Paso Robles Municipal Airport is 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 about north of San Luis Obispo, the city is known for its hot springs, ...

, 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 United States census, the population was 282,424. The county seat is San Luis Obispo. Junípero Serra fou ...

, California, United States.

Facilities

The airport covers and has two runways and one

helipad A helipad is the landing area of a heliport, in use by helicopters, powered lift, and vertical lift aircraft to land on surface. While helicopters and powered lift aircraft are able to operate on a variety of relatively flat surfaces, a fa ...

: * 1/19: , asphalt * 13/31: , asphalt * Helipad H1: , asphalt

History

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

Marine Corps Marines (or naval infantry) are military personnel generally trained to operate on both land and sea, with a particular focus on amphibious warfare. Historically, the main tasks undertaken by marines have included raiding ashore (often in supp ...

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 British imperial and the United States 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 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 agency, government agencies, and involving the punishment, ...

. 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 renowned ...

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 trunk carrier, a scheduled 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 hea ...

, and in 1953 be acquired by and merged into

Delta Air Lines Delta Air Lines, Inc. is a Major airlines of the United States, major airline in the United States headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia, operating nine hubs, with Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport being its ...

. After the county's acquisition of the airfield, the County of San Luis Obispo extended runway 01/19 from ; 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 local service carrier on the West Coast of the United States that began scheduled passenger flights in the mid-1940s under the name Southwest Airways. The company linked small cities in California with larger cities such ...

commenced with

Martin 4-0-4 The Martin 4-0-4 is 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 (la ...

s. Southwest Airways changed its name to

Pacific Air Lines Pacific Air Lines was a local service carrier on the West Coast of the United States that began scheduled passenger flights in the mid-1940s under the name Southwest Airways. The company linked small cities in California with larger cities such ...

which later served Paso Robles with

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

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

Bonanza Air Lines Bonanza Air Lines was a local service carrier, a US scheduled airline focused on smaller routes in the Western United States (and eventually Mexico) from 1949 until it merged with two other local service airlines to form Air West in 1968. Its he ...

and

West Coast Airlines West Coast Airlines was a United States local service carrier, a scheduled airline certificated by the federal Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB), linking small cities in the Pacific Northwest with larger cities in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Utah, ...

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

Hughes Airwest Hughes Air Corporation, doing business as Hughes Airwest, was a local service carrier from 1970 to 1980 in the Western United States. It was backed by Howard Hughes' Summa Corporation. Its original name in 1968 was Air West and the air carr ...

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

San Luis Obispo ; ; ; Chumashan languages, Chumash: ''tiłhini'') is a city and county seat of San Luis Obispo County, California, United States. Located on the Central Coast (California), Central Coast of California, San Luis Obispo is roughly halfway betwee ...

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

SFO San Francisco International Airport is the primary international airport for the San Francisco Bay Area in the U.S. state of California. Owned and operated by the City and County of San Francisco, the airport has a San Francisco mailing a ...

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

LAX A lax is a salmon. LAX as an acronym most commonly refers to Los Angeles International Airport in Southern California, United States. LAX or Lax may also refer to: Places Within Los Angeles * Union Station (Los Angeles), Los Angeles' main tr ...

), 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 (aircraft), 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 Reciprocating e ...

commuter prop aircraft. Passenger flights returned to Paso Robles when

SkyWest Airlines SkyWest Airlines is an American regional airline headquartered in St. George, Utah. SkyWest operates and maintains aircraft used on flights that are scheduled, marketed and sold by four partner Mainline (air travel), mainline airlines. The comp ...

(

Delta Connection Delta Connection is a brand name under which Delta Air Lines has air service agreements with domestic regional air carriers that feed traffic to their network by serving passengers primarily in small and medium-sized cities in the domestic mark ...

) 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 o ...

s and

Fairchild Swearingen Metroliner The Fairchild Swearingen Metroliner (previously the Swearingen Metro and later Fairchild Aerospace Metro) is a 19-seat, Cabin pressurization, pressurized, twin-turboprop airliner first produced by Sino Swearingen Aircraft Corporation, Swearingen ...

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, colloquially known as 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 a ...

(CalFire) has an Air Attack Base 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 the principal state police agency for the U.S. state of California. The CHP has primary jurisdiction, including patrol and Criminal investigation, investigations, over all California Controlled-access highw ...

(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 Merr ...

. 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 force, air service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is one of the six United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Tracing its ori ...

landed a

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

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 or 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 par ...

, is home to many aviation maintenance 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 ( ; ) is a city situated on the southern edge of Monterey Bay, on the Central Coast of California. Located in Monterey County, the city occupies a land area of and recorded a population of 30,218 in the 2020 census. The city was fou ...

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