[2][4] The airport is named after Charles M. Schulz, the famed cartoonist of the Peanuts comic strip, who lived in Santa Rosa for more than 30 years.

In the 1930s Santa Rosa had a small municipal airfield owned by Richfield Oil Corporation next to the Redwood Highway about 6 miles southeast of the present airport.

Use of the 3,000-foot sod runway at the earlier airfield was discontinued during World War II as facilities at the present airport improved.

The airfield was inactivated on January 31, 1946 during winter and turned over to the War Assets Administration for eventual conversion to a civil airport.

Southwest Airways Douglas DC-3s followed by Pacific, Air West and Hughes Airwest Fairchild F-27 turboprops mainly flew to San Francisco (SFO).

[6][7] In 1967 Pacific was operating daily F-27 service on a roundtrip routing of Portland, OR - Crescent City - Eureka/Arcata - Santa Rosa - San Francisco.

[8][9] By 1968, one of the Air West F-27 flights serving the airport was operating a daily southbound routing of Redding - Santa Rosa - Oakland - San Francisco.

[15][16][17] In 1985 Westates Airlines Convair CV-580 turboprops flew nonstop to Los Angeles for several months before ceasing operations; their July 1985 timetable listed 38 round trips a week between STS and LAX.

[25] United Express then left Santa Rosa later in 2001 (and would not return until 2017) with the airport not having any scheduled passenger airline service for several years during the early and mid-2000s.

Horizon then added flights to Portland, Oregon in late 2007, to Las Vegas in early 2008,[26] and to San Diego in mid 2012.

[31] Alaska E-175s currently fly nonstop to Burbank, Los Angeles, Orange County, Portland, San Diego, and Seattle.

Allegiant ended flights to Phoenix-Mesa on January 2, 2017 and to Las Vegas on June 30, 2017 and no longer serves Santa Rosa.

In October 2016, American Airlines announced it would begin nonstop service between Santa Rosa and its hub in Phoenix (PHX) on February 16, 2017.

[39] Avelo Airlines began nonstop service to the Hollywood Burbank Airport (BUR) in the Los Angeles area on April 28, 2021 and then subsequently added nonstop flights to Las Vegas with Boeing 737-800 mainline jetliners which are currently the largest aircraft type serving Santa Rosa in scheduled passenger service.

[42] Avelo has announced it will establish a base in Santa Rosa with two 737 jet aircraft to be based at the airport as well as expanding its nonstop service from STS in early May 2024 to several new destinations in the western U.S.[43] With the retirement of all Bombardier Q400 turboprop aircraft from the Alaska Airlines fleet in late January 2023, all Alaska Airlines flights from Santa Rosa are currently operated either with Embraer E175 regional jets or with mainline Boeing 737-800 jetliners.

[2] In the year ending December 31, 2023 the airport had 82,710 aircraft operations, average 226 per day: 79% general aviation, 11% air taxi, 10% airline and <1% military.

[50] It will include a new gate 1 (replacing the old modular facility), additional space for concessions, an outdoor patio with seating and dining, a two new baggage claim systems, relocation of rental car desks, and a new ticketing lobby.

[51] The terminal broke ground in late 2020 and opened in November 2022, with the full airport modernization project concluding in August 2023.

The base's immediate response area covers 4,000 square miles (10,000 km2) and includes Marin County and portions of the CDF Sonoma–Lake–Napa, Santa Clara, San Mateo–Santa Cruz, and Mendocino Units.