Sacramento airport: record passenger levels and more ULCCs
Sacramento International airport posted record passenger numbers in 2018, achieving impressive double digit passenger growth and surpassing its own forecasts for the year.
The airport was one of the top growing mid-sized airports in North America last year, according to CAPA partner OAG. Sacramento was ranked seventh among the top 50 mid-sized airports in seat growth in 2018, and has recently welcomed services from two new ULCCs - Spirit and Sun Country.
Sacramento is no doubt still working to add long haul flights to its network roster, and it remains to be seen whether the airport will secure intercontinental flights in the future.
But the upside is that its prospects for maintaining steady passenger growth remain promising.
Summary
- Sacramento's passenger growth hit an all-time record in 2018, with throughput reading 12 million. The airport was also named one of OAG's fastest growing mid-sized airports in North America.
- Two new ULCCs - Spirit and Sun Country - have added flights from Sacramento.
- Sacramento joins other mid-sized US airports in constantly working to secure long haul flights, a years-long journey that requires a fair amount of patience.
Sacramento posts impressive double digit passenger growth in 2018
Sacramento International airport posted 10.4% passenger growth year-on-year in 2018, to 12 million passengers, surpassing airport estimates that passenger levels would reach 11.5 million for the year.
The airport posted 20% passenger growth in the ten-year period spanning 2008 to 2018.
Sacramento International Airport annual passenger numbers from 2009 to Apr-2019
During the past couple of years Sacramento has added services from the ULCC Frontier Airlines, which serves Las Vegas and Denver from the airport.
It has also welcomed new flights from its largest operator, Southwest Airlines, to Orlando International, Austin and St Louis. Air Canada has also resumed service to Vancouver from Sacramento.
Additionally, JetBlue and American recently resumed daily seasonal fights to Boston and Chicago O'Hare from the airport.
More recently, Sacramento welcomed flights from two additional ULCCs - three daily flights to Las Vegas operated by Spirit Airlines and Sun Country's four weekly flights to Minneapolis.
A quick comparison of CAPA and OAG data from Jul-2018 and Jul-2019 shows that Sacramento's spilt of departing frequencies between full service carriers and low cost airlines has changed slightly.
In 2018 FSCs represented 46% of the airline's departing frequencies and LCCs had a 53.7% share. In Jul-2019 the FSC share slipped to 45% and LCCs had 54.7% share.
Sacramento International Airport percentage of departing frequencies by business model, as of early Jun-2019
Sacramento is one of the fastest growing mid-sized North American airports
Sacramento was one of five California airports listed on OAG's top 50 mid-sized North American airports in 2018. Other airports in the state on the list were San Jose, San Diego, Burbank and Oakland.
OAG calculated that from May-2017 to Apr-2018 Sacramento's seats increased by 10%, and highlighted that the region ranks 25th among major US metros for its population growth rate between 2010 and 2017. The region's location between the San Francisco Bay area and Lake Tahoe is less expensive than coastal living, said OAG, "and with huge investment in the city, many people have been relocating to Sacramento for what it offers".
During 2018 Forbes identified Sacramento as a boom real estate market, with a 9% change in home prices year-on-year.
See related report: Sacramento International airport: using positive momentum to grow
Sacramento uses the art of patience in its quest to secure long haul flights
Similarly to all of the airports on OAG's list of the fastest growing mid-sized facilities, Sacramento is no doubt working to secure long haul services. (Some of those mid-sized airports already have long haul fights, and are working to add more intercontinental destinations to their route rosters.)
In 2018 Sacramento created a new incentive package to attract long haul services to Europe, marketing itself as an attractive secondary market to long haul low cost airlines such as Norwegian and WOW Air. According to the Sacramento Bee, Sacramento County approved an incentive package that would temporarily waive landing and facility fees and offer up to USD400,000 in marketing and advertising support. The paper stated that the waiver period could last 12, 18 or 24 months, depending on the type of service, and the incentives were greater for international flights.
WOW Air is now out of business, and Norwegian has recently decided to scale back its service to the larger markets of Denver and Seattle. Norwegian also serves several destinations in Europe less than daily from nearby Oakland (approximately 130KM from Sacramento), which could also create some challenges for Sacramento to lure Norwegian in the short term - even if there is enough local traffic to warrant service to cities in Europe.
During 2017 Sacramento held discussions with Asian airlines at the annual World Routes Conference, according to the Sacramento Bee, and the publication quoted airport officials whose view was that Sacramento was well positioned to take some market share away from Bay Area airports.
Sacramento's first international fights began in 2002 with Mexicana's flights to Guadalajara. The airport still sustains service to Guadalajara with flights from the Mexican ULCC Volaris, which also serves León from Sacramento.
Both Southwest Airlines and Alaska Air Group offer service from Sacramento to Los Cabos in Mexico - Southwest twice weekly and Alaska with one weekly flight. Those flights also join Air Canada's service to Vancouver.
For now, Sacramento remains engaged in the years-long process of supplying necessary data to convince airlines that it can sustain long haul flights.
Sacramento continues to enjoy favourable growth prospects following US consolidation
Sacramento International is in a solid position as one of the top growing airports in North America, which is a welcome accomplishment in a consolidated US market where many airports have had to reinvent themselves.
The region's growing population places Sacramento International in a favourable position for continued growth in its passenger levels, which, at some point, could attract the attention of a long haul, intercontinental operator.