Aiport News & Press Releases

The Douglas C-47 Skytrain that was recently restored by volunteers and staff at ArtCraft Paint at the Santa Maria Public Airport rolls out of the hangar headed for the Lightning Strike Chino air show. The plane, owned by a group associated with the Estrella Warbirds Museum in Paso Robles, carried both troops and cargo for …

Military Aircraft may be Absent at Thunder Over The Valley Thanks to federal budget cuts, the forecast for the 2013 Thunder Over the Valley Air Show looks partly cloudy with a chance of rain. The Santa Maria Airport district Board of Directors will hear a report on the air show and the airport’s 10-year Capital …

Sequester Could Impact Thunder Over the Valley The Santa Maria Public Airport air traffic control tower is not among the more than 200 towers targeted for closure by the Federal Aviation Administration due to the $85 billion in automatic federal budget cuts known as sequestration. The F.A.A. released the list of airports that would be …

Board Moves to Make Airport More Competitive The Santa Maria Public Airport District Board of Directors likes having the U.S. Forest Service’s air tanker base here and showed it Thursday when it cut the tanker landing fees in half. The board amended its contract with the Central Coast Jet Center to include collection of landing …

Helicopter and Plane Will Serve Central Coast, Elsewhere in State 2013-01-26T00:10:00Z CalSTAR debutes new air ambulancesBy Samantha Yale Scroggin / Staff Writer / [email protected] Santa Maria Times Central Coast residents had the opportunity Friday night to check out two new air ambulances that recently started serving the area and have the capability to whisk them …

Santa Maria, North County and all of California were hit hard by the Great Recession. Some places responded with hand-wringing, worrying and sheep-like bleating to elected officials for a government program of one sort or another.  There is no renewed prosperity on that path. Perhaps we have been guilty of some fretting ourselves. Perhaps Santa …

Buellton-Based Civil Engineer One of Four Honored Doug Pike, of MNS Engineers in Buellton, is a behind-the-scenes kind of guy like most engineers.   So to be named Engineer of the Year by the Santa Barbara County Chapter of the California Special Districts Association was totally unexpected.  “I very much appreciate the recognition,” he said.  A …

Santa Maria Airport General Manager One of Four Honored Being selected for the General Manager of the Year Award wasn’t exactly a total surprise to Chris Hastert of the Santa Maria Public Airport, but he still considers it an honor. Hastert was one of four county professionals honored recently by the Santa Barbara County chapter …

Project under way to Improve Emergency Response to Runways Although it’s not yet apparent, work has begun to improve firefighting and emergency response at Santa Maria Public Airport. The first amendment to a contract that will make those changes is among many items the Board of Directors will discuss when it meets at 7:00 p.m. …