Paso Robles Municipal Airport is four miles (6 km) northeast of downtown

Paso Robles Paso Robles ( ), officially El Paso de Robles (Spanish for "The Pass of Oaks"), is a city in San Luis Obispo County, California, United States. Located on the Salinas River approximately north of San Luis Obispo, the city is known for its hot ...

, in

San Luis Obispo County San Luis Obispo County (), officially the County of San Luis Obispo, is a county on the Central Coast of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 282,424. The county seat is San Luis Obispo. Junípero Serra founded the Mission ...

, California, United States.

Facilities

The airport covers 1,300

acre The acre is a unit of land area used in the imperial Imperial is that which relates to an empire, emperor, or imperialism. Imperial or The Imperial may also refer to: Places United States * Imperial, California * Imperial, Missouri * Imp ...

s (5.3 km²) and has two runways and one

helipad A helipad is a landing area or platform for helicopters and powered lift aircraft. While helicopters and powered lift aircraft are able to operate on a variety of relatively flat surfaces, a fabricated helipad provides a clearly marked hard s ...

: * 1/19: 6,008 x 150 ft (1,831 x 46 m), asphalt * 13/31: 4,701 x 100 ft (1,433 x 30 m), asphalt * Helipad H1: 100 x 100 ft (30 x 30 m), asphalt

History

On September 3, 1942 construction began on the Airfield, to be used as a

Marine Corps Marines, or naval infantry, are typically a military force trained to operate in littoral zones in support of naval operations. Historically, tasks undertaken by marines have included helping maintain discipline and order aboard the ship (refle ...

Bomber Base. On April 8, 1943, the field was dedicated as Estrella Army Airfield to be used by the Army Air Corps. Estrella Army Airfield had 1259

acres The acre is a unit of land area used in the imperial and US customary systems. It is traditionally defined as the area of one chain by one furlong (66 by 660 feet), which is exactly equal to 10 square chains, of a square mile, 4,840 square ya ...

of land, two runways, an operations building and a three-bay fire station. The Marine Corps Units occupied buildings to the west, across Airport Road in what is now the California Youth Authority. On August 29, 1947 the Federal Government transferred to the County of San Luis Obispo to be used as a commercial airport, and and buildings to the State of California to be used as a

correctional facility In criminal justice, particularly in North America, correction, corrections, and correctional, are umbrella terms describing a variety of functions typically carried out by government agencies, and involving the punishment, treatment, and su ...

. Pacific Seaboard Air Lines was the first airline at Paso Robles. In 1933 Pacific Seaboard had two daily round trip

Bellanca CH-300 The Bellanca CH-300 Pacemaker was a six-seat utility aircraft, built primarily in the United States in the 1920s and 1930s. It was a development of the Bellanca CH-200, fitted with a more powerful engine and, like the CH-200, soon became renowne ...

s Los Angeles – Santa Barbara – Santa Maria – San Luis Obispo – Paso Robles – Monterey – Salinas – San Jose – San Francisco. Pacific Seaboard would later move its entire operation to the eastern U.S., be renamed

Chicago and Southern Air Lines Chicago and Southern Air Lines (C&S) was a United States airline that started life as Pacific Seaboard Air Lines in California and was organized on June 15, 1933. Following the move from California, the airline's headquarters were initially locat ...

, and in 1953 be acquired by and merged into

Delta Air Lines Delta Air Lines, Inc., typically referred to as Delta, is one of the major airlines of the United States and a legacy carrier. One of the List of airlines by foundation date, world's oldest airlines in operation, Delta is headquartered in Atla ...

. After the county's acquisition of the airfield, the County of San Luis Obispo extended runway 01/19 from to ; installed high intensity lights; and built a large

hangar A hangar is a building or structure designed to hold aircraft or spacecraft. Hangars are built of metal, wood, or concrete. The word ''hangar'' comes from Middle French ''hanghart'' ("enclosure near a house"), of Germanic origin, from Frankish ...

