Military use In the 1930s Santa Rosa had a small municipal airfield owned by
Richfield Oil Corporation next to the
Redwood Highway about 6 miles southeast of the present airport. Use of the 3,000-foot sod runway at the earlier airfield was discontinued during
World War II as facilities at the present airport improved. Opened in June 1942 and known as
Santa Rosa Army Air Field, the airfield was assigned to
Fourth Air Force as a group and replacement training airfield. Known units assigned to Santa Rosa were: •
354th Fighter Group, March–June 1943 •
357th Fighter Group, June–August 1943 •
363d Fighter Group, August–October 1943 •
367th Fighter Group, October–December 1943 The 478th Fighter Group was permanently assigned to Santa Rosa in December 1943 and began training replacement pilots, who were sent to combat units overseas after graduation. The airfield was inactivated on January 31, 1946 during winter and turned over to the War Assets Administration for eventual conversion to a civil airport.
Airline flights From the late-1940s to the mid-1970s
Southwest Airways and successors
Pacific Air Lines, Air West and
Hughes Airwest served Santa Rosa. Southwest Airways
Douglas DC-3s followed by Pacific, Air West and Hughes Airwest
Fairchild F-27 turboprops mainly flew to
San Francisco (
SFO). Pacific Air Lines had introduced F-27 aircraft on its Santa Rosa service by 1964 with these new propjets subsequently replacing the airline's
Martin 4-0-4 piston-powered aircraft on all of its flights into airport. In 1967 Pacific was operating daily F-27 service on a roundtrip routing of
Portland, OR -
Crescent City -
Eureka/Arcata - Santa Rosa -
San Francisco. By 1968, one of the Air West F-27 flights serving the airport was operating a daily southbound routing of
Redding - Santa Rosa -
Oakland - San Francisco. In the summer of 1972, Hughes Airwest was operating two nonstop F-27 flights every weekday to San Francisco. However, by 1975 Hughes Airwest was no longer serving Santa Rosa. Commuter airlines flew STS to San Francisco (
SFO) until 2001 as well as to San Jose (SJC) at various times. In 1969
Golden Pacific Airlines (1969–1973) was operating six roundtrip flights every weekday between the airport and SFO as well as direct flights to Eureka, Lake Tahoe, Reno, Stockton and Ukiah with
Beechcraft 99 commuter turboprops During the mid and late 1970s Eureka Aero and successor
Air Pacific (United States) operated
de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter service to Eureka, Oakland, Sacramento and San Francisco. In 1985 Westates Airlines
Convair CV-580 turboprops flew nonstop to
Los Angeles for several months before ceasing operations; their July 1985 timetable listed 38 round trips a week between STS and LAX. Other turboprop flights included
American Eagle Fairchild Swearingen Metroliners operated by
Wings West Airlines for
American Airlines nonstop to SFO and San Jose (
SJC). In late 1989 American Eagle had three Metros a day to SFO and four a day to SJC. In 1995 Reno Air Express was operating
codeshare BAe Jetstream 31 nonstop service from Eureka/Arcata, Reno and San Jose flown by
Mid Pacific Air on behalf of
Reno Air. In the mid-1980s
United Airlines entered into a
code sharing agreement with
WestAir, a commuter airline that had previously served STS with
Cessna 402s and
de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otters to San Francisco. WestAir then began flying as
United Express to SFO until 2001. Westair operated its United Express service with
Embraer EMB-110 Bandeirante,
Short 360,
BAe Jetstream 31 and
Embraer EMB-120 Brasilia turboprops. WestAir formerly operated as
Stol Air Commuter flying
Britten-Norman Islanders and
Trislanders to San Francisco. Stol Air Commuter had administrative offices in Santa Rosa. In June 2001 United Express operated by
SkyWest Airlines was the only airline serving Santa Rosa with six Embraer EMB-120 Brasilia flights a day into the airport including four daily nonstops from Los Angeles (LAX) and two flights a day from San Francisco (SFO). United Express then left Santa Rosa later in 2001 (and would not return until 2017) with the airport not having any scheduled passenger airline service for several years during the early and mid-2000s. In March 2007 airline service resumed;
Horizon Air, a subsidiary of
Alaska Airlines, began flights to
Seattle/Tacoma and
Los Angeles operated with
Bombardier Q400 propjets. Horizon then added flights to
Portland, Oregon in late 2007, to
Las Vegas in early 2008, and to
San Diego in mid 2012. In early 2011 Alaska Airlines announced it would retire its Horizon brand, and all flights operated by Horizon now use the Alaska Airlines name. In June 2012 the airline ended flights from STS to Las Vegas. As part of an agreement between the airport, Alaska Airlines, and the local
enotourism industry, it was announced in January 2012 that passengers were allowed to check a 12-bottle case of wine for free on all Alaska Airlines flights from the airport. Most Alaska Airlines flights from Santa Rosa are currently operated with 76-seat
Embraer E175 regional jets. The exception is mainline
Boeing 737-800 jetliner service nonstop to Seattle. Alaska E-175s currently fly nonstop to Burbank, Los Angeles, Orange County, Portland, San Diego, and Seattle.
