Baltimore’s BWI airport makes clear that it is part of the Washington, DC region – Baltimore Washington International. It used to be BAL for Baltimore and the story of how they changed involves geopolitical intrigue since BWI belonged to Papua New Guinea.
Fresno Yosemite Airport markets itself as a gateway to Yosemite National Park, so that visitors consider it rather than San Francisco or San Jose (which are more likely for many to have non-stop flights). They were unable to get their airport code changed, however. It’s still FAT (‘Fresno Air Terminal’), one of the world’s worst airport codes alongside Sioux City, Iowa; Fukuoka, Japan; Kochi, India; and Pensacola, Florida.
Oakland airport thinks they need a re-naming since passengers in the West may realize where they are geographically but in most of the country and most of the world people do not know that they’re part of the San Francisco Bay Area. Although I’m not sure that these days promoting a connection to San Francisco is a positive thing – still, that city has nowhere to go but up!
“Market research both nationally and internationally has shown that majorities of international and U.S. passengers are unfamiliar with Oakland’s or our airport’s proximity to the San Francisco Bay,” port official Matt Davis said in a statement.
“This lack of awareness depressed inbound passenger demand, even from passengers flying to destinations near Oakland,” Davis’ statement added.
It doesn’t seem like the major challenge with transcon and long haul international flights from the airport is the airport’s name as port officials seem to suggest. And “East Bay Oakland International Airport” doesn’t seem like it would do much to change that. For political reasons it doesn’t seem like they’d consider “San Francisco Bay Oakland International Airport.” But why not? European low cost carriers have long promoted Bratislava as Vienna even though it’s literally in another country!
Airport marketing can matter at the margin, though it can also just light money on fire.
While technically accurate I’m not sure the Bratislava analogy is a good one. It takes less time to get from Bratislava to Vienna than it often does to get to Manhattan from JFK.
They should change it to Las Vegas San Francisco Bay Transoceanic Airport so the A’s end up building a stadium there
Oakland airport is closer to downtown San Francisco than SFO airport. Use BART system.
Don’t use Bart it’s terrible and not safe.
God, people are stupid.
San Francisco has seen better days, but the Bay Area is thriving. In the last half decade, many corporations set up shop in the “Tri-Valley” which is outstanding as long as you don’t rely on public transportation.
SF the city will not recover. It’s never been the epicenter of tech, it’s merely ridden the coattails of tech giants who set up shop along the peninsula. The “brand” of SF appealed to young people, and startups began to open in the city, but with ZIRP and the primacy of the office behind us, SF has lost its advantages. Young techies who want an urban lifestyle have many more options across the country.
As a professional geographer I’ve learned not to expect much public knowledge of where things are. There’s a good reason why New Mexico has a big red “USA” on its license plates. Things like that are just an irritant for local people, but what is worse is when the public lets itself drift into military adventures without the slightest idea of where a country is, what its history and culture are like or who they are fighting. I saw that with Vietnam and the exact same kind of lies used with Iraq. And after making an earlier visit to Afghanistan it was obvious how a land war would end there. Too bad it took several administrations to come to the same conclusion. Now I wonder how long we’ll play whack-a-mole in Africa. (Till the lucrative contracts run out, I suppose.)
Well, having lived in the bay area for 20 years and happily left over 10- years ago, I must say that Oakland has always been the center of gang activities and drug dealers. I propose the airport be renamed SFH which would be the acronym of San Francisco Hood Airport which is the most accurate description of that city.
Using Oakland airport to/from San Francisco has nothing to do with criminal activities in the city. It IS closer to downtown/central SF than SFO airport.
Oaklander here. A few thoughts:
1. This kinda seems like a solution in search of a problem. I don’t extensively research these things, but don’t most airfare search results offer you nearby airports?
2. If they’re going to do this, seems like Oakland San Francisco Bay International Airport would be a good choice – closely mirrors BWI’s naming scheme.
3. OAK is not closer to San Francisco on BART than SFO is:
— You have to take a separate airport-to-Coliseum train (and pay a separate fare, last time I checked it was $6) before you can even get on BART. Getting on that airport-to-Coliseum train requires exiting the airport, crossing arrivals street traffic out to the parking lot, and then up to the platform.
— Not every train that passes through the Coliseum station goes across the bay — catch the wrong train and you’ll end up in Richmond. At SFO, it’s harder to screw up getting where you’re going.
4. LOL at tacking on “Las Vegas,” A’s management might actually be dumb enough to fall for that.
I feel like Sally Field here…you mentioned us… you really mentioned us…
While we may have a TLA that makes grade-school kids giggle, at least we’re an intergalactic airport!
https://flypensacola.com/go-beyond-pensacola-airport-goes-intergalactic/
I would have thought NOT being associated with San Francisco was a GOOD thing.
‘one of the world’s worst airport codes alongside Sioux City, Iowa; Fukuoka, Japan; Kochi, India; and Pensacola, Florida’ – LOL my hometown airport code says ‘Hold my Beer’, i’ll leave the homework for you (hint: is the ‘firstborn of the whole American continent’).
@Thing 1
That would true for everything EXCEPT for Oakland.
Having flown there a few weeks ago, it seems you missed one of the best airport codes of them all, DIK!
1.) Sioux City embraces its airport code. They sell merchandise. The airport sent me an awesome package of postcards, stickers, a luggage tag, and some SUX socks.
2.) Oakland: San Francisco’s Nearest Walgreens
this is actually the best airport around the bay….Leave it alone….everyone knows where Oakland is…It’s my go to airport if there is a flight to where I want to go!!! I ll even pay a little more for the flight to not have to hassle SFO or San Jose which I still call it even though they keep changing the name too!!!!!!
The best ICAO code IMO is Key West, FL.
@TLU: I don’t get it. Why is “EYW” (Key West) the best ICAO code?
4-letter ICAO code = K + 3-letter IATA code
(rule works for most, but not all, US airports)
Key West is KEYW.
From my personal experience, I have flown in/out of Oakland Airport many times, not to mention I used to live 15 minutes from the airport. I like the airport location and easy access to the vicinity of the cities in the East Bay compared to SFO. Indeed, not many people know how convenient to fly in and out of the airport if your business is beyond the San Francisco peninsula.
I think OAK is fine with its current name but if they want to change it I lean with Justin on Oakland San Francisco Bay International Airport. Rather than a change, what OAK should do is convince airlines to fly there and have airlines do the marketing for them. OAK does not have near the amount of service that SFO has.
I prefer SFO because it is bigger and has more service even though OAK is closer to me. If I fly Southwest I go from OAK because it is Southwests main hub in the Bay Area and has the most Southwest flights. Any other airline, probably SFO is going to win.
I enjoy taking BART to SFO. It’s very convenient. BART to OAK does require a couple of train changes (downtown OAK and to the OAK airport connector) but not too bad unless going during commute time with luggage, in which case I would choose SFO since it’s the beginning of the BART Yellow line and you can always find space on BART when departing SFO even with luggage.
Everyone knows if you fly to Oakland and leave the terminal you’re taking chances. Carjacking, vehicle break ins, freeway shootings, general lawlessness. Police is at 40% because no one wants to work there.
Oakland needs to fix the real problems not just hope a rebrand is a solution.
What about “Back Bay”? Boston uses that phrase
East Bay makes sense otherwise, with some sort of SF hyphenation—or hyphy nation.