ZOA?

[kullery]

Is ZOA closed forever? Not enough traffic to support it yet?

I've almost completed my "tour" of all of the SoCal towered airports. I was looking forward to heading up north. Oh well, still plenty of learning opportunities for me in SoCal!!

[Keith Smith]

Hi Ken,

I was going to announce this tomorrow, but yes, we're closing ZOA for now. We were only able to operate it by sacrificing staffing at ZLA, and based on the traffic distribution, 90% of traffic was remaining in ZLA even when ZOA was open. So, we were basically hurting ZLA with very little benefit to the user base. We are closing it for now, but we may have reason to open it early next year for a specific commercial customer. We'll see how it goes.

[Jeff N]

Ah, that's a bummer; I was just starting to enjoy my new Tom Curtis bay area scenery while on PE.

Just throwing this out there, but what about mixing things up a bit and making some days all-ZLA and others all-ZOA? I've actually thought about asking this question before but in regards to other busy ARTCCs across the country like ZNY or ZAU. It might attract more users if they thought they'd get a chance to fly in other areas on occasion, perhaps even their own local region.

I for one am not complaining about sticking to ZLA as I love SoCal but...just an idea (admittedly a naive one as I don't know what goes into getting staff up to speed on a new area).

[Keith Smith]

It took 6-9 months to build the infrastructure to opeate ZLA, and then another 6 months to build ZOA. There's not much agility there. Opening a facility for a few days may be novel for some people but will be frustrating for others once the facility is taken away again. Part of our brand is the notion of consistent staffing on a predictable schedule. Randomly lighting up a facility doesn't fit in very well with that vision.

We really did give ZOA the best try we could, but week after week after week the traffic numbers still favored ZLA, despite countless attempts to draw attention to ZOA. People said they wanted ZOA, and that it would bring heavy metal traffic, but it just didn't happen. Rather than continuing to hurt ZLA's staffing by opening ZOA, I made the call to pull the plug for now.

There may be some commercial activity which will require full time staffing of ZOA. If that happens, we'll happily open it again, but for the current audience, it doesn't appear to make much sense. It takes more than 3-4 people occasionally flying in a facility to justify the massive cost of opening it (either direct financial costs, or by sacrificing the quality of service in other facilities).

[Jeff N]

Point taken. It was a suggestion/question from an admittedly uneducated perspective. Thanks for the thorough explanation.

I do hope PE continues to grow and that someday it'll get to the point where opening more facilities makes sense, but it's already a fantastic service as it is now.

[lwilliams]

Definately a shame. We should have all stepped up to the plate to better support ZOA.

Here's to waiting for the New Year.

[Keith Smith]

It's nobody's fault, and nothing needed to be done differently. The simple fact is there wasn't much demand for that airspace, at least not on weekends.

We also don't have the traffic density yet to warrant 2 artcc's.

[DrZGard]

That's a shame. I've been putting off flying weekdays in anticipation for flyin NorCal on weekends. Wife keeps loading up the tasks though and many times too tired by the time I can get to fly. Went to load up a flight this morning only to find this. Not sure I feel like flying now... Bummed for sure.

[Keith Smith]

Sorry Zane, you are one of the few that was flying up there. Please understand that it was killing the ZLA staffing, where 95% of pilots were doing their flying, even on weekends.

[DrZGard]

I do understand Keith and I'm sure it wasn't an easy decision to make since more airspace is an attraction to potential customers. I run a business too and have to make decisions that piss off a few people every once in a while! I am looking forward to seeing large enough numbers to make this happen again and be self supportive. I'll be back flying SoCal after all the weekend chores are done.