Do Santa Monicans Use SMO for Aviation?

​One of the main challenges of understanding how our public land in Santa Monica is being used by SMO is the way information is commingled when reported by the City.  SMO has both Aviation and Non-Aviation uses however, financial and operational reports for the airport almost never distinguish between the two different uses.  Aviation uses include activities related to the operation of aircraft like flights and use of the runway.  Non-Aviation uses are activities that require no airport or runway like the existing parks, the majority of business and organizations unrelated to aviation, and the existing educational, cultural, and arts uses.  Aviation operations have consistently declined (see link) over the years in Santa Monica (and across the USA) while non-aviation activity has consistently increased.  Even though aviation activity has declined, the costs to support, operate, and maintain the runway and aircraft operations have increased.  As a result, aviation has been operating at a financial loss for the City, with non-avation activities and funds subsidizing private aviation. 

SMO Future has been interested in undestanding how much of Santa Monica's public land and resources are being allocated to support private aviation for Santa Monicans.  To gain a perspective, we have been looking at the numbers for: 

• Tenants
• Lease Revenue
• Land Occupied
• Number of Aircraft Departures

The information below summarizes some of our discoveries based on an initial review of public information.

Two different angles were looked at to get a picture of how many Santa Monicans use SMO for Aviation.  One angle (left side) looked at based aircraft data which found that only 35 aviation tenants have Santa Monica addresses.  The second angle (right side) looked at all the departure data (since the January 2018 runway shortening) which found that there have been only 49 aircraft departures with 40 registrants with Santa Monica addresses. 

The insight from this review is that less than about 50 Santa Monicans use SMO for aviation.  This shows a lot of public land and resources are being allocated to support the conveniences and hobbies of a few.

A review of some of the City's financials show similar results.  Currently, a vast majority (94%) of SMO revenues are from Leases (Office, Hangars, and Tie Downs) rather than aircraft operations.  The largest tenants at SMO include Snap, Inc. (makers of Snapchat) and TaskUs.  So, an outstanding question that we have is: How much of the Lease Revenue is Avation vs. Non-Aviation? 

​Stay tuned and we are going to find out!