A proposal to change the name of Oakland International Airport to “San Francisco Bay Oakland International Airport” has upset Oakland residents and officials from San Francisco, with the city threatening to sue. It’s also raised questions about why officials are trying to add an extra terminal to the airport.
Port officials announced the name-change proposal on March 29, but the idea has been in the works for a while. Last summer, the port sent a survey to 700 voters in Oakland to gauge their comfort level with a name that better reflects the airport’s service area, defined in the survey as the “San Francisco East Bay Region.”
Some critics claim the name change will confuse San Francisco-bound travelers. Officials from the Port of Oakland, which operates the airport, have defended the rebranding as necessary, saying that national and international travelers are unfamiliar with Oakland’s proximity to the San Francisco Bay, which has hampered demand for flights.
“Market research and interviews with airline partners have shown that routes have not performed as well as they should have due to the lack of geographic awareness, making air carriers reluctant to sustain and add new routes to Oakland,” Port of Oakland Interim Director of Aviation Craig Simon said in a press statement.
Oakland’s airport hit a recent peak of 13.4 million total passengers traveling through in 2019. But like other airports, Oakland saw a big drop in travelers during the pandemic, with just 4.6 million total fliers in 2020. By 2022, passenger numbers were recovering, but only reached 11 million, and 2023 was only a little higher. Port officials hoped business travel—specifically between Oakland and Southern California—would take off again. But so far that has failed to happen.
Airport leaders say these negative trends could be reversed with a name change.
But these same negative trends undermine the port’s rationale for pursuing an expansion of the airport, according to some East Bay activists.
Are more fliers coming to Oakland?
Last year, airport officials issued a report projecting that OAK will have over 17 million annual passengers by 2028 and almost 25 million by 2038. An airport spokesperson said passenger activity is expected to increase “due to market-based demand.”
In response to this expected boom in travel through OAK, the port announced in 2021 that it would embark on an extensive upgrade of the airport, including a new terminal with 16 passenger gates that could accommodate millions more passengers each year.
David Foecke, a member of the steering committee for a coalition of 75 advocacy organizations called Stop OAK Expansion, said the airport’s desire to change its name suggests there isn’t enough a lot of demand to fly through OAK, certainly nothing close to what officials are projecting to justify building a bigger airport.
“The proposal to rename the Oakland airport as the San Francisco Bay Oakland International Airport is a blatant attempt to steal passengers away from SFO, because the Port of Oakland staff now realize that their supposed ‘market-based’ projections of increased passenger traffic at OAK—that they are using to justify their plans to add a new terminal and 16 more gates—are pure fantasy,” Foecke said.
Airport spokesperson Kaley Skantz said the proposed name change and the airport modernization project are not dependent on one another.
“The Proposed Terminal Modernization and Development Project forecasts passenger demand and seeks to ensure acceptable levels of service – regardless of any proposed name modification,” Skantz told The Oaklandside. “The proposed name modification seeks to clarify OAK’s geographic position for travelers and help attract airlines to the San Francisco Bay Area.”
On Monday, Port officials released the results of two surveys of Oakland and East Bay residents that showed a majority of respondents think it’s important to increase the number of flights to and from OAK. A majority of residents are also comfortable with the airport changing its name to attract more fliers. The survey questions do not mention the possible new name that starts with “San Francisco Bay.”
Members of the Stop OAK Expansion submitted a letter to the Port last October outlining their environmental concerns with the project, including the increase in air pollution and noise.
Some other nearby cities aren’t excited about a bigger OAK either. Officials from the city of Alameda wrote that they are “deeply concerned” with what they said is a failure by the airport to adequately study noise, greenhouse gas emissions, traffic congestion, and other negative aspects of the project. SEIU-USWW, a union that represents many airport workers in California, said the project would worsen air pollution in the East Bay where many of its members live.
Airport leaders acknowledge that air travel is still suffering from the pandemic, but said they’re confident in their long-term projections of passenger numbers at OAK.
“We remain hopeful that a pre-pandemic level of intrastate travel will return,” Skantz said.
