Between California’s major cities of Los Angeles and San Francisco sits Monterey, which has had an airport since 1936, nearly a decade before the city was memorialized in John Steinbeck’s novel Cannery Row. Today tourism has replaced sardines as the city’s number-one industry, according to Michael Heilpern, operations manager at the Monterey Jet Center (MJC). Established in 1997 in a newly built facility at Monterey Peninsula Airport (renamed Monterey Regional Airport in 2011), the FBO is the largest complex on the field, eclipsing even the airline terminal, with more than 200,000 sq ft of hangars and office space spread over 16 acres. The three largest hangars are approximately 60,000 sq ft each and can easily accommodate the latest class of ultra-long-range business aircraft, and its 10-acre ramp can fit jetliners the size of a 767. While the facility is home to seven jets ranging from a Citation Mustang to a Global Express, and a trio of turboprops (a King Air 90, Conquest and Twin Commander), its hangars are filled several times a year with aircraft carrying passengers to the city’s major events.
Last month, Monterey’s Pebble Beach Golf Course hosted its annual ATT Pro-Am Tournament, which attracted several dozen private aircraft to MJC, one of two providers on the field.
