SAN FRANCISCO \u2014 Oakland officials have voted in favor of changing the name of the city\u2019s airport to San Francisco Bay Oakland International Airport, despite San Francisco threatening a lawsuit over what it says is a trademark violation.<\/p>\n
The Board of Commissioners for the Port of Oakland voted unanimously Thursday to move forward with the name-change and scheduled a second vote for final approval on May 9. The airport is currently called Oakland International Airport.<\/p>\n
Oakland airport officials have said travelers unfamiliar with the region fly into San Francisco\u2019s airport even if their destination is closer to the Oakland airport across the Bay. Modifying the name to San Francisco Bay Oakland International Airport will change that, they say. The airport\u2019s three-letter code OAK would not change.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are standing up for Oakland and the East Bay,\u201d Port Commission President Barbara Leslie said in a statement after the vote. \u201cThis name will make it clear that OAK is the closest major airport, for 4.1 million people, three national laboratories, the top public university in the country, and California\u2019s Wine Country.\u201d<\/p>\n For nearly an hour, the commissioners listened to public comments that included some Oakland residents and several airline representatives who supported the name-change, and representatives of San Francisco tourism and hospitality interests who opposed it.<\/p>\n Some supporters asked commissioners to consider having Oakland ahead of San Francisco in the new name.<\/p>\n Once final approval comes next month, \u201cstaff will move forward with the formal renaming, including working with air carriers, other airports, and local agencies to reflect the modification in airport and airline systems,\u201d the port commission said in a statement.<\/p>\n Oakland airport officials approved the name-change at a time when the city, like many other major cities, is grappling with rising crime and the fallout from losing the last professional sports team that called the city of 430,000 people home. Last week the Athletics announced that\u00a0the team will leave Oakland\u00a0after this season and play temporarily at a minor league park near Sacramento until their planned new stadium in Las Vegas is built.<\/p>\n With the A\u2019s departing, the city that was also home to the NFL\u2019s Raiders, the NBA\u2019s Warriors and the NHL\u2019s Seals will have no major sports teams.<\/p>\n The name-change suggestion had horrified San Francisco officials, who say it will confuse travelers, especially those flying in from abroad. Ivar C. Satero, director of San Francisco\u2019s airport, had said they are \u201cdeeply concerned\u201d over the potential for customer confusion and disservice. San Francisco City Attorney David Chiu on Tuesday threatened to sue Oakland officials if they pursue the name-change, arguing it would violate the city\u2019s trademark on \u201cSan Francisco International Airport.\u201d<\/p>\n San Francisco \u201chas held these registrations for such a long time that they have become incontestable under federal law,\u201d Chiu wrote in a letter to various Oakland officials.<\/p>\n Helen Han, a San Francisco resident, said she doesn\u2019t agree with changing the name because travelers could confuse the two, especially those visiting the Bay Area for the first time.<\/p>\n \u201cIt would create a lot of confusion for those who are traveling to either Oakland or San Francisco,\u201d Han said. \u201cI can imagine myself if it\u2019s my first time visiting SF, I would be really confused (when deciding) which airport I need to fly to.\u201d<\/p>\n Aaron Peskin, president of San Francisco\u2019s Board of Supervisors, introduced a resolution last week opposing the name-change and requesting the port commission reject it.<\/p>\n State Sen. Scott Wiener, who represents San Francisco, said on the social media platform X that the airport shouldn\u2019t be \u201ccutting & pasting\u201d San Francisco\u2019s name.<\/p>\n \u201cI love Oakland, but Oakland is Oakland. It\u2019s not San Francisco,\u201d he wrote. \u201cPlease find another way to turn things around.\u201d<\/p>\n But other users on X pointed out that San Francisco\u2019s airport is actually located in Millbrae, a city in San Mateo County.<\/p>\n One person quipped, \u201cWhen are we renaming the 49ers? #SantaClara.\u201d The San Francisco 49ers play at Levi\u2019s Stadium in Santa Clara, which sits just outside San Jose and is about 45 miles south of San Francisco.<\/p>\n Craig Simon, the Port of Oakland\u2019s interim aviation director, said Metropolitan Oakland International Airport, as it\u2019s officially known, lost 39 of 54 new routes added from July 2008 to March 2024.<\/p>\n \u201cMarket research and interviews with airline partners have shown that routes have not performed as well as they should have due to the lack of geographic awareness, making air carriers reluctant to sustain and add new routes in Oakland,\u201d Simon said in a statement before the vote.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n[ad_2]\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [ad_1] SAN FRANCISCO \u2014 Oakland officials have voted in favor of changing the name of the city\u2019s airport to San Francisco Bay Oakland International Airport, despite San Francisco threatening a lawsuit over what it says is a trademark violation. The Board of Commissioners for the Port of Oakland voted unanimously Thursday to move forward with …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":35820,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35818"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35818"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35818\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35820"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35818"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35818"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35818"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Image:\"](\"https:\/\/media-cldnry.s-nbcnews.com\/image\/upload\/t_fit-760w,f_auto,q_auto:best\/rockcms\/2024-04\/240412-Oakland-International-airport-ew-1128a-e23864.jpg\")
<\/picture>