Santa Fe Municipal Airport
| Santa Fe Municipal Airport | |||||||||||||||||||
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| Airport type | Public | ||||||||||||||||||
| Owner | City of Santa Fe | ||||||||||||||||||
| Serves | Santa Fe, New Mexico | ||||||||||||||||||
| Elevation AMSL | 6,348 ft / 1,935 m | ||||||||||||||||||
| Coordinates | 35°37′02″N 106°05′22″W / 35.61722°N 106.08944°WCoordinates: 35°37′02″N 106°05′22″W / 35.61722°N 106.08944°W | ||||||||||||||||||
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 SAF
SAF
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Source: Federal Aviation Administration
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| Aircraft operations | 66,344 |
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| Based aircraft | 207 |
Santa Fe Municipal Airport (IATA: SAF, ICAO: KSAF, FAA LID: SAF) is ten miles southwest of Santa Fe, in Santa Fe County, New Mexico.
The Santa Fe Municipal Airport opened in 1941. The airport had seen an increase in airline flights, with 43,329 passenger boardings (enplanements) in calendar year 2011 and 47,847 in 2012. The National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems for 2011–2015 called it a general aviation airport based on enplanements in 2008, when Santa Fe had no airline service while airport officials awaited federal approval of an environmental impact assessment (the commercial service category requires at least 2,500 per year).
Santa Fe was first served through Boyd Field, an airport that was on the west side of Cerrillos Road between Rodeo Road and Jaguar Drive. The current airport, several miles to the southwest, opened in 1941. Santa Fe's first commercial airline service was by Mid Continent Air Express around 1929 operating on a route from El Paso to Denver with stops at Albuquerque, Santa Fe, Las Vegas, NM, Pueblo, and Colorado Springs, CO. The route was replaced with Western Air Express in 1931 and again by Varney Speed Lines, the predecessor of Continental Airlines in 1934. The southwest division of Varney was operating daily round trip air service flown with a single engine Lockheed Vega aircraft on a routing of El Paso - Albuquerque - Santa Fe - Las Vegas, NM - Pueblo, CO with continuing service operated by another airline, Wyoming Air Service, on to Colorado Springs and Denver. In 1936, the southwest operating division of Varney was acquired by Robert F. Six who in 1937 renamed the air carrier Continental Air Lines which then began operating Lockheed Model 12 Electra Junior twin prop aircraft on a daily round trip routing of El Paso - Albuquerque - Santa Fe - Pueblo, CO - Colorado Springs - Denver. Mr. Six would serve as CEO of the airline until 1981. Thus, Santa Fe was one of the very first destinations served by Continental which would become a major domestic and international airline. In 1940 Continental began operating Lockheed Model 18 Lodestar twin prop aircraft on a daily round trip routing of Denver - Colorado Springs - Pueblo, CO - Las Vegas, NM - Santa Fe - Albuquerque - Roswell, NM - Hobbs, NM - Midland/Odessa - Big Spring, TX - San Angelo - San Antonio. Continental then introduced Douglas DC-3 service and in 1948 was flying from Santa Fe to Albuquerque, El Paso, Colorado Springs and other smaller cities in Colorado and New Mexico. In 1951 Continental expanded its service and was operating the DC-3 on a route between El Paso and Denver that included Las Cruces, Truth or Consequences, Socorro and Raton in New Mexico and Trinidad in Colorado in addition to Santa Fe and the other aforementioned destinations on the El Paso-Denver route and was also providing direct, no change of plane DC-3 flights between the airport and San Antonio. In 1955 Continental merged with Pioneer Airlines and took over that carriers service on the Albuquerque - Santa Fe - Clovis - Lubbock - Abilene - Ft. Worth - Dallas route. By 1959, the airline had introduced its first turbine powered airliner service into Santa Fe with the four engine, British-manufactured Vickers Viscount turboprop operating on four of its six daily flights. By 1963 Continental Airlines was growing rapidly with large jets and began transferring its route authority for its smaller cities to other carriers. The El Paso - Denver route with all the intermediate stops between the two cities was transferred to Frontier Airlines (1950-1986) and the Albuquerque - Dallas route with all the intermediate stops en route went to Trans-Texas Airways which resulted in Continental no longer serving the Santa Fe airport.
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