The Watsonville Municipal Airport

THEWATSONVILLE MUNICIPAL AIRPORT ministration (CAA) decided that a civil airport was needed in Santa Cruz County, since the previous location was now under U.S. Navy control. CAA representatives offered to build an airport in the nearby City of Santa Cruz, but its citizens declined. The same offer was then presented to the City of Watsonville, whose citizens voted in favor of the proposition. During World War II, the newly built airport was leased to the U.S. government and commissioned as the Naval Air Auxiliary Station (NAAS) Watsonville, a training facility for fighter pilots on their way to the Pacific theater. It was released back to the city in 1945 with the re- quirement that it continue to be used as a region- al, general aviation airport, in perpetuity. Today, the Airport is owned by the City of Wat- sonville, and is a self-sustaining, enterprise op- eration with a staff of 13 full-time employees. It is home to over 300 GA aircraft and is used extensively by various businesses, specifically in the agri-business community. Its four run- ways accommodate over 55,000 operations per year, making it one of the busiest airports in the area. It supports many aviation activities includ- ing: private flying, flight training, aircraft rental, maintenance, sightseeing, air ambulance, law enforcement aviation, air charter, skydiving, and military helicopter operations. It is home to three maintenance FBOs, 206 T-hangars, 12 corporate hangars, 12 mini-hangars, three Box hangars, and 80 tie-down spots. The Airport offers full-service aircraft fueling support and a self-service fueling island. Its terminal building includes administra- tive offices, a communications room, a lobby area, a restaurant, and a café. Rayvon Williams, Watsonville Airport’s Director since 2011, talks about the many ways in which he has attempted to take advantage of the Air- port’s characteristics to boost its aviation-related operations. “We’re all small airports in this area, with three that are close to us,” he begins. “There’s a saying in the airport community: ‘If you’ve seen one airport, you’ve seen one airport.’We all have various offerings and attributes that make us who we are.We have a committed customer base here at the Airport, but nearby airports are attempt- ing to draw pilots from other airports to come to their airport.With that said, we compete with each other to bring in those transient revenue and service opportunities. “So, in order to make Watsonville attractive, we’ve tried to reach out via multiple vectors. In 2013, we developed an outreach program that we marketed as ‘Second Saturdays’ in order to incentivize our tenants to fly more often with the additional benefit of increased fuel sales.We decided that we would lower fuel prices, but that lower prices would not be enough; we needed to put together a ‘Total Package.’ “We reached out to the County and discovered that for aircraft that are displayed a certain num- ber of times a year, the personal property tax is waived. As a result, we defined and developed a ‘Display Day’ here at Watsonville. In addition, we are fortunate to have a popular ‘fly-in des- tination’ restaurant. To leverage that resource as part of the marketing program, we noted if pilots displayed aircraft for a certain period of