Santa Maria Public Airport (SMX/KSMX) (Santa Maria, California)

USA / California / Santa Maria / Santa Maria, California
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The Santa Maria Public Airport, also known as Captain G. Allan Hancock Field, was built during World War II. The Army constructed what was then the Santa Maria Army base, with the main purpose of providing training for pilots of B-25 aircraft.

After the war, Santa Barbara County acquired the land and facilities. It controlled the area until 1949 when the city of Santa Maria took interest and obtained half of the airport. It was in 1964 that the newly renamed Santa Maria Public Airport was born.

The airport plans to extend one of its runways with the intent of attracting new airlines. It opened a U.S. Customs facility on December 1, 2006, and airport officials hoped that would help, also. In 2007, the airport board undertook negotiations with Frontier Airlines, to encourage them to launch a route to their Denver hub, but Frontier ultimately decided against it. In August 2007, Allegiant Air expanded service to their newly established hub at Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport (KIWA), to complement their flights to Las Vegas, which started in 2006.

Aside from the new Customs area, the airport opened its new baggage claim area in October, 2006. Soon after, cracks began to appear in the floor. Although determined to be only aesthetic, they were finally repaired in October, 2007. The passenger terminal expansion, which increased capacity from 30 to 200, was completed in February, 2008.

Airlines Serving Santa Maria:
* Allegiant Air (Las Vegas, Phoenix/Mesa)
* United Airlines via United Express, operated by SkyWest (Los Angeles)

Official Site - www.santamariaairport.com/
Airport Information - www.airnav.com/airport/KSMX
Flight Information - flightaware.com/live/airport/KSMX
www.globalair.com/airport/airport.aspx?aptcode=SMX
Nearby cities:
Coordinates:   34°53'59"N   120°27'22"W

Comments

  • The airport also has an awesome kart track.. in the south west corner
This article was last modified 11 years ago