California Airports

Camarillo Airport officials hope to boost operations, protect control tower – With three weeks to go, a campaign to boost Camarillo Airport flight operations is about 8,600 comings and goings shy of its goal.

Airport officials want to break 150,000 takeoffs and landings by Sept. 30, the end of the federal fiscal year. They hope that will protect Camarillo’s air traffic control tower by pushing operations over a bar set by federal officials to determine possible tower closures.

Passenger volume at Stockton Metropolitan Airport dropped in August, signaling the end of peak summer travel season, but the more than 5,500 travelers who departed for Las Vegas were the most in any August since Allegiant began operating at the airport in 2006, airport officials said Monday. The total was down from more than 7,300 departing passengers in both June and July.

TRUCKEE, Calif. – Results from a scientific poll to help refine Truckee Tahoe Airport’s future vision reflect a significant jump in community favorability. San Mateo, Calif.-based Godbe Research found this summer that 37 percent of 500 residents interviewed “strongly” favor the airport, and 32 percent “somewhat” favor it. This is up from 2009 Godbe poll numbers of 24 percent and 30 percent, respectively.

Fresno Yosemite International Airport is getting a $3.6 million grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation to finish a 360-foot runway extension required under federal safety regulations. – The money, announced by Rep. Jim Costa, D-Fresno, is part of an annual Federal Aviation Administration entitlement program. “The city receives this approximate amount every year,” said Kevin Meikle, interim airports director for the city of Fresno. “Normally we get this grant much earlier in the year, but this year the sequestration delayed the award.”

The Central Coast could become home to a drone launch site. The Santa Maria Airport’s Board of Directors met to consider joining with the Ventura County Department of Airports and the Indian Wells Valley Airport District, which have applied to be drone test sites.

The Santa Maria Airport would be a location where drone systems could be recovered, refueled and then re-launched.

The Federal Aviation Administration intends to start using drones in national airspace.

The U.S. Forest Service entered into a five-year contract – ushered in bythe massive Rim fire in Stanislaus National Forest – with Merced County for use of Castle Airport in Atwater.

Flight and ground crews hit the ground running Tuesday, their first day at Castle Airport, as they filled air tankers with flame retardant.

FRESNO, Calif. (KMPH) – The rent is going up for the Fresno police department and there’s nothing they can do about it. The department’s K-9 and mounted patrol unit training center is located in Fresno on land owned by the Fresno Yosemite International Airport. The facility is directly across the street from the airport. However, the airport says they don’t have a choice and they have to raise the rent.

Public meeting planned on airport projects – The upcoming $53.8 million runway extension and safety project at Charles M. Schulz-Sonoma County Airport will be the topic of a public meeting Monday at the Windsor Town Hall.

The meeting starts at 6:30 p.m. in the Town Council Chambers.

Long Beach group concerned about plans for airport security – A group of airport tenants Monday expressed concern that a change in policing strategy at the Long Beach Airport could leave the facility with officers who are less familiar with aviation security than those currently employed.

In a two-page letter addressed to Mario Rodriguez, the airport’s executive director, the Long Beach Airport Association’s Board of Directors said any switch by the airport from trained security guards to uniformed members of the Long Beach Police Department could be costly.

Remote-controlled airplanes banned from local airport, concerns over full-sized aircraft safety – Ban date is set for September 9th

Club members at the Bakersfield Airplane Radio Control Society are forced to cut their air time short after their remote-controlled airplanes have been banished from the Elk Hills-Buttonwillow airport.