United Airlines was the first airline to serve Salem beginning in 1941–42. Their
Boeing 737-200 mainline jet service operated a roundtrip San Francisco (
SFO) - Medford (MFR) - Salem (SLE) - Portland (PDX) route was discontinued in 1980. All passenger airline service into McNary Field ended in 1993. The city campaigned to bring scheduled passenger service back, and on June 7, 2007,
Delta Connection operated by
SkyWest Airlines on behalf of
Delta Air Lines began serving Salem with two
CRJ-200 regional jet flights per day to Salt Lake City (SLC) that ended on October 9, 2008. Earlier,
Horizon Air commuter turboprops flew between Salem and Portland. In April 2011,
SeaPort Airlines, an Oregon-based commuter airline, began 11 weekly flights between
Newport Municipal Airport (Oregon), Salem and
Portland International Airport. The service was short-lived, and three months later in July 2011 SeaPort Airlines ended all service into Salem. On April 10, 2023, the City Council approved an air carrier agreement with an undisclosed airline to begin service to Salem. Initial service would be to
Las Vegas and the
Los Angeles area. Future service could include
Phoenix and the
San Francisco Bay Area. Terminal renovations were then completed to accommodate the
TSA and ground support equipment was purchased to accommodate the new airline service. On July 13, 2023,
Avelo Airlines announced it was planning to initiate scheduled passenger service to
Burbank, California (
BUR) and Las Vegas (
LAS) with direct flights to each destination operated twice weekly with
Boeing 737 mainline jets beginning in early October 2023. Avelo then announced that it would operate non stop 737 jet service to commence in early May 2024 with twice weekly flights to
Santa Rosa, CA (STS) in
Sonoma County. Avelo also increased Burbank flights to 3 round trips per week. In July 2025, Avelo announced it was shuttering all service on the
West Coast, with service to Salem ending in August. This decision would again leave McNary Field without a commercial airline. ==Facilities==