In Oakland there is a second airport for San Francisco. But Golden City will sue

Oakland International Airport will have “San Francisco” in its full name. This was decided by senior officials of the city which is located opposite the Golden City of California, on the opposite side of its bay. According to what the local administrators have established, the airport will be able to be called San Francisco Bay Oakland International Airport (rather than simply Metropolitan Oakland International Airport), even if legal action has already been promised on the opposite side of the bay, by virtue of what is seen as a violation of a commercial brand, that of one of the most popular urban destinations on the West Coast and in the United States.

The vote in favor of the name change came in recent hours from the Board of Commissioners of the Port of Oakland and was unanimous. The Board also scheduled a second reading on the issue on May 9.

The thesis espoused by the promoters of the initiative maintains that travelers who are unfamiliar with the area are naturally inclined to fly to the most popular and busiest SFO, San Francisco International Airport, even when their final destination is closer to OAK. According to them, changing the name would change things. The IATA code, OAK in fact, would not be changed. For the record, the two ports face each other on opposite sides of the bay, no more than 10 km as the crow flies, while the road distance, via San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, or via San Mateo-Hayward Brigde, requires – in low traffic conditions – just over half an hour to cover a distance of the order of 50 kilometres.

The public administration of San Francisco has an opposing opinion, according to which the renaming would violate a registered trademark and would confuse travellers.

“Market research and interviews with the airport’s partner airlines have shown that (our) routes have not achieved the economic results they could have achieved due to lack of awareness of the geographical position – wrote the director of the aviation section of the airport in a note Port of Oakland, Craig Simon -. This makes companies reluctant to sustain routes or add others.” Simon added that Oakland Airport lost 39 of the 54 new routes added to the schedule between July 2008 and March 2024.

The airport’s top officials are considering the name change at a time when the city is battling rising crime, the result of an economic crisis that is among other things leading this community of 430,000 souls to lose its last sports team professional, the Oakland Athletics, who play in the Mayor League of baseball, but who will migrate to Las Vegas. All this after the city had already lost the National Football League (Raiders), the NBA (Warriors) and even the National Hockey League (Seals).

On the opposite side, the administrators of the port and airport of San Francisco see the issue in the opposite way. According to Ivar C. Satero, director of the SFO airport, the homonymy would confuse travellers, especially those arriving from abroad. Satero expresses himself as “deeply concerned” about the potential disservice that will be created or would be created. City Attorney David Chiu has threatened to sue the neighboring port authority if it goes ahead with the name change, arguing it would infringe on the “San Francisco International Airport” branding. San Francisco “has held these records for so long, that they have become incontestable under federal law,” Chiu wrote in a letter to several Oakland officials.

The North American news agency Associated Press has collected some opinions on the name change hypothesis. Heleh Han, a resident of the Golden Gate City, believes a second San Francisco airport would be confusing, particularly to those new to the bay.

Aron Peskin, president of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, wrote in X that the name of the city’s airport is not something you can “cut and paste.” “I love Oakland, but Oakland is Oakland,” he added, urging nearby councilors to “find another way to get to the bottom of things.”

But there are also those on social media who see it another way. An X user highlighted that the San Francisco international airport itself is physically located in the city of Milllibrae, in San Mateo County. And another user adds. “When will we rename the 49ers,” referring to San Francisco’s world-famous NFL team, which, in turn, plays in Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, which is located outside of San José, 70 kilometers south of the Golden City.