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When Palo Alto wrested control of its namesake airport from the county a decade ago, city leaders were preparing for a bumpy ride.
The bustling Baylands airport was physically worn down and bleeding cash. Its lone runway had a conspicuous bump and its “apron” – a sprawling expanse populated by parked aircraft and maintenance areas – had a Pavement Condition Index score of 36, which is engineer-speak for utterly atrocious. And even though the airport has been – and remains – one of the busiest in the Bay Area, Santa Clara County was all too happy to hand control of the airport back to the city in 2014, three years before its 50-year lease with Palo Alto was set to expire.
A decade later, things are looking up for Palo Alto Airport. The airport is now making money and repaying the $3.1 million loan it received from the city’s general fund during the takeover. It accommodates about 160,000 operations – comprising takeoffs and landings – annually and it is projecting a growth in both flights and revenues.
Palo Alto Airport opened on the Stanford University campus in 1923 and moved to its current location on Embarcadero Road in 1935. But despite its advanced age, the airport looks more refreshed today than it has in decades, with a bustling café on the west side, a small terminal building on the east side and more than 300 gleaming aircraft in between.
Last year, the city completed its largest airport project since the 2014 takeover: a $38-million renovation of the apron that was largely federally funded. As part of the project, contractors installed underground conduits, equipping the airport for a greener future when electric airplanes become the norm and when hangars are equipped with solar awnings that generate electricity for the city’s grid.
The future, in some respects, is already here. During a recent tour, Airport Manager Andrew Swanson pointed at a hangar where the local company Archer Aviation recently unveiled the prototype of Archer Midnight, its all-electric aircraft. Archer is one of several companies across the United States that is now developing what is known as an eVTOL aircraft, an acronym that stands for “electric vertical takeoffs and landings.”
These aircraft, as the name implies, are capable of hovering and landing vertically, obviating the need for expansive runways. Other companies in the emerging field include Joby, Wisk (a subsidiary of Boeing) and Pivotal. Archer hopes to have its aircraft up and flying in 2025, according to the company’s website.
“That’s going to be a big change for the industry,” Swanson said. “We’ll have the potential for eVTOL vertical takeoff and the efficiency of that.”
While Palo Alto Airport is consistently one of the four busiest in the Bay Area, there was a brief moment during the Covid-19 pandemic when it was the busiest, with more takeoffs and landings than even the San Francisco International Airport, according to Michael Luetgens, manager of operations. This is partly due to the fact that all major airports saw flights plummet during the pandemic. But it also reflects the role that Palo Alto Airport served during the pandemic as an intake center for blood samples that needed to be analyzed at local labs, Luetgens said.
Over the past decade, the local airport has accommodated about 155,000 operations annually, according to city statistics. The number dipped to 112,712 in 2020 but then rebounded to 158,568 in 2021 and to 163,620 in 2022.
The aircraft haven’t just increased, they have also changed. Swanson said that about 20 years ago, King Air 200 was the “workhorse” in small airports around the Bay Area. That title has since been claimed by the Pilatus PC-12, a single-engine aircraft that is easy to spot on the apron.
The airport also boasts a high number of Cirrus SR22 aircraft, which serve a similar role as status signifiers in Palo Alto’s skies as a Tesla does on the city’s streets.
“It’s amazing to me, even compared to 10 years ago, to see how many are on our field,” Swanson said.
The next destination
Yet for all the recent advances, the airport’s future is, to some extent, up in the air. A year ago, Palo Alto kicked off a planning process for the airport, a community exercise aimed at determining what improvements it needs to make over the next 20 years to ensure pilot safety, fortify the airport against sea level rise and protect the pristine Baylands environment that surrounds the airport.
In the most recent meeting on the plan, which took place in February, the city presented five options, four of which would extend the airport’s 2,443-foot runway to meet the Federal Aviation Administration’s guidelines, which recommend 3,500 feet. One option would move a portion of the runway into the Baylands, requiring the city to fill a duck pond. Another would place the runway on top of a newly constructed levee that is meant to protect the airport from sea level rise. Yet another, known as Alternative 3, would shift the runway so that it remains on airport land but butts up against the Baylands trail.
“We wouldn’t take the land in the Baylands because it’s airport property, but the reality is that’s been a pretty natural area next to the Baylands and that would pave it over to use this as apron,” Public Works Director Brad Eggleston said of Alternative 3 in a recent interview at the airport.
City officials maintain that the purpose of the plan isn’t to expand the airport but to make operations safer and more compatible with FAA guidelines. These require the city to design runways that can accommodate the airport’s most demanding aircraft, which account for at least 500 annual operations. In the case of Palo Alto Airport, that aircraft is the Pilatus PC-12.
“Design standards change over time so you’re constantly looking to make sure you’re up to the most current design standards — the criteria of the aircraft that operate in your airport,” Swanson said.
But as the city moves ahead with the plan, city leaders are being asked to reconcile two competing visions for the 90-year-old facility. On one side are those who want the airport to grow, modernize and become a world leader in technological innovation. On the other are those who want Palo Alto Airport to shrink its footprint in the Baylands or, better yet, disappear altogether.
