Airport director reports rising passengers, completed airfield work and switch to PFAS‑free firefighting foam

Director Hastert told the Santa Barbara Airport Commission on Aug. 20 that passenger traffic is up 10.7% over last year and that Southwest Airlines began a Sunday Phoenix service that operated full on its first flight. He said the passenger increase is expected to continue into the fall as some previously reduced services return.

Hastert gave an operations update on recent projects. He said Granite Construction completed a major pavement resurfacing on the airfield that required a planned five-day shutdown of jet bridges at Gates 1 and 2; staff coordinated aircraft parking and tugging to avoid conflicts and made temporary adjustments to aircraft parking envelopes. "That 5 day shutdown went very smoothly," he said.

On safety and environmental risk, Hastert reported the airport transitioned all three aircraft rescue and firefighting (ARFF) vehicles from aqueous film‑forming foam (AFFF) that contains PFAS to a new fluorine‑free firefighting foam. "Any product that we're applying as a extinguishing agent is not going to have that PFAS, you know, forever chemical in it," he said. He described cleaning, flushing and proportion testing across three vehicles of varying ages and two manufacturers and said the change produced less waste than anticipated.

Hastert provided an update on instrument approach procedures: he said work with the FAA on an ILS modification was in production and appeared slated for publication in October; he quoted the new minimum descent altitude as about "213 feet." He referenced the FAA's IFP Gateway as the source for chart production.

The director also described recent coordination after a construction-related fiber outage affected IFR operations, saying staff met with the FAA, the city administrator, public works and Frontier (the carrier/provider) to improve failover capacity. He reported a new marketing hire, Danielle Methman, who started that Monday as marketing coordinator; Methman filled the position vacated by Lauren Gonzales upon promotion.

On noise and flight tracks, Hastert said the airport is refining a statement of work to hire a consultant to study approaches and departures and that the noise working group expects a consultant scope by mid-to-late month. He said the consultant will help coordinate with FAA air traffic control on feasibility and impacts; the commission discussed asking Congressman Salud Carbajal to help prioritize FAA attention if needed.

Hastert closed by noting passenger appreciation week events and community partners who participated, including Direct Relief, Cottage Health, UCSB Athletics and Therapy Dogs of Santa Barbara, and that outreach had generated positive passenger feedback.

No formal commission votes were required on these operational updates.