New jet service In March 2016,
Allegiant Air announced it would begin flying
McDonnell Douglas MD-83s nonstop to
Las Vegas McCarran International Airport and nonstop to
Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport (IWA). The Las Vegas flight began on May 19, 2016 and the Phoenix flight several days later. At the time, the MD-83 was the largest airliner ever scheduled to Santa Rosa; as of October 19, 2016, Allegiant switched from the 166 seat MD-83 to the 155 seat
Airbus A319. Allegiant ended flights to Phoenix-Mesa on January 2, 2017, and to Las Vegas on June 30, 2017, no longer serving Santa Rosa. In October 2016,
American Airlines announced it would begin nonstop service between Santa Rosa and its hub in
Phoenix (PHX) on February 16, 2017. The daily code share flight was being operated by
SkyWest Airlines as
American Eagle with
Canadair CRJ-700s. American Eagle then added a second nonstop CRJ-700 roundtrip flight to Phoenix. American Eagle announced it would begin flying
Embraer 175s nonstop to Los Angeles (
LAX) effective May 3, 2019 and nonstop to Dallas/Fort Worth (
DFW) effective June 6, 2019. American currently operates nonstop jet flights to PHX with
Airbus A319 mainline jets as well as with Embraer 175 regional jets in addition to seasonal nonstop A319 jet service to DFW from Santa Rosa. United suspended all service at the Sonoma County airport on November 1, 2020 due to the
COVID-19 pandemic. While service was resumed temporarily to SFO on August 1, 2021, United indefinitely suspended all service to Santa Rosa (including United Express) on November 1, 2022. In March 2017,
Sun Country Airlines announced seasonal nonstop service between Santa Rosa and
Minneapolis/St. Paul International Airport, to operate from late summer until late fall. Sun Country was operating weekly 162 seat
Boeing 737-800s from August 24, 2017 through December 3, 2017, connecting via Minneapolis/St. Paul to
Boston,
New York John F. Kennedy Airport and
Washington Reagan National Airport. Sun Country then continued to operate from the airport but had ended all service to
Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport and was serving Washington
Dulles Airport instead at the time. In May 2018
Sun Country Airlines made a surprise announcement that it would be adding a new seasonal destination from Santa Rosa with nonstop flights between STS and Las Vegas (LAS) in addition to its seasonal nonstop service between the airport and MSP. The Sun Country fleet is composed of
Boeing 737-700s and
737-800s, which were the largest aircraft types serving the airport at the time.
Avelo Airlines began nonstop service to the
Hollywood Burbank Airport (BUR) in the
Los Angeles area on April 28, 2021 and then subsequently added nonstop flights to Las Vegas with
Boeing 737-800 mainline jetliners which were the largest aircraft type serving Santa Rosa in scheduled passenger service at the time. Avelo also previously operated
Boeing 737-700 jetliners into the airport. However, Avelo then closed its operational base at the airport and ceased serving Santa Rosa on August 11, 2025.
Alaska Airlines then began nonstop jet service from the airport to Burbank while Avelo was still serving STS. On May 1, 2024, Avelo established an operational base at STS and expanded its nonstop service to four new destinations in the western U.S. before subsequently ending all service from Santa Rosa. With the retirement of all
Bombardier Q400 turboprop aircraft from the
Alaska Airlines fleet in late January 2023, all Alaska Airlines flights from Santa Rosa are currently operated either with
Embraer E175 regional jets or with mainline
Boeing 737-800 jetliners. ==Facilities==