United Airlines Nixes Plans for Santa Maria Airport Service to Denver, San Francisco

Jul. 1—United Airlines has indefinitely suspended plans for service to Denver and San Francisco from Santa Maria Public Airport after airlines were hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic.

United originally announced plans in January 2020 to offer daily service from Santa Maria to Los Angeles, Denver and San Francisco, with the pandemic pushing the expected start date to that October, then to March 2021. The decision to drop service to Los Angeles was followed by a final delay to June before United finally called it quits.

"Due to the pandemic and changes in market conditions since our initial announcement, United has made the difficult decision to suspend its plan to operate nonstop service to Santa Maria, Calif. (SMX) from Denver and San Francisco," the airline said in a statement this week. "We will continue to serve the region and greater Central Coast community with service to Santa Barbara Airport (SBA) and San Luis Obispo County Regional Airport (SBP)."

Allegiant will remain the sole airline operating out of the airport with service to Phoenix, Las Vegas and Portland two to three days per week, as officials seek contracts with other hub carriers to meet the needs of business travelers and Vandenberg Space Force Base.

Although Airport General Manager Chris Hastert was eager to see an increase in the number of serviced destinations out of Santa Maria, he said it made more sense to suspend plans with United rather than continue delaying trips for customers with bookings.

"What it means for us is, we're kind of back to the drawing board to try to provide better service to our business community," Hastert said. "United is not the only option. We are meeting with other airlines and ... there's definitely some interest in Santa Maria from other hub carriers."

Completed bookings for travel between Santa Maria and the cities of Denver and San Francisco now will be canceled, although a United spokesperson declined to provide the exact number of bookings that had been made.

When looking at other potential carriers, Hastert said airport officials' main criteria is expanding eastbound service, particularly to areas like Salt Lake City and Denver.

The airport still has a Small Community Air Service Development grant of $490,000 from the U.S. Department of Transportation to be used for such a purpose. Their deadline to spend the grant money has been extended several times since it was given in 2012, with the next deadline set for January 2022.

"We need to have a contract in place by that time," Hastert said. "The ability to extend it again really depends on the Department of Transportation, but they've been very generous with us in the past."

Along with the grant, which can assist airlines with the risks of starting service in a new community, airport officials are hoping to drum up interest with offers including two years of waived terminal fees and financial incentives between $500,000 to $1 million.

In the meantime, Hastert urges residents to continue traveling locally through the neighboring San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara airports. The busier other airports in the region are, the more likely airlines are to expand to Santa Maria, he said.

"Although they are somewhat our competitors, both of those airports have to be doing really do well for them to be considering Santa Maria," he said. "As the airline industry recovers, hopefully we'll be on the forefront of adding new services."

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