List of the busiest airports in California
List of the busiest airports in California In Calendar year 2022 (FAA data) by 'passenger boardings, not total passengers, except for Tijuana. While large airports dominant traffic and small airports struggle to retain carriers or completely lose scheduled passenger service, there are but a few growing medium-sized airports. While only 13 airports had 350,000 boardings or more, the major metropolitan areas dominate the rankings; road traffic instead takes an outsized role in connecting to other regions of the state and winner-take-all dominating airports in traffic clogged areas like LAX crowd out smaller airports from commercial aviation, leaving little option but driving.
Airport list
| Rank 2022 |
Airport | IATA Code |
City | 2023[1] | 2022 | 2021 | 2018[2] | 2017[3] | 2016[4] | 2015[4] | 2014[5] | 2013[6] |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Los Angeles International Airport | LAX | Los Angeles | 40,956,673 | 32,326,616 | 23,663,410 | 42,624,050 | 41,232,432 | 39,636,042 | 36,351,272 | 34,314,197 | 32,425,892 |
| 2 | San Francisco International Airport | SFO | San Francisco | 24,191,159 | 20,411,420 | 11,725,347 | 27,790,717 | 26,900,048 | 25,707,101 | 24,190,560 | 22,756,008 | 21,704,626 |
| 3 | San Diego International Airport | SAN | San Diego | 12,190,183 | 11,162,224 | 7,836,360 | 12,174,224 | 11,139,933 | 10,340,164 | 9,985,763 | 9,333,152 | 8,878,772 |
| – | Tijuana International Airport[a] | TIJ | Tijuana and San Diego | 12,308,370 | 9,677,900 | 7,823,744 | 7,089,219 | 6,318,826[7] | 4,387,865 | |||
| 4 | Sacramento International Airport | SMF | Sacramento | 6,371,910 | 6,040,824 | 4,760,275 | 5,907,629 | 5,341,595 | 4,969,366 | 4,714,729 | 4,384,616 | 4,255,145 |
| 5 | San Jose International Airport | SJC | San Jose | 5,958,855 | 5,590,137 | 3,619,690 | 7,032,851 | 6,130,878 | 5,321,603 | 4,822,480 | 4,621,003 | 4,315,839 |
| 6 | John Wayne Airport | SNA | Santa Ana | 5,706,332 | 5,536,313 | 3,807,205 | 5,201,642 | 5,082,716 | 5,217,242 | 4,945,209 | 4,584,147 | 4,540,628 |
| 7 | Oakland San Francisco Bay Airport | OAK | Oakland | 5,520,812 | 5,506,232 | 4,011,953 | 6,686,603 | 6,413,832 | 5,934,639 | 5,506,687 | 5,069,257 | 4,770,716 |
| 8 | Ontario International Airport | ONT | Ontario | 3,181,161 | 2,840,758 | 2,201,528 | 2,498,993 | 2,247,645 | 2,104,625 | 2,089,801 | 2,037,346 | 1,970,538 |
| 9 | Hollywood Burbank Airport | BUR | Burbank | 3,132,029 | 3,054,729 | 1,942,417 | 2,680,240 | 2,402,106 | 2,077,892 | 1,973,897 | 1,928,491 | 1,918,011 |
| 10 | Long Beach Airport | LGB | Long Beach | 1,837,634 | 1,600,987 | 1,039,432 | 1,908,635 | 1,830,745 | 1,386,357 | 1,220,937 | 1,368,923 | 1,438,756 |
| 11 | Palm Springs International Airport | PSP | Palm Springs | 1,625,327 | 1,499,987 | 1,044,045 | 1,163,883 | 1,055,970 | 995,801 | 947,728 | 953,607 | 875,699 |
| 12 | Fresno Yosemite International Airport | FAT | Fresno | 1,201,789 | 1,077,710 | 960,594 | 853,538 | 755,140 | 761,298 | 695,008 | 710,353 | 684,849 |
| 13 | Santa Barbara Municipal Airport | SBA | Santa Barbara | 638,802 | 610,916 | 440,229 | 403,745 | 356,608 | 329,751 | 316,511 | 355,049 | 364,360 |
| 14 | San Luis Obispo County Regional Airport | SBP | San Luis Obispo | 324,925 | 273,690 | |||||||
| 15 | Charles M. Schulz–Sonoma County Airport | STS | Santa Rosa | 318,197 | 304,053 | |||||||
| 16 | Monterey Regional Airport | MRY | Monterey | 259,778 | 230,669 | |||||||
| 17 | Meadows Field Airport | BFL | Bakersfield | 174,891 | 141,352 | |||||||
| 18 | Arcata–Eureka Airport | ACV | Arcata | 117,972 | 118,924 | |||||||
| 19 | Redding Regional Airport | RDD | Redding | 87,670 | 98,725 | |||||||
| 20 | Stockton Metropolitan Airport | SCK | Stockton | 67,688 | 74,529 | |||||||
| 21 | San Bernardino International Airport | SBD | San Bernardino | 27,349 | 10,142 | |||||||
| 22 | Santa Maria Public Airport | SMX | Santa Maria | 14,409 | 15,911 | |||||||
| 23 | Eastern Sierra Regional Airport | BIH | Bishop | 10,007 | 10,754 | |||||||
| 24 | Del Norte County Airport | CEC | Crescent City | 7,879 | 8,218 | |||||||
| 25 | Imperial County Airport | IPL | Imperial | 7,100 | 9,180 | |||||||
| 26 | Hawthorne Municipal Airport | HHR | Hawthorne | 5,100 | 5,001 | |||||||
| 27 | McClellan–Palomar Airport | CRQ | Carlsbad | 4,329 | 3,715 | |||||||
| 28 | Mammoth Yosemite Airport | MMH | Mammoth Lakes | 3,966 | 4,056 | |||||||
| 29 | Merced Regional Airport | MCE | Merced | 3,798 | 3,431 |
Notes
- ^ Tijuana airport is equipped to allow boarding from the California side via the Cross Border Xpress since the end of 2015, figures for this airport are in italics. It is Mexico's 5th busiest airport by departure seats offered.
References
- ^ "CY 2023 Enplanements at All Commercial Service Airports" (PDF). Federal Aviation Administration. October 2, 2024. Archived from the original (PDF) on February 12, 2025. Retrieved February 24, 2025.
- ^ https://www.faa.gov/airports/planning_capacity/passenger_allcargo_stats/passenger/media/cy18-commercial-service-enplanements.pdf
- ^ https://www.faa.gov/airports/planning_capacity/passenger_allcargo_stats/passenger/media/cy17-commercial-service-enplanements.pdf
- ^ a b "CY 2016 Primary Airports" (PDF).
- ^ "CY 2014 Primary Airports -- Preliminary Data" (PDF).
- ^ "CY 2013 Primary Airports" (PDF).
- ^ "Secretaria de Comunicaciones y Transportes: Estadística Operacional de Aeropuertos / Airports operational statistics". Archived from the original on March 15, 2016. Retrieved May 8, 2016.