Fresno Yosemite International Airport
FAT? that is the airport code for Fresno Yosemite International Airport! FYI is merely an abbreviation for Fresno Yosemite International.
Now that we have cleared the confusion regarding the Fresno Airport... Fresno Yosemite International Airport is currently the only major air carrier airport in the Central Valley. There are direct flights from Fresno to Dallas, Denver, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Oregon, Phoenix, Salt Lake City, San Francisco and Seattle.
It is served by the following airlines:
- Allegiant Airlines
- America West/Mesa Airlines
- American/American Eagle
- Delta Airlines
- Horizon Air
- United Airlines/ Skywest Airlines
The following major rental car companies are located in the terminal: Avis, Budget, Dollar, Hertz and National/Alamo.
As you can imagine, Fresno Yosemite International Airport is not a very large airport but its size is a blessing in disguise.
Why?
Well, smaller means shorter lines at counter check-in, shorter lines at security, cheaper parking ($8/day and 7th day is free), no need to lug your bags into a crowded shuttle to get to and from your parked car ? do you even remember which parking lot you parked your car at?!
At the Fresno airport, you walk out of the terminal, cross the street and you are in the parking lot!
Before we forget, here are some money saving tips for traveling out of Fresno Yosemite International Airport:
1) Priceline Packages
- Check Priceline for packages out of Fresno Airport (FAT). The savings could be substantial. We realized this while planning a trip from Fresno to Albuquerque. Airfare alone on United = $330/person. Hotel room per night at 3-star Sheraton = $80/night. Total for airfare plus 5 nights? hotel was about to $1060 for 2 people.
We then checked Priceline and the total package for 2 with the exact same hotel and exact same flights on United was about $700! It was a savings of over $300!
An important note: With Priceline packages, you can choose the EXACT hotel and you can also choose from a list of flight times.
2) Priceline Airfare
- If you?re on a budget or flexible with your schedule, you might want to use Priceline to ?name your price? for flights out of Fresno. Priceline conditions are:
i) flights will be anytime from 6am to 10pm
ii) you agree to make up to ONE connection each way and connection times for domestic travel can be up to 3 hours
iii) all tickets are non-transferable, nonrefundable and cannot be cancelled, refunded or exchanged.
-Since the flights are out of Fresno, you will most likely have one connection anyway. Research the flights available to your destination, look at the flight times and see if can accept flying out on any of them. Consider using Priceline only if you can accept all their terms.
New from Priceline! - You can choose your own price, times and flights!
3) Entertainment Book Rental Car Coupons
-The Brand New 2005 Entertainment Book has great coupons you can use for rental cars. In our most recent experience, we saved $40 using the coupon.
The cheapest rate we could find (without coupon) to rent a full size car at the Fresno Airport for 8 days was with National at $211.69.
Using the Entertainment book coupon, we found a full size car for 8 days with Alamo for $169.91!
Alamo and National merged in 1997 and are essentially the same company. At the Fresno Yosemite International Airport, National and Alamo share the same rental counter.
-We also use the rental coupons for Hawaii. With coupon, full size car for 7 days with Budget = $179.87. Without coupon, the same full size car for 7 days was $220.03 (cheapest rate we found with National).
The Fresno Yosemite International Airport is also home to over 200 corporate and privately-owned aircrafts and to 3 military aviation services. The largest is the California National Air Guard which maintains its headquarters for its 144th Fighter Wing and subsidiaries units which operate the F-16 aircraft.
You will sometimes see these F-16s all in a row (oh, what a sight!) as you take-off or land at the Fresno Yosemite International Airport.
If you're flying into the Fresno airport, you'd probably need a hotel once you get here. Check out your best bests for Fresno Hotels