Both sides have steadily become more engaged in the planning process. Those who are most invested in the airport – pilots, vendors and other airport users – dominated the four public hearings that the city hosted between May 2023 and February 2024. These gatherings have typically drawn fewer than two dozen visitors, according to the city’s meeting notes, and those who came suggested that future improvements should include a longer runway, a new terminal, less noise and more solar panels.
Eli Pasternak, a retired high-tech executive who lives in Palo Alto and who occasionally charters flights from the airport, is among those who welcome additional upgrades. Earlier this month, he submitted a letter to the council that advocated for various upgrades, including more hangar space.
“The airport is a source of pride for the city, as one of the nation’s densest centers of small airplanes,” Pasternak wrote. “This contributes to the lucrative image of Palo Alto as the high-quality city at the heart of Silicon Valley and it makes an intangible, but major, impact on the quality of life.”
Pasternak said in an interview that he’d love to see the airport do more than just enhance its runway to meet FAA regulations. He’d like to see the city replace its aged buildings, including the modest terminal building.
“When you come to land in Palo Alto, it’s amazingly beautiful to see the Baylands from the air,” he said. “But once you taxi on the tarmac and see the facilities, they just look very old and not inviting.
City officials by and large share the goal of modernizing the airport and, while denying that they want to expand, acknowledge that it has room to grow. The presentation that Public Works shared at the recent public meetings forecast a growth of aircraft at the airport from the 2021 peak of about 330 to nearly 400 in 15 years (currently, the city has 353 aircraft leasing space at the airport, according to the city budget). The number of operations is projected to gradually climb from about 160,000 per year today to close to 200,000 in 15 years.
In recent reports, they point to the airport’s role as the main refueling location for “life flight” helicopters to Stanford Medical Center and a destination for Angel Flight aircraft that bring patients to Palo Alto. It is also home to the Palo Alto chapter of California Disaster Airlift Response Team, which provides free air transportation during emergencies, and the Civil Air Patrol Squadron 10, which provides search-and-rescue services.
Supporters can also point to the critical role that Palo Alto Airport has also played in addressing regional or world disasters. According to the city, public use of the airport was halted in 1942 so that it could serve as a military field during World War II. It has also seen its share of celebrities. At one point during the tour, Swanson pointed at a hangar that Bing Crosby once used to park his plane.
“They’d bring him in, he’d get in the plane, then they pull the plane out and off they go,” Swanson said.
Not so fast
But what some see as a place of pride others view primarily as a source of noise and pollution, a nuisance, a blight and a threat to the Baylands ecosystem. Over the past few weeks, the city has received more than 60 emails from residents protesting what they characterized as the airport’s “expansion.”
Amy Christel, a resident of the Midtown neighborhood, is among those who are concerned about the city’s evolving plans. Christel was once involved in Sky Posse Palo Alto, a grassroots group that has been pushing regional leaders to address airplane noise. The problem became amplified in 2015, when the FAA rolled out NextGen, a system that consolidated flights into narrow corridors, some of which passed directly over Palo Alto neighborhoods.
While the noise complaints mostly pertained to commercial flights departing from and arriving at San Francisco International Airport, the past decade has made residents like Christel particularly sensitive to the impacts of aircraft on local residents. She sees Palo Alto Airport primarily as, more than anything else, a playground for the rich.
“I’d like to see its role diminished,” Christel said in an interview. “I’d like to see its profile lowered and not increased. And everything I’m seeing is toward expansion. ‘Let’s make it a big hub for big taxi aircraft.'”
She pointed to several initiatives that the airport has struggled to implement despite council’s support, including phasing out leaded fuel like some other general aviation airports have done. While Palo Alto Airport now offers unleaded aviation fuel, called avgas, it also continues to sell the leaded variety. Eggleston and Swanson told this publication that this is to comply with grant requirements from the FAA.
“We can’t discriminate, really,” Swanson said. “We’re part of the national transportation system, so being part of that, we have to be able to offer it.”
But for critics like Christel, that explanation is insufficient. She pointed to other airports that have already stopped selling leaded fuel, including the Reid-Hillview Airport in East San Jose. The airport halted sales of 100 octane leaded avgas in spring 2023 under directions from the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors. San Martin Airport also stopped selling leaded gas, which is known to have adverse health effects, particularly for children.
Rather than sell leaded gas, the city could simply stop accepting FAA grants that include provisions that preclude environmentally responsible action, Christel said.
“I feel like the whole prospect of expansion and the future of the airport is being played out in a way that has no real concern for environmental practices,” she said. “I don’t know what the future of the airport will be but my guess is it won’t be environmental, it won’t be no-lead. They’ll shift toward bigger aircraft and services that executives in the Bay Area can avail themselves of.”
Rather than increase the runway or build new levees to protect the airport from sea level rise, the city should return the land back to nature, she said.
“I’d love it if the city would just say, ‘Let’s make it an incredible nature preserve and restore it to wetlands’ and that would be better for sea level rise than any other stupid system they said they’d need for an extended runway,” Christel said.
