Oakland renames airport to the outrage of San Francisco
Oakland, California, changed the name of its airport to San Francisco Bay Oakland International Airport this week despite backlash from its neighboring San Francisco.
The name change was meant to communicate the airport’s nearness to the San Francisco Bay. It now competes with the San Fransisco International Airport just west of the bay, but its code OAK will remain the same to differentiate itself. Some 13 million passengers use the airport every year, which is not as large as San Francisco’s SFO, but the plan of the Oakland Board of Port Commissioners, which voted unanimously to change the name, is that more will travel there because of it.
“We found that over half of frequent international travelers and nearly a third of domestic travelers are unaware of OAK’s amazing location in the heart of Northern California and the San Francisco Bay Area,” board president Barbara Leslie said. “This means that flights to Oakland haven’t performed as well as they could, leading to a loss of routes and making airlines reluctant to add new routes.”
This change is anticipated by the board to create a $1.6 billion economic impact. Already OAK had plans to renovate terminals and bathrooms, the check-in lobby, and add more restaurants.
“I think 30,000 jobs and tax revenue is on the line,” board member Yui Hay Lee said ahead of the vote Thursday. “The bottom line is we really have no choice. Doing nothing is not an option.”
However, San Francisco City Attorney David Chiu called the name change an infringement of the SFO airport’s trademark on the name, which it has held since 2012.
“We want to see the entire Bay Area thrive as a tourist destination and expand our offerings to visitors, but this proposal is not a legal or practical way to go about it,” Chiu said in a statement. “If Oakland moves forward with this proposal, San Francisco will pursue legal action to prevent misuse of our trademark.”
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Additionally, the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce combined with the Hotel Council of San Francisco, the San Francisco Travel Association, United Airlines, and other partners to write the Oakland board to reject the name change at the risk of “blurring the lines between the two airports and undermining their positions and identities.”
San Francisco hosted over 50 million passengers last year.
