Oakland San Francisco Bay Airport
Oakland San Francisco Bay Airport is an international airport in Oakland, California, United States. The airport is located south of downtown Oakland and east of San Francisco, serving the East Bay of the San Francisco Bay Area. The airport is owned by the Port of Oakland and has domestic passenger flights to cities throughout the United States and international flights to Mexico and El Salvador, in addition to cargo flights to China and Japan. The airport covers of land. The airport is an operating base for Southwest Airlines, which operates point-to-point routes with bases instead of a conventional hub-and-spoke system.
History
Early years
The city of Oakland looked into the construction of an airport starting in 1925. The announcement of the Dole Air Race for a flight from California to Hawaii provided the incentive to purchase in April 1927 for the airport. The runway was the longest in the world at the time and was built in just 21 days ahead of the Dole race start. The airport was dedicated by Charles Lindbergh on September 17. In its early days, because of its long runway enabling safe takeoff rolls for fuel-heavy aircraft, Oakland was the departing point of several historic flights, including Charles Kingsford Smith's historic US–Australia flight in 1928 and Amelia Earhart's final flight in 1937. Earhart departed from this airport when she made her final, ill-fated voyage, intending to return there after circumnavigating the globe.Boeing Air Transport began scheduled flights to Oakland in December 1927. It was joined by Trans World Airlines in 1932. In 1929 Boeing opened the Boeing School of Aeronautics on the field, which expanded rapidly in 1939 as part of the Civilian Pilot Training Program. Thousands of pilots and mechanics were trained before the facility was changed into the United Air Lines training center in 1945.
In 1943 the U.S. Armed Forces temporarily took over Oakland Airport and opened Naval Air Station Oakland. It was transformed into an airlift base for military flights to the Pacific islands, ordering all scheduled services to move to San Francisco International Airport. After the war, airlines slowly returned to Oakland; Western Airlines began flights in 1946, and was followed by American Airlines, TWA, United, Transocean Air Lines and Pacific Southwest Airlines. Oakland became a larger center for non-scheduled and supplemental air carriers: some of the largest such companies were based and headquartered in Oakland including Transocean Air Lines, World Airways, Trans International Airlines, Universal Airlines and Saturn Airways. Other large supplemental carriers, such as United States Overseas Airlines, had operational bases in Oakland. Oakland became one of the largest overhaul and maintenance operations in the country when Aircraft Engine and Maintenance Company processed thousands of aircraft.
The airport's first Jet Age terminal was designed by John Carl Warnecke & Associates and opened in 1962, part of a $20 million expansion on bay fill that included the 10,000-foot runway 11/29. The May 1963 OAG showed 15 airline flights arriving in Oakland each day, including nine from San Francisco; in June 1963, TWA flew Oakland's first scheduled jet, a Convair 880, to Chicago. American Airlines scheduled service from Oakland to Phoenix and then into Dallas using the Boeing 720 aircraft. Pacific Southwest Airlines provided several flights within California from OAK using Boeing 727 and DC-9 aircraft. United Airlines introduced non-stop service to Chicago and on the San Francisco-Oakland-Los Angeles route using the Boeing 727.
During the Vietnam War, World Airways shuttled thousands of military passengers through Oakland to their bases in Southeast Asia, and an international arrivals facility was built, allowing the airport to handle international flights for the first time. World Airways had broken ground on the World Air Center at Oakland San Francisco Bay Airport. The maintenance hangar could store four Boeing 747s. It opened in May 1973. During its operation, World Airways provided contract maintenance services for 14 airlines in the facility. By 1988, World Airways vacated the Oakland maintenance base and moved its headquarters to Washington Dulles. That same year, United Airlines assumed the lease on the maintenance base.
After the war, Oakland's traffic slumped, but airline deregulation prompted several low-fare carriers to begin flights. This increase prompted the airport to build a $16.3 million second terminal, the Lionel J. Wilson Terminal 2, with seven gates for PSA and AirCal service. In the mid-1980s, People Express Airlines provided scheduled Boeing 747 transcontinental flights from OAK to Newark. SFO Helicopter Airlines served scheduled passenger flights between SFO and the Oakland Convention Center from OAK for many years until 1985. In 1987, British Airways and Air France Concorde visited Oakland to provide supersonic two-hour flights to the Pacific halfway to Hawaii and back to Oakland. Additionally, Concorde returned for a special around-the-world trip covering 38,215 miles over a three-week tour in March 1989.
FedEx Express opened an air cargo base at OAK in 1988, which is now one of the busiest air freight terminals in the United States. In the 1990s, Southwest Airlines opened a crew base in Oakland, and expanded its flights to become the airport's dominant passenger carrier. The airport has international arrival facilities, including U.S. Customs and Border Protection office. The 1990s saw a rise of low-cost carriers serving Oakland, Morris Air, and MarkAir to name a few, provided several domestic destinations from OAK. During the 1990s, tour operator SunTrips contracted Aerocancun and Leisure Air to provide scheduled charter flights from OAK to sun destinations during the early 1990s. TAESA and Mexicana Airlines also flew between Oakland and cities in Mexico for many years. In the past Tower Air and Corsairfly flew Orly Airport to OAK to Papeete, Tahiti; Martinair flew to Schiphol Airport; and CityBird flew to Brussels Airport.