She is not the only person who feels that way. Mark Shull, who was also involved with Sky Posse, argued in a letter that private aviation is “incompatible with the sensitive natural location of the airport, and creates serious health issues for those living near the airport in East Palo Alto, starting with the continued use of leaded fuel (which in spite of industry PR about alternatives) remains the primary fuel for small airplanes.”
“FAA regulations do not allow Palo Alto to mandate that leaded fuel not be used, and pilots will simply not give it up, even if their planes can use high octane unleaded,” Shull wrote. “The EPA is clear — there is no safe level for lead. And, Palo Alto subjecting East Palo Alto to constant lead exhaust is inexcusable.”
Others worry that the airport’s long-term plans will result in more noise. Lynn Hollyn, who lives in Old Palo Alto, said the high number of planes that go over her house disturb not just her but also the birds and the overall environment. The airport’s plans, she said in an interview, should aim for more than simply to “do no harm.”
“We need to start repairing the harm that’s been done and create a more sustainable environment,” Hollyn said.
East Palo Alto resident Chandana Rattehalli similarly suggested in an email that an expansion of the airport will mean “more and bigger airplanes, and therefore more noise and emissions impacts on residents.”
“This significantly deteriorates quality of air and impacts EPA residents’ health,” Rattehalli wrote to the council. “I would in fact urge a complete shutdown of the airport.”
Decision time
This tension between technology and conservation make the task of planning ahead for the airport particularly challenging. Even though city officials are modernizing the airport to meet projected growth and accommodate electric aircraft, it’s literally impossible for them to lose sight of the fact that the airport is located in one of the city’s environmentally sensitive areas.
The long-term plan reflects that. Rather than just looking at the ideal layout from an operational standpoint, the goal of the exercise is to modernize the airport while respecting its ecosystem, even if this means falling short of FAA guidelines.
“If the FAA process was followed 100%, we would be looking at a second runway,” Luetgens said. “But we know it’s not something that’s going to be done here.”
Palo Alto’s land-use bible, the Comprehensive Plan, does little to settle the debate between those who want to see the airport grow and those who want to see it shrink. It spells out the city’s goal for the airport: “Maintain an economically viable local airport with minimal environmental impacts.” Either camp in the debate can easily point to the portion of the sentence that best supports its particular view.
The Comprehensive Plan does, however, specify that the airport should remain limited to a single runway and that “minor expansion shall only be allowed in order to meet federal and State airport design and safety standards.”
In recent discussions, council members generally supported city staff’s current approach. Earlier this month, the council’s Finance Committee reviewed and unanimously endorsed the airport’s operating and capital budgets, which include several new projects. One is the installation of an Automated Weather Observation System, a $1.5-million system of sensors that will be placed near the runway and provide accurate weather information to pilots and to the broader public. According to the capital budget, installation of the AWOS will begin this fall and conclude in summer 2026. Another is the repaving of Embarcadero Way, which provides access to the airport’s businesses and the air control tower and which is currently in failing condition, according to the budget.
Committee Chair Pat Burt advocated for installing awnings with solar panels at the airport and for phasing out leaded fuel. He encouraged airport officials to discuss this shift with other airports in the region so as to avoid a scenario where aviators simply buy more leaded fuel in other airports before coming to Palo Alto. The goal is to coordinate the shift so that Palo Alto does not stand out.
“It’s always — who stands tallest gets chopped off,” Burt said at the May 8 meeting.
Council member Vicki Veenker, who serves on the Bay Area Air Quality Management District, called phasing out of leaded fuel a major priority, even as she acknowledged that the effort is complicated.
“There’s grant issues, there’s preemption issues, so our hands may be more tied than we want. … I think we can’t necessarily just do it. We’ll have to wind our way through all of that,” Veenker said.
Palo Alto may soon get some help from Sacramento in this endeavor. On May 22, the state Senate voted 29-8 to approve Senate Bill 1193 by Sen. Caroline Menjivar that would gradually phase out sale of leaded fuel throughout California starting on Jan. 1, 2027. The bill also allows a one-year exemption for counties that determine that unleaded aviation fuel is not commercially available.
Public Works staff is closely monitoring these efforts and Eggleston said staff is working on plans to gradually phase out leaded fuel. He also said he would like to see more residents get involved in the planning process for the airport. Over the past two weeks, city officials have responded to every email they had received, including those complaining about the lack of public outreach. In his response, Luetgens stressed that the project is guided by FAA regulations, which require the city to evaluate various alternatives for the runway.
“The City has not recommended any runway extension at the Palo Alto Airport,” Luetgens wrote.
The airport team is also preparing for more public outreach. In response to the recent flood of emails, Eggleston and the airport team this week scheduled another public hearing to discuss the long-term plan for the airport. The meeting will take place at 6 p.m. on June 20 at Baylands Café, 1875 Embarcadero Road.
“We want the engagement,” Eggleston said. “We don’t want a situation where we tried to do outreach and not too many people got involved, and then they just come out of the woodwork right before we go to the City Council.”
Correction: The initial story had incorrectly implied that the SR22 aircraft costs more than the PC-12.