, ten T-hangars and a terminal building between 1949 and 1952. In 1956 flights by

Southwest Airways Pacific Air Lines was a regional airline (then called a "local service" air carrier as defined by the federal Civil Aeronautics Board) on the West Coast of the United States that began scheduled passenger flights in the mid 1940s under the name ...

commenced with

Martin 4-0-4 The Martin 4-0-4 was an American pressurized passenger airliner built by the Glenn L. Martin Company. In addition to airline use initially in the United States, it was used by the United States Coast Guard and United States Navy as the RM-1G (l ...

s. Southwest Airways changed its name to

Pacific Air Lines Pacific Air Lines was a regional airline (then called a "local service" air carrier as defined by the federal Civil Aeronautics Board) on the West Coast of the United States that began scheduled passenger flights in the mid 1940s under the name ...

which later served Paso Robles with

Fairchild F-27 The Fairchild F-27 and Fairchild Hiller FH-227 were versions of the Fokker F27 Friendship twin-engined turboprop passenger aircraft manufactured under license by Fairchild Hiller in the United States. The Fairchild F-27 was similar to the standa ...

s to Los Angeles, San Francisco and other California cities. In 1968 Pacific Air Lines merged with

Bonanza Air Lines Bonanza Air Lines was an airline (known at the time as a "local service" air carrier as defined by the federal Civil Aeronautics Board) in the Western United States (and eventually Mexico) from 1945 until it merged with two other local service ai ...

and

West Coast Airlines West Coast Airlines was an airline (then called a "local service" airline as defined by the federal Civil Aeronautics Board) linking small cities in the Pacific Northwest with larger cities in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Utah, Montana, California ...

to form Air West which continued to serve the airport with F-27s. In 1970 Air West was renamed

Hughes Airwest Hughes Airwest was a regional airline in the western United States, backed by Howard Hughes' Summa Corporation. Its original name in 1968 was Air West and the air carrier was owned by Nick Bez. Hughes Airwest flew routes in the w ...

which continued to serve Paso Robles with F-27s until 1974. Pacific, Air West and Hughes Airwest all listed

San Luis Obispo San Luis Obispo (; Spanish for " St. Louis the Bishop", ; Chumash: ''tiłhini'') is a city and county seat of San Luis Obispo County, in the U.S. state of California. Located on the Central Coast of California, San Luis Obispo is roughly halfwa ...

in their timetables as being served via the Paso Robles Airport. Following the cessation of service by Hughes Airwest, San Luis Obispo-based

Swift Aire Lines Swift Aire Lines was a U.S. commuter air carrier that was based in San Luis Obispo, California. The airline's two letter code was "WI". Swift Aire provided scheduled passenger air service wholly within California from the late 1960s until 1981 ...

was the only airline serving Paso Robles in 1976, with nonstop flights from San Francisco (

SFO San Francisco International Airport is an international airport in an unincorporated area of San Mateo County, south of Downtown San Francisco. It has flights to points throughout North America and is a major gateway to Europe, the Middle ...

) and San Jose (SJC) as well as direct flights from Los Angeles (

LAX Los Angeles International Airport , commonly referred to as LAX (with each letter pronounced individually), is the primary international airport serving Los Angeles, California and its surrounding metropolitan area. LAX is located in the W ...

), with these latter flights making intermediate stops in both Santa Maria and San Luis Obispo, with all service operated with

de Havilland Heron The de Havilland DH.114 Heron is a small propeller-driven British airliner that first flew on 10 May 1950. It was a development of the twin-engine de Havilland Dove, with a stretched fuselage and two more engines. It was designed as a rugged, ...

commuter prop aircraft. Passenger flights returned to Paso Robles when

SkyWest Airlines SkyWest Airlines is an American regional airline headquartered in St. George, Utah, United States. SkyWest is paid to staff, operate and maintain aircraft used on flights that are scheduled, marketed and sold by a partner mainline airline. The ...

(

Delta Connection Delta Connection is a regional airline brand name for Delta Air Lines, under which a number of individually owned regional airlines primarily operate short- and medium-haul routes. Mainline major air carriers often use regional airlines to ope ...

) established a base at the airfield flying

Embraer EMB-120 Brasilia The Embraer EMB 120 Brasilia is a twin-turboprop 30-passenger commuter airliner designed and manufactured by the Brazilian aircraft manufacturer Embraer. The EMB 120 began development during 1974. While initially conceived as a modular series of ...

s and

Fairchild Swearingen Metroliner The Fairchild Swearingen Metroliner (previously the Swearingen Metro and later Fairchild Aerospace Metro) is a 19-seat, pressurized, twin-turboprop airliner first produced by Swearingen Aircraft and later by Fairchild Aircraft at a plant in San ...

s to several California cities including Los Angeles, San Francisco and Fresno. This business plan proved not to be viable and SkyWest withdrew from Paso Robles. Several commuter airlines, such as Golden Carriage Air and Eagle Airlines, served Paso Robles in the late 1970s, but none proved successful. After the end of airline flights by Hughes Airwest at the airport in 1974, the county sold the airport to the City of Paso Robles. The City of Paso Robles subdivided unused land into 81 parcels for commercial development. The city formed an all-volunteer Fire, Crash and Rescue Department to serve the airport and the surrounding area. The city took over the water wells and the sewer treatment plant from the state to serve both the airport and the Youth Authority.

