Ridership is surging on a free airport shuttle from the Old Town Transit Center, showing growing local demand for the more direct airport-transit connection that regional planners have been studying for years.
Despite no marketing campaign and minimal promotion, annual ridership rose by 73 percent on the shuttle from 2022 to 2023 — 75,680 passenger trips in 2022 versus 130,912 passenger trips in 2023.
And that momentum has continued into 2024, with trips in January 2024 more than 57 percent higher than January 2023 — and even larger increases when this February and March are compared to the same months in 2023.
The nearly 800 average trips per day represent only a tiny fraction of the 40,000 to 50,000 passengers who use San Diego International Airport in a typical day.
But that has risen steadily from an average of fewer than 100 trips per day when the Airport Authority launched the shuttle in November 2021. And riders interviewed last week said they intend to spread the word.
"I thought it would take a long time, but it's actually very smooth and very quick," said Angelica Ramos, who was using the shuttle for the second time Wednesday. "Usually it's there when I come out of the airport, and if it's not, it takes about five minutes (to arrive)."
The shuttle, formally called the San Diego Flyer, also saves people money. Depending on time of day and other factors, Uber and Lyft can charge roughly $20 for the 4-mile trip from Old Town Transit Center to the airport.
If a passenger chooses to use Uber or Lyft from their home instead of taking transit to Old Town, or to park their own car at the airport, the cost can be significantly more. Taking the trolley or bus to Old Town and then using the airport shuttle costs $2.50 in total.
"I'm always pro public transit, but I love saving money too," said La Jolla resident Maia Kirkegaard, who took the free shuttle for the first time last week. "It's just $2.50 — the cost of a trolley ride."
The cost is a bit higher for Molly Williams, a Kansas City resident who frequently visits her long-distance boyfriend in North County. She takes the airport shuttle to Old Town and catches a Coaster train, which costs $6.50.
Because the Airport Authority doesn't promote or market the shuttle, most riders say they heard about it through word of mouth. There are no posters in the airport advertising the shuttle, and signage is minimal at both the airport and the Old Town Transit Center.
Two riders said the shuttle was promoted last year by UC San Diego on the university's website and a separate Instagram page as a cheap and convenient way to get to the airport.
Williams said the only drawback of using the shuttle is she feels the need to leave a little earlier when the shuttle is part of her journey.
"Because I don't really know what the schedule is for this — or if they adhere to the schedule — I just build in an extra 20 minutes," said Williams, who takes the shuttle roughly six times a year.
The Airport Authority posts a schedule with specific times the shuttle is expected to arrive at both airport terminals and at two Old Town stops — Congress Street near the trolley and Pacific Highway near many bus stops.
But passengers interviewed last week said the shuttle rarely shows up at those times. They did, however, say the shuttle typically adheres to the goal of hitting each stop every 15 to 20 minutes.
One exception to that opinion was Brett Benson, who lives in the Bay Area but frequently visits family in North County. Benson said he has twice given up on the shuttle because of long waits and used a ride-hailing app instead.
"The inconsistency is kind of a challenge — the schedule isn't as solid as a bus route," Benson said. "I don't want to pay for an Uber, but I need to get there on time."
Coming from the Bay Area where mass transit is more robust, Benson said he's cautiously optimistic about San Diego's progress and prospects.
"The public transit here is getting better, but there are still a few glitches it needs to work out," he said. "This shuttle is good — in theory."
Regional planners have called a direct connection to the airport a key goal for San Diego's transit system. But the San Diego Association of Governments announced in February that the connection is still years away.
Agency officials said they plan to spend a year taking a second look at all possible options, including a trolley extension and a people-mover that would either be underground or aerial.
Officials say the goal would be a service that arrives at least once every seven minutes — more than twice as often as the existing airport shuttle.
They will use recent data and demographics and other factors to narrow down the roughly 20 possible options they're considering to somewhere between three and five.
The option they ultimately choose from among those would then undergo two years of state and federal environmental analysis before construction, which could take several more years, could begin.
The lack of transit service to the airport prompted the Airport Authority to launch the shuttle the same day service began on the new trolley line connecting Old Town to La Jolla and University City nearly two and a half years ago.
The Airport Authority chose Old Town for the shuttle because it's a stop on both the Blue and Green trolley lines, more than a dozen bus routes and both the Coaster and the Amtrak Pacific Surfliner.
"Our goal is to enable our visitors to get to and from the airport in the way that works for them," said Airport Authority spokesperson Jonathan Heller. "The Flyer seems to be complementary to transit for airport visitors who want to travel by trolley, Coaster or Amtrak to the airport."
The shuttle isn't the only way to use mass transit to get to the airport. Since 1999, the Metropolitan Transit System has operated a municipal bus to the airport, Route 992.
The 992 is a relatively small loop that runs from Broadway in downtown past the hotels along the harbor and to the airport. But it's useful to transit riders because it passes Santa Fe Depot, a downtown stop on the trolley, Coaster and Amtrak.
Annual ridership on the 992 has hovered around 400,000, which is about 1,100 passengers a day, for most of the years it has run. But ridership dropped to 165,000 in 2021 because of the pandemic and had bounced back only to 288,000 by last year — still well below pre-pandemic levels.
MTS spokesperson Hector Zermeno said the agency is pleased 992 ridership has recovered somewhat and that total ridership between the shuttle and the 992 is strong.
"We think the two services complement each other well and give riders solid options for using transit to get to the airport," Zermeno said.
Heller said one reason the Airport Authority created the shuttle was providing another transit-airport option to take pressure off Santa Fe Depot.
"The goal was to provide a convenient, last-mile connection that would make it easier for transit riders to access the airport, particularly connecting airport passengers and employees using transit from North County via the Coaster and from Mission Valley via the trolley, so transit riders would not have to connect exclusively through the downtown Santa Fe Depot," he said.
The shuttle, which is an electric zero-emission vehicle, costs the Airport Authority $1.2 million per year to operate.
The surges in shuttle ridership this February and March go well beyond recent trends. That's likely in part because some of the migrants arriving at the border have been heading to Old Town and then boarding the shuttle to the airport en route to destinations around the United States.
On Wednesday, nearly a dozen migrants boarded an airport shuttle after all of the other passengers waiting in line were on board.
Travelers who want to drive to a trolley station and take the shuttle to the airport are mostly out of luck. Trolley parking lots and the Old Town Transit Center parking lot don't allow parking for longer than 24 hours, so that option would only work for airport employees and for travelers making very short round trips.
This story originally appeared in San Diego Union-Tribune.
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