SFO Information Please

[Lite]

Following on from the topic about smaller USA airports, I am currently interested in finding out some information where possible on San Francisco (SFO) Airport and some of the alternatives for San Fran.

1) Whenever I have read about SFO in the past, it has been slated because of heavy delays out of that airport. Why is that?

2) Why did Southwest pull out of SFO?

3) Does anybody know how big the Shuttle by United operation was out of SFO; aircraft, route and number of gates wise. I flew in 2000 on S by U and it seemed to be quite big.

4) Is there a long list of airlines wanting to fly from SFO? Are there many check-in or gate spaces available and with one of the terminals currently being renovated, will this bring more availability?

5) How good are the chances of a Low Cost Airline being based at SFO?

6) What are effective alternatives to SFO?

Thanks :ok:

[weasil]

The parallel runways are too close together for simultaneous ILS approaches when it's foggy, and it's always foggy.

This halves the landing capacity.

OAK is closer to downtown and much less delays even though there's just the one big runway because there's less jet traffic.

SJC is still further away but much less delays there also.

I remember at the time Southwest said that it just made more economic sense to move out of SFO for those reasons.

When I was in CA United were pretty much the main game in town at SFO. Don't know what it's like now. Are you starting a Low Cost Carrier?

[willbav8r]

Yup, UAL are definately prominent at SFO. Lots of international traffic, whereas OAK is mainly domestic. Southwest get their own terminal, and presumably, a monopoly: being a good thing...?

I read that the traffic at SFO is down 22% from pre 9/11 figures.

BART now runs right to SFO, so access is a bit easier. The International terminal is a delight.

[Lite]

weasil thank you for your reply to my post. I would not like to say that I am in anyway involved with a low-cost airline as when someone expresses such an idea on PPRUNe it is usually badly ridiculed, however I am researching a number of cities and pros and cons into the US airline industry, I think thats the best way to put it :ok: !

The airline industry in the USA, especially on the West Coast simply fascinates me, and I have found that JetBlue has done a geat job of creating a high frequency, good quality service out of a major East Coast hub, and I am interested to see whether SFO is in a similar situation to JFK.

I would be very interested to see the answers to my before asked questions, whether anyone has any contact addresses for SFO and if anyone believes a new start up from SFI could flourish.

[Falme Out]

BART to SFO sucks a big one specially if you live in the south bay. They don't time the trains right. You will wait a minimum of 30 minutes for the connection to CAL Train everytime. BART will arrive 2 minutes after the train have left Millbrea station. Don't get me wrong, it's on schedule but the the schedule between the two outfits (BART and CAL Train) don't mesh at all. If you've been flying in Europe this will drive you nuts. Not sure if this is the right form for it but just irks the hell out of me everytime. Anyways, cheers.:*

OAK is a better bet. SJC has that BART/ CAL Train problem and the trains (CAL Train) do not run on weekends. OAK is also closer to San Francisco and the North Bay. Weather wise, it's usually better in the East Bay so less delays.