The airport was the origin for an emergency supply airlift to the Watsonville Municipal Airport following the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, after mountain and coastal roads were blocked, cutting off Santa Cruz and Watsonville from relief efforts by ground. The Watsonville Airport estimates that it received of supplies via the airlift during the week following the quake. John McAvoy and Bill Dunn of the Reid–Hillview Airport Association received the 1990 Grand Award from the Bay Area's Metropolitan Transportation Commission for organizing the airlift. The airport continues to be used in emergency operations, including during the SCU Lightning Complex fires in 2020.