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Press release from Fly Humboldt:

The Humboldt County Department of Aviation recently released preliminary passenger data for 2019. Overall traffic at the California Redwood Coast – Humboldt County Airport (ACV) increased sharply with all three destinations, Los Angeles, Denver, and San Francisco performing well.

“It’s great to see our airport busy with travelers from throughout the country and the world,” said Cody Roggatz, Director of Aviation. “Our Department is working hard to support our customers and encourage even more air service. I want to thank our community for their support, especially those businesses, organizations, and individuals who have invested their time and money to improving local air service. I also want to thank United Airlines and SkyWest Airlines. These organizations have invested heavily in growing our market over the past two years.”

Nearly 88,000 passengers boarded planes at ACV in 2019. This is an increase of 24%, nearly 17,000 passengers, over 2018. In the five years since 2015, passenger enplanements have increased by 56%, which is over 31,500 passengers. United Airlines converted to all-jet service to San Francisco in March 2015. Subsequently, United started service to Los Angeles International Airport in June 2018 and Denver International Airport in June 2019.

“LAX remains a strong market,” said Roggatz. “On average the number of seats sold, called the ‘load factor,’ exceeds 80%, a very good number for us and the airlines. What’s even better is that the new Denver service has started just as strong.”

The first seven months of Denver service has been very successful, with a load factor of 85%. Nearly 9,400 passengers flew to Denver from June to December.

“Clearly United has confidence in this market and our community has proven that we’ll support new service,” said Gregg Foster, Executive Director of the Redwood Region Economic Development Commission (RREDC). “With the addition of Los Angeles and Denver service, we now have more reliable and flexible options for air travel.”

The County of Humboldt-Department of Aviation and RREDC/Fly Humboldt! continue to work to expand air service. They are currently proposing new service to Sacramento, Portland and/or Seattle to several carriers.