The FAA asks airports to consider the largest/heaviest plane that has more than 500 operations per year at the airport when making a new master plan.
In the case of PAO, that's the turboprop PC12.
What fraction of today's operations at PAO are by the PC12 and does it make sense to invest in reconfiguring our airport to better support this kind of plane?
Total annual movements (takeoffs plus landings) at PAO are 160,000.
The PC12 is used by Surfair, a publicly-traded commercial company offering flights on a subscription or charter basis. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surf_Air_Mobility
Pilots at PAO informed us that with a longer runway at PAO, the PC12 would be able to carry more fuel, which would enable it to travel further in a single flight from PAO.
This might make PAO more attractive for Surfair services in future, driving up the volume of PC12 flights (and to be confirmed, but heavier weight of fuel *may* make for noisier flights, TBC).
News articles about Surfair flights at San Carlos airport:
Posts from Calm the Skies (San Carlos) about the PC12: