Hard Times in Santa Rosa

Aha!—the ExpressJet DBA (Doing Business As) that sought to partner with hotels and casinos in the Reno-Lake Tahoe area for purpose of offering inexpensive vacation packages—has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

The Airline has ceased all operations, shuttering its facilities and parking the five Embraer ERJ145 regional jets with which it served 13-cities throughout California, Idaho, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington State.

In an instance of clarity and conciseness that belies its Internet origins, Aha!’s website put forth: "We regret that a combination of market and economic conditions leads us to take this action.”

An acronym for air-hotel-adventure, the Aha! moniker speaks at once to the carrier’s ethos and its parent company’s discovery of the cutthroat realities by which the 21st Century, post COVID airline industry is defined. In July 2022, Aha! operated a dozen flights between Santa Rosa’s Charles M. Schulz-Sonoma County Airport (STS) and Reno-Tahoe International Airport (RNO)—none of which surpassed a forty-percent occupancy level.

Sonoma County airport manager Jon Stout remarked: "It did catch us by surprise, [we] didn't realize they [Aha!] were having that many problems. They knew they were not growing at the speed they wanted to get to the scale they needed.”

The Aha! bankruptcy follows United Airlines’ announcement that it will—as of 01 November 2022—indefinitely suspend service to Charles M. Schulz-Sonoma County Airport. United ascribes the move to a pilot shortage that ALPA—the world’s largest and most influential pilots union—considers non-existent. American and Alaska airlines will continue to service the STS, albeit with fewer flights. In addition to staff shortages, American and Alaska attribute their diminished Sonoma County presence to California’s fuel surcharges and exorbitant taxes.

All told, the Charles M. Schulz-Sonoma County Airport expects the coming autumn to see its overall flight operations reduced by twenty-percent. Notwithstanding the gloomy forecast, STS has seen nearly 25% more passengers pass through its gates in the first six-months of 2022 than it did during the same time period in 2021.

Deterred neither by United’s departure nor American’s and Alaska’s glance toward the door, the Sonoma County Airport is on schedule to open a new terminal in November 2022. The $31-million expansion includes new baggage-claim and rental car areas, as well as a wine bar with an outdoor patio—fitting for California wine country.

FMI: www.sonomacountyairport.org