The San Luis Obispo County Regional Airport works continuously to support businesses, connect people, and bring prosperity to San Luis Obispo County residents. Fiscal year 2018 – 2019 was a year of great growth for the airport. Not only was the County able to measure that growth, it was also able to add to it.
Now Arriving: Economic Development
An airport is vital to a community, because it allows goods to be sold in other markets, brings in tourists, and enables businesses to connect across the world. Airports also provide essential support in the community infrastructure, creating jobs and generating tax revenue. This year, the County of San Luis Obispo was able to measure just how much its regional airport contributed economically to the region.
In 2019, the San Luis Obispo County Regional Airport commissioned Volaire Aviation to conduct an economic impact study. The comprehensive study measured the value of commercial air service, the new visitors that come to the region because of the air service, and the companies and agencies that work at the airport, like rental car companies and flight instructors. It also examined the indirect effects those businesses have on the community, including what aviation employees spend locally and what tourists contribute. Finally, it calculated how these factors all impact local, state, and federal taxes.
The results were stunning. Through a combination of providing jobs, generating taxes, and bringing in visitors that play, stay, and dine here, the airport has an incredible $85.24 million impact on San Luis Obispo County each year. The airport creates 562 full-time jobs directly on the airport property, and supports a total of 871 full-time jobs in the region. It also generates $14.3 million in taxes, $6.2 million of which stay at the local or state level.
Tourism also has an enormous effect on our economy. Visitors that arrive to San Luis Obispo County by air have an estimated $33.4 million impact in the region, as they rent cars, shop in stores, and eat in restaurants. The report concluded that visitor activity is also responsible for 387 jobs in SLO County.
These measurements are important for several reasons:
These numbers are powerful and will help the region better understand its airport.
The San Luis Obispo County Regional Airport economic impact study has enabled SLO County to calculate the airport’s financial impact, and the findings confirm the powerful effect the airport has on the community.
In 2019, the San Luis Obispo County Regional Airport commissioned Volaire Aviation to conduct an economic impact study. The comprehensive study measured the value of commercial air service, the new visitors that come to the region because of the air service, and the companies and agencies that work at the airport, like rental car companies and flight instructors. It also examined the indirect effects those businesses have on the community, including what aviation employees spend locally and what tourists contribute. Finally, it calculated how these factors all impact local, state, and federal taxes.
The results were stunning. Through a combination of providing jobs, generating taxes, and bringing in visitors that play, stay, and dine here, the airport has an incredible $85.24 million impact on San Luis Obispo County each year. The airport creates 562 full-time jobs directly on the airport property, and supports a total of 871 full-time jobs in the region. It also generates $14.3 million in taxes, $6.2 million of which stay at the local or state level.
Tourism also has an enormous effect on our economy. Visitors that arrive to San Luis Obispo County by air have an estimated $33.4 million impact in the region, as they rent cars, shop in stores, and eat in restaurants. The report concluded that visitor activity is also responsible for 387 jobs in SLO County.
These measurements are important for several reasons:
- Now airport and County staff have a benchmark for the airport’s impact on the region. We can finally understand in real, specific, ways how the airport contributes to the local economy.
- The County can measure future efforts against this study to see if those efforts were successful—for example, did bringing in a new flight change the economy in a way we had predicted?
- These figures can be used to educate the SLO County community on the importance of the airport and its air service. When local businesses recognize that flying out of the hometown airport can help them keep revenue in their community, they may choose to fly out of that airport more often. They may decide to support additional efforts to bring in tourists or campaigns to acquire new air service.
These numbers are powerful and will help the region better understand its airport.
The San Luis Obispo County Regional Airport economic impact study has enabled SLO County to calculate the airport’s financial impact, and the findings confirm the powerful effect the airport has on the community.
Now Boarding: Nonstop Service to Dallas/Ft. Wort
A long-held idea finally came to fruition in 2019 as the San Luis Obispo County Regional Airport welcomed daily nonstop service to Dallas/Ft. Worth on American Airlines. The route came after years of work on behalf of the airport, SLO County, Visit SLO CAL and several regional partners.
The new service provides several benefits to the San Luis Obispo community:
The nonstop route—flown on a comfortable Embraer 175 jet with First Class, Main Cabin Extra, and Main Cabin seats—offers a quick way to connect the two popular locales. Both regions are known for their agriculture industries and as vacation destinations, and this daily flight allows SLO County residents the opportunity to easily visit the Lone Star State, while bringing in tourists who might never have visited had it not been so easy to arrive.
Increasing air service into San Luis Obispo County is not only vital to the strength of our tourism industry, it is also essential to SLO County’s overall quality of life. These new flights don’t just connect people. They also connect economies. Each time that happens, we make SLO County an even better place to live, work, and visit.
The new service provides several benefits to the San Luis Obispo community:
- The new flight links the region directly to American Airlines’ hub airport, which allows easy connections across the country.
- The Dallas/Ft. Worth flight also offers one-stop access to destinations throughout Latin America and the Caribbean.
- The flight makes it easier than ever for the world to access SLO County’s businesses, higher learning institutions, and popular wine region.
The nonstop route—flown on a comfortable Embraer 175 jet with First Class, Main Cabin Extra, and Main Cabin seats—offers a quick way to connect the two popular locales. Both regions are known for their agriculture industries and as vacation destinations, and this daily flight allows SLO County residents the opportunity to easily visit the Lone Star State, while bringing in tourists who might never have visited had it not been so easy to arrive.
Increasing air service into San Luis Obispo County is not only vital to the strength of our tourism industry, it is also essential to SLO County’s overall quality of life. These new flights don’t just connect people. They also connect economies. Each time that happens, we make SLO County an even better place to live, work, and visit.
Now Departing: Long Drives to Different Airports
This graph shows the number of passengers at SLO County Regional Airport over time.
The new flight to Dallas/Ft. Worth has already proven to be popular and helps extend the airport’s impressive growth streak. San Luis Obispo County Regional Airport now has service to six major cities with a total of 16 flights each day and has doubled its passenger traffic over the last five years.
In fall 2018, a report from international organization Airports Council International – North America ranked San Luis Obispo County Regional Airport as the fifth-fastest-growing airport in the United States and the seventh-fastest growing airport in North America.
Using total passenger numbers from calendar year 2017, airports across North America were ranked by the percentage of growth over the previous year. With 407,646 passengers in 2017, the San Luis Obispo Airport registered a 23.4 percent increase over 2016 levels. Additional service landed in 2018 means the airport is likely to have a similarly remarkable jump during the next survey.
This ranking is yet another way the San Luis Obispo County Regional Airport is proving its value to the community. Increasingly, passengers are able to skip the inconvenience of driving long distances to large hubs and get to their destination quickly from their local airport. The more destinations an airport has, the more likely it is for a local passenger to find a route that serves their needs.
And the word is spreading about the convenience of flying local: The airport has charted consistent and sustainable growth over the past five years. In 2012, the airport served 272,268 total passengers. In 2018, the airport served 485,911 passengers, and is on pace to smash that record in 2019. New flights, larger planes, and happy repeat customers all contribute to those numbers.
San Luis Obispo County Regional Airport seeks to keep up the momentum, and works diligently to bring new flights to the region. The staff collaborates with local partners like Visit SLO CAL to recruit businesses and tourists to visit SLO County, and meets regularly with major air carriers to encourage additional service.
Increased flights allow SLO County residents to connect to the world quickly and easily, and to bring in visitors that eat in our restaurants and shop in our stores. As residents continue to utilize their hometown airport, the airport will continue to provide increasingly powerful benefits to San Luis Obispo County.
