How Airports Serve California
Mark Pearson
This map displays the major airports in and around California. It shows how the state can divided according to which airport is the closest as the crow flies.
The flags are a sample of 500 census tracts (of 8024 tracts total) within the state.
Some census tract flags may look like they are colored for one airport's region but are actually in another airport's region. The census tract flags are colored with which airport they are closest to as the crow flies along the surface of the earth (the Haversine distance formula). The region boundaries that are displayed on map were computed assuming assuming the earth is flat. (The lines that divide regions are a Voronoi diagram, and I couldn't find any algorithm that calculate the lines on a sphere such as the earth.) In short, although a few census tracts may look like they're mislabeled near a boundary, it's actually the boundary that is slightly wrong.
For more information, see the full report:
http://www.mark-pearson.com/airport-distances/

BUR serves 4,386,812 people in CA
Bob Hope Airport

ONT serves 3,913,885 people in CA
Ontario International Airport

SMF serves 3,618,688 people in CA
Sacramento International Airport

OAK serves 3,459,139 people in CA
Oakland International Airport

LGB serves 3,283,900 people in CA
Long Beach Airport (Daugherty Field)

SJC serves 3,215,195 people in CA
Norman Y. Mineta San Jose International Airport

SAN serves 3,037,797 people in CA
San Diego International Airport

SNA serves 2,576,297 people in CA
John Wayne Airport - Orange County (was Orange County Airport)

LAX serves 2,455,765 people in CA
Los Angeles International Airport

FAT serves 1,772,144 people in CA
Fresno Yosemite International Airport

SFO serves 1,318,275 people in CA
San Francisco International Airport

PSP serves 1,125,614 people in CA
Palm Springs International Airport

BFL serves 937,682 people in CA
Meadows Field

SBA serves 643,621 people in CA
Santa Barbara Municipal Airport

MRY serves 572,406 people in CA
Monterey Regional Airport

SBP serves 433,341 people in CA
San Luis Obispo County Regional Airport (McChesney Field)

MFR serves 358,815 people in CA
Rogue Valley International-Medford Airport

RNO serves 124,201 people in CA
Reno-Tahoe International Airport

IFP serves 20,379 people in CA
Laughlin/Bullhead International Airport

dividing line

3,565 people
closest airport: LAX

2,163 people
closest airport: OAK

3,160 people
closest airport: SFO

closest airport: LAX

closest airport: SNA

closest airport: LGB

closest airport: SAN

closest airport: SBP

closest airport: SBA

closest airport: SJC

closest airport: PSP

closest airport: BUR

closest airport: MFR

closest airport: ONT

closest airport: SMF

closest airport: OAK

closest airport: FAT

closest airport: BFL

closest airport: RNO

closest airport: MRY

closest airport: SFO

964 people

4 people