Travellers flying out of San Francisco International can now start their trip in wine country — and clear airport security before they even board the bus. Landline, the company behind airside coach connections at a handful of US airports, launched its first West Coast route on 17 November: a service linking Charles M. Schulz-Sonoma County Airport (STS) in Santa Rosa with SFO.
The idea is simple but unusual. Passengers check in and drop bags at the small STS terminal, go through a security checkpoint there, then board a coach for the roughly two-hour ride to SFO (traffic depending). Buses pull up at Gate A3 in SFO's International Terminal, meaning travellers walk straight to their connecting flight — no second security line. Checked luggage gets transferred automatically to the onward flight. On the way back, you grab your bag at SFO and board the coach at the baggage claim curb.
Fares start at $55 one-way for adults, kids under 15 ride free, and tickets are booked through Landline rather than the airlines. Don't expect loyalty points on the coach segment, though the company works with Alaska, American, Hawaiian, JetBlue and United, so connections feed into all of those networks. Buses are set up in a roomy 2-1 layout with Starlink Wi-Fi on board.
There are eight daily round trips to start, and Landline's boss David Sunde has already flagged possible California expansion — Monterey, Stockton, Modesto and Sacramento airports are on the wish list, reviving routes that lost commercial air service years ago. Replacing short hops with buses could also ease SFO's well-known weather-related delays.
The San Francisco route is the latest sign of momentum for Landline, which started seven years ago with the idea that comfortable coaches could stand in for uneconomical regional flights. Its biggest success story so far is in Colorado, where the Fort Collins–Denver route has grown from four daily round trips in 2021 to 19 today. In Massachusetts, a trial coach link from a remote terminal in Framingham to Boston Logan was so popular it was extended through March 2027 within a month of launching, with buses regularly departing full. Landline says it has doubled in size over the past year.
For anyone holidaying in Sonoma or Napa, this is a genuinely handy fix for a familiar problem: the long, traffic-prone drive down US 101 to SFO. Instead of arranging a car or parking at the airport, you can check in, clear security and relax with Wi-Fi while someone else handles the traffic — and your bags go straight onto your flight.
