Sometime around 1935 the Cooley family established a different airfield near the foot of today's Twin Dolphin Drive in San Carlos.

The Cooley family eventually determined that the airport needed to be moved because its proximity to the Phelps and Steinberger Sloughs limited the length of the runway.

[4][5] In 1999, a proposal was given to extend the runway by 400 feet (120 m) into the marshy area near Bair Island south of the airport.

The proposal encountered opposition among the adjacent residents in Redwood Shores and Foster City, who complained about the potential for increased noise.

Opponents felt a longer runway would lead to bigger and noisier planes, in particular, more corporate aircraft of the light jet category.

The Federal Aviation Administration had awarded a new contract for air traffic services at San Carlos Airport to Robinson Aviation, but the contract did not include locality pay adjustments for the high cost of living in the San Francisco Bay Area.

[citation needed] In the year ending May 31, 2020, the airport had 75,243 aircraft operations, average 206 per day: 84% general aviation, 16% air taxi and <1% military.

[1] Some have speculated that the airport code of SQL is a humorous reference to the nearby headquarters of Oracle Corporation, a maker of database software.

However, the airport had the code SQL years before Oracle's predecessor, Software Development Laboratories, was incorporated in June 1977, as it is listed in the Airman's Information Manual published by the Federal Aviation Administration in 1972.