List of the busiest airports in California

List of the busiest airports in California In Calendar year 2022 (FAA data) by 'passenger boardings, not total passengers, except for Tijuana. While large airports dominant traffic and small airports struggle to retain carriers or completely lose scheduled passenger service, there are but a few growing medium-sized airports. While only 13 airports had 350,000 boardings or more, the major metropolitan areas dominate the rankings; road traffic instead takes an outsized role in connecting to other regions of the state and winner-take-all dominating airports in traffic clogged areas like LAX crowd out smaller airports from commercial aviation, leaving little option but driving.

Airport list

Rank 2022	Airport	IATA Code	City	2023 [1]	2022	2021	2018 [2]	2017 [3]	2016 [4]	2015 [4]	2014 [5]	2013 [6]
1	Los Angeles International Airport	LAX	Los Angeles	40,956,673	32,326,616	23,663,410	42,624,050	41,232,432	39,636,042	36,351,272	34,314,197	32,425,892
2	San Francisco International Airport	SFO	San Francisco	24,191,159	20,411,420	11,725,347	27,790,717	26,900,048	25,707,101	24,190,560	22,756,008	21,704,626
3	San Diego International Airport	SAN	San Diego	12,190,183	11,162,224	7,836,360	12,174,224	11,139,933	10,340,164	9,985,763	9,333,152	8,878,772
–	Tijuana International Airport [a]	TIJ	Tijuana and San Diego		12,308,370	9,677,900	7,823,744	7,089,219	6,318,826 [7]		4,387,865
4	Sacramento International Airport	SMF	Sacramento	6,371,910	6,040,824	4,760,275	5,907,629	5,341,595	4,969,366	4,714,729	4,384,616	4,255,145
5	San Jose International Airport	SJC	San Jose	5,958,855	5,590,137	3,619,690	7,032,851	6,130,878	5,321,603	4,822,480	4,621,003	4,315,839
6	John Wayne Airport	SNA	Santa Ana	5,706,332	5,536,313	3,807,205	5,201,642	5,082,716	5,217,242	4,945,209	4,584,147	4,540,628
7	Oakland International Airport	OAK	Oakland	5,520,812	5,506,232	4,011,953	6,686,603	6,413,832	5,934,639	5,506,687	5,069,257	4,770,716
8	Ontario International Airport	ONT	Ontario	3,181,161	2,840,758	2,201,528	2,498,993	2,247,645	2,104,625	2,089,801	2,037,346	1,970,538
9	Hollywood Burbank Airport	BUR	Burbank	3,132,029	3,054,729	1,942,417	2,680,240	2,402,106	2,077,892	1,973,897	1,928,491	1,918,011
10	Long Beach Airport	LGB	Long Beach	1,837,634	1,600,987	1,039,432	1,908,635	1,830,745	1,386,357	1,220,937	1,368,923	1,438,756
11	Palm Springs International Airport	PSP	Palm Springs	1,625,327	1,499,987	1,044,045	1,163,883	1,055,970	995,801	947,728	953,607	875,699
12	Fresno Yosemite International Airport	FAT	Fresno	1,201,789	1,077,710	960,594	853,538	755,140	761,298	695,008	710,353	684,849
13	Santa Barbara Municipal Airport	SBA	Santa Barbara	638,802	610,916	440,229	403,745	356,608	329,751	316,511	355,049	364,360
14	San Luis Obispo County Regional Airport	SBP	San Luis Obispo	324,925	273,690
15	Charles M. Schulz–Sonoma County Airport	STS	Santa Rosa	318,197	304,053
16	Monterey Regional Airport	MRY	Monterey	259,778	230,669
17	Meadows Field Airport	BFL	Bakersfield	174,891	141,352
18	Arcata–Eureka Airport	ACV	Arcata	117,972	118,924
19	Redding Regional Airport	RDD	Redding	87,670	98,725
20	Stockton Metropolitan Airport	SCK	Stockton	67,688	74,529
21	San Bernardino International Airport	SBD	San Bernardino	27,349	10,142
22	Santa Maria Public Airport	SMX	Santa Maria	14,409	15,911
23	Eastern Sierra Regional Airport	BIH	Bishop	10,007	10,754
24	Del Norte County Airport	CEC	Crescent City	7,879	8,218
25	Imperial County Airport	IPL	Imperial	7,100	9,180
26	Hawthorne Municipal Airport	HHR	Hawthorne	5,100	5,001
27	McClellan–Palomar Airport	CRQ	Carlsbad	4,329	3,715
28	Mammoth Yosemite Airport	MMH	Mammoth Lakes	3,966	4,056
29	Merced Regional Airport	MCE	Merced	3,798	3,431

Notes

1. Tijuana airport is equipped to allow boarding from the California side via the Cross Border Xpress since the end of 2015, figures for this airport are in italics. It is Mexico's 5th busiest airport by departure seats offered.

References

1. "CY 2023 Enplanements at All Commercial Service Airports" (PDF). Federal Aviation Administration. October 2, 2024. Archived from the original (PDF) on February 12, 2025. Retrieved February 24, 2025.
2. https://www.faa.gov/airports/planning_capacity/passenger_allcargo_stats/passenger/media/cy18-commercial-service-enplanements.pdf ^{[ bare URL PDF ]}
3. https://www.faa.gov/airports/planning_capacity/passenger_allcargo_stats/passenger/media/cy17-commercial-service-enplanements.pdf ^{[ bare URL PDF ]}
4. "CY 2016 Primary Airports" (PDF).
5. "CY 2014 Primary Airports -- Preliminary Data" (PDF).
6. "CY 2013 Primary Airports" (PDF).
7. "Secretaria de Comunicaciones y Transportes: Estadística Operacional de Aeropuertos / Airports operational statistics". Archived from the original on March 15, 2016. Retrieved May 8, 2016.