FAQs

County of San Diego Airports operates eight airports - Agua Caliente, Borrego Valley, Fallbrook Airpark, Gillespie Field, Jacumba, Ocotillo Wells, Palomar and Ramona

In addition to the County of San Diego, there are four other agencies that operate airports and airfields within the county:

1. San Diego Regional Airport Authority - San Diego International Airport
2. City of San Deigo - Brown Field and Montgomery Field
3. City of Oceanside - Oceanside Airport
4. Department of Defense - Marine Corps Air Stations Miramar and Camp Pendleton and Naval Air Station North Island

No, County Airports operates the ground-based airport facilities such as maintaining the runways and taxiways, mowing the grass when it grows and keeping the airfield lights on. Airplanes are operated by a range of private citizens from inside and outside the County, by local agencies such as the Sheriff's Department or CalFire and by local businesses that provide medical evacuation services, corporate operations and flight training.

Across the County's eight airports, each one has its own character, while all of them support general aviation airplanes that fly for business or pleasure some also support specific activities, for example:

• Ramona Airport is home to CalFire's Air Attack Base which plays a major role in fighting regional wildfires.
• Gillespie Field supports the County Sheriff's helicopter fleet, flight training, corporate business flying, SDG&E firefighting helicopters and a medical evacuation helicopter. Gillespie Field is also home to a large industrial estate that provides jobs for many local people.
• Palomar Airport has a commercial airline terminal which supports flights to Las Vegas, NV and Toas, NM; the airport also supports corporate business flying and a medical evacuation helicopter as well as having a small commercial area with a Lowe's home improvement store.
• Borrego Valley Airport supports private airplanes and support regional aerobatic flying and competitions.
• Fallbrook Airpark not only supports local aviation but also has a large area that is not suitable aviation that is dedicated to agricultural use.
• Agua Caliente, Jacumba and Ocotillo Wells provide airport facilities out in the more remotes parts of the County.

This Airports Sustainability Management Plan looks at actions that can be taken at an individual airport level to find the best ways to efficiently reduce non-renewable energy use and water use as well as reducing emissions waste.   

The Airports Sustainability Management Plan focuses on sustainability measures that can be taken at specific airport facilities and ways in which these might be funded; this differs from plans such as the Climate Action Plan and the Regional Decarbonization Plan which cover the whole County.  That said the Airport Sustainability Plan will draw from and align with many of the ideas and actions in those plans. 

No, the DPW Airports Sustainability Management Plan looks at how to make the airport facilities themselves more sustainable and does not consider airplane noise or flight patterns.

The Airport Sustainability Management Plan looks at how our facilities can be improved for many years to come, with continual sustainability improvements taking place as funds and technology allow.  As such there is no final implementation date, developing and maximizing sustainable facilities will go on continually into the future.

There are potentially a number of sources of money to support future sustainability projects at County Airports, these include but are not limited to local, state and federal grants, funding and resources via partnerships with other County departments and regional agencies and from future lease agreements where already required payments may on some occasions be used for sustainability projects.