Palm Springs International Airport

History of Palm Springs International Airport

PSP was built as a United States Army Air Corps emergency landing field in 1939 on land owned by the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians due to its clear weather and its proximity to March Field and the Los Angeles area.

In March 1941, the War Department certified improvements to the existing airport in Palm Springs as essential to national defense. The airport was approved to serve as a staging field by the Air Corps Ferrying Command 21st Ferrying Group in November 1941. Land was acquired to build a major airfield a half mile from the old airfield site.

The new airfield, Palm Springs Army Airfield, was completed in early 1942, and the old airfield was then used only as a backup. Palm Springs had scheduled passenger service in 1934 operated by Palm Springs Air Lines with Ford Trimotor aircraft with flights to the Union Air Terminal (now the Hollywood Burbank Airport) in Burbank. Western Airlines flights began in 1945–46, followed by Bonanza Air Lines in 1957–58.

During the 1990s, the airport transformed from a single runway into a dual-runway airport with the completion of a nearly 5,000-foot general runway in 1993 and the expansion of the existing runway to 10,000 feet as part of a 1994 master plan. Simultaneously, the airport grew with the addition of the Sonny Bono Concourse in 1999, the outdoor courtyard in 2007, and the renovated South Concourse in 2007. The airport installed Wi-Fi in December 2004. The renovations and expansions allowed PSP to handle aircraft as large as the Boeing 747. However, commercial flights are limited to aircraft as large as the Boeing 767 due to terminal size limitations.

In September 2020, Southwest Airlines announced plans to serve Palm Springs year-round. Flights to Oakland, Phoenix, and Denver launched in November 2020, and flights to Las Vegas launched in May 2021. In December 2020, Delta resumed service to Atlanta and Minneapolis-St. Paul with the Boeing 737 and Seattle with the Embraer E175. Also, Alaska added flights to San Jose, Reno, and Boise using the Embraer E175. Simultaneously, American and JetBlue announced flights to Philadelphia and Fort Lauderdale, respectively. Although Philadelphia, Fort Lauderdale, and Reno have since been discontinued, San Jose and Boise continue to run seasonally. Alaska also expanded Everett to twice daily during peak season. Meanwhile, American upgraded most Phoenix flights to mainline and increased capacity to Dallas/Fort Worth during peak season by using the Airbus A321. JetBlue even upgraded select Boston and JFK flights to the Airbus A321, although the vast majority of flights utilize the Airbus A320.

Delta upgraded Atlanta from three-times weekly to daily service from December through April with the Boeing 737 and Minneapolis-St. Paul to double-daily service during peak season using the Boeing 737 or Airbus A320 (depending on passenger demand). The airline also restored mainline service to Seattle using the Boeing 737 and Airbus A220, becoming the first (and currently only) airline operating the A220 into PSP. Delta also added capacity on the long-running Salt Lake City route by swapping out the CRJ-200 in favor of the larger CRJ-900 and Embraer E175. Delta still occasionally deploys the Boeing 757 to Palm Springs as an aircraft swap if demand is high.

In October 2021, Southwest Airlines launched daily, year-round flights to Sacramento. In November, the airline inaugurated flights to Chicago-Midway, Dallas-Love Field, and Portland, Oregon. Although Chicago-Midway has since been dropped, the airline upgraded Sacramento and Las Vegas to double daily service. Portland remains a Saturday-only service during peak season. Simultaneously, Allegiant launched seasonal flights to Nashville, Tennessee, and Des Moines. On November 19, Alaska Airlines launched flights to Austin, Texas, and later expanded its seasonal PDX service into June (using the Embraer E175 from April through June). With the reopening of the Canada-United States border, Canadian service was restored with the return of Air Canada on November 4, 2021, and the entrance of Canadian ultra-low-cost carriers Swoop and Flair in December.

In March, PSP launched a new incentive programme to attract more year-round domestic and international service (from cities with U.S. border earance) an along with nonstop flights to Hawaii. Although the airport regularly sees Canadian service during the season, it has never hosted a nonstop flight to Hawaii. Nonetheless, WestJet restored year-round service to Vancouver and Calgary, becoming the only Canadian carrier to serve PSP year-round.

During the summer of 2022, PSP was ranked as America's 62nd busiest airport and one of America's fastest-growing airports in the midst of a record-breaking summer. As a result, airlines further adjusted their schedules for the 2022–23 tourist season to meet passenger demand.