Delta touches down in Santa Rosa with twice-daily Salt Lake City flights, and a free case of wine for the ride home
Flight 3541 arrived at 10:26 a.m. Tuesday with 52 passengers, restoring a fourth commercial airline at Sonoma County Airport. Delta's new Wine Takes Flight program waives the $45 bag fee for a case of up to 12 bottles from five Northern California airports.
SANTA ROSA: Delta Air Lines flew into wine country on Tuesday morning. Delta flight 3541, a 76-seat Embraer E-175 from Salt Lake City, touched down at Charles M. Schulz-Sonoma County Airport at 10:26 a.m. with 52 passengers aboard, according to the airline and Flightradar24, and 59 passengers were booked on the return leg that departed just before noon.
The Santa Rosa Signal had previewed the 10:41 scheduled arrival, and the airport's ribbon-cutting on The Flying Ace patio at 9 a.m. came with Snoopy, wine and cupcakes. Delta joins Alaska, American and Southwest at the airport, restoring four commercial airlines at Santa Rosa, and a second flight on the route, Delta 3533, was set to arrive just after 4 p.m.
The Salt Lake City route will run twice daily, connecting Sonoma County to one of Delta's busiest hubs. Salt Lake City International is a major hub for Delta, which accounts for about 70 percent of the airport's traffic, and the airport fields more than 300 departures a day to more than 100 destinations after accommodating roughly 28 million passengers last year.
The same day, Delta started its Wine Takes Flight program, which lets active SkyMiles members who are at least 21 check one case of wine at no charge on Delta or Delta Connection flights to destinations within the 50 states. A case means up to 12 unopened 750-milliliter bottles in a single container weighing no more than 50 pounds, within the 62 linear-inch checked-bag limit, and the waiver covers the standard $45 checked bag fee. Five Northern California airports qualify: Sonoma County, San Francisco, Oakland, San Jose and Sacramento.
The program resembles Alaska Airlines' Wine Flies Free, launched in 2007, which lets loyalty members check a case of wine without a bag fee from 34 West Coast airports in California, Oregon, Washington and Idaho.
Alaska, the largest commercial carrier serving Santa Rosa, announced plans in May for a nonstop Salt Lake City link starting November 1 but recently dropped them. Alaska is ending its Sonoma County to Ontario service at month's end while adding Boise and Phoenix nonstops on November 1. Southwest, the other airline at the field, began flights to Denver a few days a week in April and plans to increase frequency until going to daily service on March 11, 2027.
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