Delta departure latest blow to Santa Barbara Airport

By JOSHUA MOLINA -- July 29, 2010

Delta Airlines is canceling its flights from the Santa Barbara Airport to Salt Lake City.

Delta notified the city today. The two-daily flights will cease on Sept. 12, according to city officials.

Delta began the non-stop Salt Lake City service on 50-seat regional jets n 2001.

The loss of the flights comes after SkyWest Airlines in June discontinued its five daily flights to San Jose last month, leaving businesses that rely on brisk service to that city wondering where to turn.

Salt Lake City is a major hub for Delta.

Santa Barbara is currently in the middle of a $50 million expansion of its airport terminal in an attempt to modernize and improve passenger convenience.

Terri Gibson, airport marketing director, said the Delta flight is “extremely important,” for the airport.

“Even though they are pulling out it doesn’t meant we won’t have future service at some point,” Gibson said. “Hopefully we can re-attract them at some points.”

Gibson recalled that Delta stayed at the Santa Barbara Airport even after 911 and kept its promise to continue.

But financial decisions, the airline’s move to retire some of its smaller jets,  forced the airlines to drop its Santa Barbara service to focus more on flights in the northeast.

For the airlines, the decision was not about passengers on the Santa Barbara flights.

In two daily flights with jets that carry 50 people each, the route, on average, was about 80 percent full. In June, the average was 87 passengers.

“National decisions have an effect here in Santa Barbara,” Gibson said.

For passengers wanting to go to Salt Lake City, they now have to use Frontier Airlines and fly to Denver, then to Salt Lake City.

Gibson said the loss of the route doesn’t impact the terminal expansion.

“The terminal is being built just to accommodate our current traffic at the airport and these losses and gaining are all cyclical,” Gibson said. “By the time the terminal is done, we may have attracted another airline at that point. Economic times will get better.”

Gibson said that construction costs are at a low, and now is a perfect time to build the new airport.

“I am sure it will all be better in the long run,” Gibson said.

Santa Barbara Mayor Helene Schneider heard the news early Wednesday. She said that Santa Barbara must find a way to prosper as a smaller, regional airport, in the facing of a changing airline industry.

“It’s highly disappointing,” Schneider said. “We need to figure out what to do to restore some form of service.

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: 7/29/2010

If only we had a bigger airport THEN airlines would come here just to hang out and enjoy it!

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Good, keep them away.. : 7/29/2010

With it harder and harder to do get out of SB, we can keep LA 100 miles away. Right on Delta.

SB should be for the people

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@SB should be for the people : 7/29/2010

yes, because people in LA use Santa Barbara airport as a gateway to other airports, and because people in LA fly to santa barbara for the purposes of visiting, and because 100 miles is a daunting task for people in LA to drive to get here. Do they give everyone computers and internet access, or just the small-minded ones?

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Bad idea : 7/30/2010

Lost flights means lost revenue for the city. The 50 million dollar expansion at the airport has to be paid by someone and now that the vacationers are gone it will be left to the local tax payers to pick up the tab. This is very bad news for the people of Santa Barbara. This also means less people to fly into town to spend money in the great city of Santa Barbara. This will mean layoff's at the airport as well. So to say keep them away means the people in Santa Barbara will take the brunt of the loss.

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