2000s
vacated its Oakland Maintenance Center in May 2003 and transferred work to its base across the bay at San Francisco International Airport.Oakland San Francisco Bay Airport began a $300 million expansion and renovation project in 2004, including adding five gates in Terminal 2. The new concourse partially opened in the fall of 2006, was fully opened by the spring of 2007, and a new baggage claim in Terminal 2 opened in the summer of 2006. The former Terminal 2 baggage claim has been replaced by a renovated and expanded security screening area. As part of this program, airport roadways, curbsides and parking lots were also renovated by the end of 2008.
In 2008, Oakland saw a series of cutbacks due to high fuel costs and airline bankruptcies, more than other Bay Area airports. In just a few days, Oakland's numerous non-stops to Hawaii were eliminated following the liquidation of ATA Airlines and Aloha Airlines, although Hawaiian Airlines started a daily flight to Honolulu a month later. Skybus Airlines stopped flying to Columbus, OH when it ended operations on April 5. American Airlines and Continental Airlines both dropped Oakland on September 3, United Airlines ended service to Los Angeles on November 2.
2010s
Following the years of the Great Recession, during which a few airlines were either liquidated, or consolidated business to San Francisco International Airport, OAK started a gradual recovery, which has continued through 2017.In 2009, Allegiant Air moved operations from San Francisco International Airport, before designating OAK as a focus city. After the bankruptcies of ATA and Aloha Airlines, Alaska Airlines and Hawaiian Airlines replaced their nonstop services to Hawaii. In the same year, Volaris began service to OAK as their first destination in the San Francisco Bay Area and held a commercial agreement with Southwest Airlines, until its merger with AirTran Airways in 2011. Malaysia-based AirAsia X honored its new partners, the Oakland Raiders of the National Football League. AirAsia X had one of their planes full of its executives and crew members "touch down" at OAK in acknowledgement of the to-be-announced sponsorship. AirAsia executives had new optimism that service between the U.S. and the airline's main base in Kuala Lumpur, could possibly happen earlier than originally expected, but has yet to come to fruition as of 2020.
In 2009, OAK had the highest on-time arrival percentage among the 40 busiest North American airports.
In 2011, Spirit Airlines returned to OAK after several years of absence, eventually flying a combined total of seven year-round and seasonal routes by the summer of 2017. Oakland San Francisco Bay Airport also celebrated its 85th anniversary in 2011, commemorating the first transpacific crossing by air from OAK to Hawaii, which took place on June 29, 1927, in The Bird of Paradise, flown by Hegenberger and Maitland. In 2012 United Airlines pulled out of OAK, consolidating operations at San Francisco International Airport, its Bay Area hub. Arkefly chose OAK as a San Francisco Bay Area gateway, flying twice weekly to Amsterdam, via a stop at Los Angeles International Airport. Arkefly provided 18 weeks of scheduled service in the summer of 2012. The airline followed with a similar schedule during the summer of 2013, before discontinuing service at OAK.
In 2013, FedEx Express opened a $30 million upgrade of its hub facility at OAK, including additions to accommodate the airline's new Boeing 777 Freighter fleet. In 2014, Norwegian Air Shuttle announced its first two year-round flights to Stockholm and Oslo airport, using Boeing 787-8 aircraft seating 291 passengers operated by Norwegian Long Haul. The flights were the first-ever nonstop services offered from the two Scandinavian capitals to the San Francisco Bay Area, providing several connections throughout Europe. The Oslo flight was later changed to a seasonal schedule.
A long-proposed extension of the BART system to the airport opened on November 22, 2014, connecting the BART Coliseum station with a station in the parking lot opposite of the airport terminals. The new system consists of a mostly elevated structure, running the length of Hegenberger Road.
In May 2015, Oakland International Airport's Moving Modern program construction commenced a $100 million renovation of the Terminal 1 complex. The project included seismic architectural retrofits in central buildings, replacement and upgrading of infrastructure and improvement of the passenger environment. The project was completed in Spring 2017.
In 2016, Norwegian Air Shuttle announced that nonstop flights would connect Oakland with London beginning the following spring. British Airways responded with their own service to London, with both airlines providing service to London's Gatwick Airport. American Airlines also returned and re-branded, following a merger with US Airways; the latter previously had a short-term presence at OAK, following a separate merger with America West Airlines during the previous decade. Southwest Airlines inaugurated nonstop flights from Oakland to Mexico for the airline's first international nonstop flights from OAK. The additional routes also gave the airline a combined total of 30 year-round and seasonal flights at the airport as of early 2017.
In 2017, Norwegian Air Shuttle announced nonstop flights connecting Oakland with Copenhagen on a seasonal basis from March 28, and Oakland with Barcelona from June 7 to operate year-round. Level, a new carrier owned by IAG, responded with their own Barcelona service, started flights initially operated by IAG partner Iberia on June 2, with both airlines providing service to Barcelona El Prat Airport. In the months following, Norwegian announced in May the introduction of nonstop flights between Oakland and Rome Fiumicino started on February 6, 2018, and in July the introduction of nonstop flights between Oakland and Paris Charles de Gaulle began on April 10, 2018.