Current operations

There are no passenger airline flights at the airport, but there are charter flights. The

California Department of Forestry The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CAL FIRE) is the fire department of the California Natural Resources Agency in the U.S. state of California. It is responsible for fire protection in various areas under state responsibi ...

(CalFire) has an

Air Attack Base The atmosphere of Earth is the layer of gases, known collectively as air, retained by Earth's gravity that surrounds the planet and forms its planetary atmosphere. The atmosphere of Earth protects life on Earth by creating pressure allowing for ...

at the airport for major fire protection for three counties (San Luis Obispo, Kern and Monterey) and the of wildland area in this part of Central California. At the base, aircraft are loaded with fire retardant chemicals, such as Phos chek, which are dropped on brush and forest fires. The

California Highway Patrol The California Highway Patrol (CHP) is a state law enforcement agency of the U.S. state of California. The CHP has primary patrol jurisdiction over all California highways and roads and streets outside city limits, and can exercise law enfor ...

(CHP) Air Operations Division house a fixed wing aircraft, used for speed enforcement, as well as a helicopter, used for search and rescue missions. This local Air Operations Division also provides a variety of search, patrol and enforcement services for the local communities. The airport is a support facility for three local military installations; Camp Roberts, Fort Hunter-Liggett, and

Camp San Luis Obispo Camp San Luis Obispo is the original home of the California Army National Guard. It served as an Infantry Division Camp and Cantonment Area for the United States Army during World War II. History Camp San Luis Obispo, formerly called Camp Merri ...

. In addition to these fixed operators, many military, air charter, corporate, air ambulance, and other flying services operate from the airport. On June 8, 2014 the

US Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part of the United States Army Signal ...

landed a

C-17 Globemaster III The McDonnell Douglas/Boeing C-17 Globemaster III is a large military transport aircraft that was developed for the United States Air Force (USAF) from the 1980s to the early 1990s by McDonnell Douglas. The C-17 carries forward the name of two ...

at the field, proving that it can support military transport to and from Camp Roberts, some away. The area around the Paso Robles Airport, known as Airport Road

Industrial Park An industrial park (also known as industrial estate, trading estate) is an area zoned and planned for the purpose of industrial development. An industrial park can be thought of as a more "heavyweight" version of a business park or office park, ...

, is home to many

aviation maintenance Aircraft maintenance is the performance of tasks required to ensure the continuing airworthiness of an aircraft or aircraft part, including overhaul, inspection, replacement, defect rectification, and the embodiment of modifications, compliance w ...

providers and facilities, as well as many aviation parts manufacturers and other related businesses. Under the city's direction, sections of the industrial park have been developed with utilities and infrastructure improvements. Aircraft

and aviation service facilities have been constructed. In 1973, there were just four businesses employing 22 people at the airport. Today, there is just over of industrial building space in operation at the airport, now housing nearly 50 individual businesses, and providing over 700 jobs in the community. The number of aircraft based at the airport has grown from 55 at the time of city acquisition in 1973, to around 220 today. Being halfway between Los Angeles and San Francisco the airport has a service area of over in northern San Luis Obispo and southern

Monterey Monterey (; es, Monterrey; Ohlone: ) is a city located in Monterey County on the southern edge of Monterey Bay on the U.S. state of California's Central Coast. Founded on June 3, 1770, it functioned as the capital of Alta California under both ...

counties.

Fixed-base operators

* ACI Jet Paso Robles (new owners) * Air Jav

Other airport businesses

* Flight Environments * Genuine Aircraft Hardware Co. * Del Rio Aviation * Joe's One-Niner Diner (inside terminal building)

Image gallery

Image:Pasoterm8.jpg, Paso Robles air terminal, 2008 Image:Pasoterm_aerial.jpg, Terminal Image:Paso_arpt.jpg, PRB in 2009

References

External links

City of Paso Robles airport pageACI Jet (FBO for Paso Robles Airport)

ACI Jet Paso Robles
(new owners)
Air Jav
{{Authority control Airports in San Luis Obispo County, California Paso Robles, California Airfields of the United States Army Air Forces in California