baggage-screening equipment for another airline, but Knight said that so
far none have shown an interest.

Knight said regional air carriers are moving to regional jets, which are
faster, larger and carry more passengers than the 30- passenger
turboprop airplanes that SkyWest was using, and those new jets need
runways that are longer than at the Sonoma County airport.

"We are working with various airlines, but most of them are telling us
the airplanes they want to fly won't fit on our runways," Knight said.
"The economics are such that you cannot fly around in these little
planes, you have to have 50 passengers or more." 

Sonoma County airport runways are 5,100 feet, while the smallest
regional jet needs a minimum of 5,800 feet. The county is exploring what
it would take to lengthen an existing runway or build a new, longer
runway.

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