Oakland International Airport to add San Francisco Bay to name -- legal war looms

OAKLAND, California — Despite an uproar from politicians and tourism executives, officials who oversee Oakland International Airport voted Thursday to add “San Francisco Bay” to the transit hub’s name.

The change is meant to spur economic growth in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic and create a higher profile for the least busy of the Bay Area’s three major airports. But the controversial move may also unleash a legal war.

The Oakland Board of Port Commissioners voted unanimously, 7-0, to approve the name change to San Francisco Bay Oakland International Airport.

“We are going all-in with Oakland,” Barbara Leslie, president of the port’s board, said before voting for the new moniker. “We want to keep money in the local economy.”

Oakland Airport officials say they are concerned that many people who want to travel to the Bay Area are flying into San Francisco International Airport — which actually is located in San Mateo County and not its namesake city to the north — when it would be more convenient to travel to the East Bay airport. Like SFO to the west, OAK abuts the San Francisco Bay.

“The lack of geographic awareness by inbound passengers has created challenges for our airport partners,” said Craig Simon, Oakland’s acting director of aviation. “This is not just about marketing. This is about the lack of awareness about Oakland.”

OAK officials believe the airport’s lower profile has made it tougher for the travel hub to retain routes it attracts. From July 2008 to March 2024, Oakland added 54 new routes. Of these, 39 were lost.

“For every additional route, we add $10 million to our local economy,” said Andreas Cluver, a port board commissioner.

But San Francisco International Airport officials have expressed dismay about the name change — and some San Francisco officials have threatened a lawsuit to block the move.

“We believe this new name will ultimately be misleading to passengers,” Doug Yakel, a spokesman for San Francisco International Airport, said in a comment to the board prior to the vote. “We have an obligation to serve the passengers using our airports by reducing the sources of stress and confusion.”

In 2023, SFO handled more than 50 million passengers. Oakland handled about 11.24 million.

And some in Oakland aren’t fans of the idea, either.

Cestra “Ces” Butner, a former member of the Oakland port board and now an official with the NAACP in Oakland, suggested in a presentation to the board that the name change denigrates Oakland.

“We were surprised and disappointed that no one reached out to the NAACP” about the name change, Butner said. “This appears to be an attempt by the airport to distance itself from Oakland.”

Danny Wan, executive director of the Port of Oakland, which operates OAK, insisted the name change isn’t part of an effort to create distance between the airport and Oakland.

“This is pro-Oakland,” Wan said. “This is to boost Oakland. This does not denigrate Oakland in any way.”

The NAACP had asked the port board to delay the vote for two to four weeks. The board’s president replied that the Thursday vote was the first reading of an ordinance to change the name, and as such, officially only signaled the board’s intent to change the name.

The final vote on the matter is scheduled for May. It wasn’t immediately clear when the name change might occur.

Some airlines have endorsed the new name.

“We believe there is a great untapped opportunity with the renaming of the Oakland airport,” said John Kirby, a vice president with Spirit Airlines. “This will make our flights to Oakland more discoverable.”

Oakland International Airport generates more than 30,000 jobs and has an economic impact of $1.6 billion in the Oakland area, according to port officials.

“We want to make sure that those jobs and that $1.6 billion grow,” Leslie said.

Some speakers also said it might clear up confusion, not create it — suggesting that airlines and passengers have confused Oakland with Auckland, the city in New Zealand.

“I want everybody to be able to know Oakland,” Jahmese Myres, a Port of Oakland commissioner, said before voting to support the name change. “But in order to know Oakland, they have to know Oakland is in the San Francisco Bay. Airport jobs are really good jobs.”