Santa Monica Airport to AAM Conversion
With the arrival of Advanced Air Mobility (AAM), municipalities are rethinking how their regional airports are used—unlocking opportunities to repurpose excess land, reduce noise and traffic, and return valuable space back to the community while enabling next-generation air service.
Recently the City of Santa Monica received multiple responses to their RFP for the redevelopment of SMO airport. (May 5, 2025)
The submittals reflect broad support for sports, education, culture, parks and recreation, as well as continued use for aerospace.
Until 2017 the airport was serviced by a 4,973 foot runway when it was reduced to 3,500 feet in an attempt to reduce jet traffic and the associated noise (120-140 db). But even then the entire 192 acres was dedicated to conventional aircraft.
(move slider to see airport to AAM conversion)
Landings' submitted a multi-modal transportation hub (the first of its kind) to allow electric VTOL's and STOL's to land and charge at the location. With the new Advanced Air Mobility aircraft, the Santa Monica Airport can return over 90% of the land for non-aerospace use. The proposed 2 pad vertiport (eVTOL) and ultra short 300 foot runway (eSTOL) only require 16 acres.
Community concerns of noise are mitigated with the new hub as eVTOL's and eSTOL's make the equivalent noise of a dishwasher-vacuum cleaner (65-75 db) during take off and landing; making them 1,000 times quieter than the past traffic at the airport.
Planners and community groups can get the Great Park they have fought for AND still offer quiet and convenient regional air travel. With eVTOL's expected range of 50 miles, and eSTOL's at over 200 miles - the SMO Great Park will offer green space and green transportation to the community.