United decides to halt flights at Sonoma airport

United Airlines will suspend flights at the Charles M. Schulz Sonoma County Airport starting on Nov. 1 as it continues to grapple with weak travel demand during the coronavirus pandemic.

The airline, which is the largest operator at San Francisco International Airport, is suspending service from Sonoma County to San Francisco and Denver.

“As we have done throughout the pandemic, we will continue to carefully monitor customer demand and adjust our schedule accordingly. We expect to resume service between Santa Rosa and our hubs in San Francisco and Denver in spring 2021,” United said.

Sonoma County Airport had 17,185 passengers travel through it in September. That’s down 67.6% compared with the prior year, but it was

“We will continue to carefully monitor customer demand.” Scott Kirby, United CEO

an improvement from August’s 11,850 passengers.

Alaska Airlines and American Airlines will continue to fly out of the airport.

United reported a $ 1.8 billion loss in the third quarter and began furloughs of 13,000 employees this month after Congress failed to pass more financial aid. A year ago, it had $ 1 billion in profit in the third quarter.

United CEO Scott Kirby said in a statement Wednesday that the pandemic was “the worst financial crisis in aviation history,” but the airline expects travel to recover in 2021.

“We’ll stay flexible, but increasingly, the light at the end of the tunnel is now visible. It’s a long tunnel and it will have twists and turns, but we’ll begin to move back toward normal with what health experts are telling us is a widely available vaccine around the end of next year,” Kirby said on an earnings call Thursday. “The next 12 to 15 months are still going to be difficult, and the recovery will not be a straight line.”

The North Bay Business Journal first reported United’s decision to suspend flights.