Early years The city of Oakland looked into the construction of an airport starting in 1925. The announcement of the
Dole Air Race for a flight from California to Hawaii provided the incentive to purchase in April 1927 for the airport. The runway was the longest in the world at the time and was built in just 21 days ahead of the Dole race start. The airport was dedicated by
Charles Lindbergh on September 17. In its early days, because of its long runway enabling safe takeoff rolls for fuel-heavy aircraft, Oakland was the departing point of several historic flights, including
Charles Kingsford Smith's historic US–Australia flight in 1928 and
Amelia Earhart's final flight in 1937. Earhart departed from this airport when she made her final, ill-fated voyage, intending to return there after circumnavigating the globe. Boeing Air Transport (a predecessor of
United Airlines) began scheduled flights to Oakland in December 1927. It was joined by
Trans World Airlines (TWA) in 1932. In 1929 Boeing opened the
Boeing School of Aeronautics on the field, which expanded rapidly in 1939 as part of the
Civilian Pilot Training Program. Thousands of pilots and mechanics were trained before the facility was changed into the United Air Lines training center in 1945. at NAS Oakland, 1949|left In 1943 the
U.S. Armed Forces temporarily took over Oakland Airport and opened
Naval Air Station Oakland. It was transformed into an airlift base for military flights to the Pacific islands, ordering all scheduled services to move to
San Francisco International Airport. After the war, airlines slowly returned to Oakland;
Western Airlines began flights in 1946, and was followed by
American Airlines, TWA, United,
Transocean Air Lines and
Pacific Southwest Airlines (PSA). Oakland became a larger center for non-scheduled and supplemental air carriers: some of the largest such companies were based and headquartered in Oakland including
Transocean Air Lines,
World Airways,
Trans International Airlines,
Universal Airlines and
Saturn Airways. Other large supplemental carriers, such as
United States Overseas Airlines, had operational bases in Oakland. Oakland became one of the largest overhaul and maintenance operations in the country when Aircraft Engine and Maintenance Company (AEMCO) processed thousands of aircraft. The airport's first
Jet Age terminal (now Terminal 1) was designed by
John Carl Warnecke & Associates and opened in 1962, part of a $20 million expansion on bay fill that included the 10,000-foot (3048 m) runway 11/29 (now 12/30). The May 1963 OAG showed 15 airline flights arriving in Oakland each day, including nine from San Francisco; in June 1963, TWA flew Oakland's first scheduled jet, a
Convair 880, to Chicago.
FedEx Express opened an
air cargo base at OAK in 1988, which is now one of the busiest air freight terminals in the United States. In the 1990s,
Southwest Airlines opened a crew base in Oakland, and expanded its flights to become the airport's dominant passenger carrier. The airport has international arrival facilities, including
U.S. Customs and Border Protection office. The 1990s saw a rise of low-cost carriers serving Oakland,
Morris Air (later merged into
Southwest Airlines), and
MarkAir to name a few, provided several domestic destinations from OAK. During the 1990s, tour operator SunTrips contracted
Aerocancun and
Leisure Air to provide scheduled charter flights from OAK to sun destinations during the early 1990s.
TAESA and
Mexicana Airlines also flew between Oakland and cities in Mexico for many years. In the past
Tower Air and
Corsairfly flew
Orly Airport to OAK to
Papeete, Tahiti;
Martinair flew to
Schiphol Airport; and
CityBird flew to
Brussels Airport. In 2011,
Spirit Airlines returned to OAK after several years of absence, eventually flying a combined total of seven year-round and seasonal routes by the summer of 2017. Oakland San Francisco Bay Airport also celebrated its 85th anniversary in 2011, commemorating the first transpacific crossing by air from OAK to Hawaii, which took place on June 29, 1927, in
The Bird of Paradise, flown by Hegenberger and Maitland. In 2012
United Airlines pulled out of OAK, consolidating operations at San Francisco International Airport, its Bay Area hub.
Arkefly (which later re-branded as TUI Airlines Netherlands) chose OAK as a San Francisco Bay Area gateway, flying twice weekly to
Amsterdam, via a stop at
Los Angeles International Airport. Arkefly provided 18 weeks of scheduled service in the summer of 2012. The airline followed with a similar schedule during the summer of 2013, before discontinuing service at OAK. In 2013,
FedEx Express opened a $30 million upgrade of its hub facility at OAK, including additions to accommodate the airline's new
Boeing 777 Freighter fleet. In 2014,
Norwegian Air Shuttle announced its first two year-round flights to
Stockholm and
Oslo airport, using
Boeing 787-8 aircraft seating 291 passengers operated by
Norwegian Long Haul. The flights were the first-ever nonstop services offered from the two Scandinavian capitals to the San Francisco Bay Area, providing several connections throughout Europe. The Oslo flight was later changed to a seasonal schedule. A long-proposed extension of the
BART system to the airport opened on November 22, 2014, connecting the
BART Coliseum station with a
station in the parking lot opposite of the airport terminals. The new system consists of a mostly elevated structure, running the length of Hegenberger Road. In May 2015, Oakland International Airport's Moving Modern program construction commenced a $100 million renovation of the Terminal 1 complex. The project included seismic architectural retrofits in central buildings, replacement and upgrading of infrastructure and improvement of the passenger environment. The project was completed in Spring 2017. In 2016, Norwegian Air Shuttle announced that nonstop flights would connect Oakland with London beginning the following spring.
British Airways responded with their own service to London, with both airlines providing service to London's
Gatwick Airport.
American Airlines also returned and re-branded, following a merger with
US Airways; the latter previously had a short-term presence at OAK, following a separate merger with
America West Airlines during the previous decade.
Southwest Airlines inaugurated nonstop flights from Oakland to Mexico for the airline's first international nonstop flights from OAK. The additional routes also gave the airline a combined total of 30 year-round and seasonal flights at the airport as of early 2017. In 2017, Norwegian Air Shuttle announced nonstop flights connecting Oakland with
Copenhagen on a seasonal basis from March 28, and Oakland with Barcelona from June 7 to operate year-round.
Level, a new carrier owned by
IAG, responded with their own Barcelona service, started flights initially operated by IAG partner
Iberia on June 2, with both airlines providing service to
Barcelona El Prat Airport. In the months following, Norwegian announced in May the introduction of nonstop flights between Oakland and
Rome Fiumicino started on February 6, 2018, and in July the introduction of nonstop flights between Oakland and
Paris Charles de Gaulle began on April 10, 2018.
Recent years Between mid-2018 and early 2020, OAK had both lost and was losing domestic and international nonstop routes; the indefinite grounding of the
Boeing 737 MAX by both Southwest and American, the "restructuring" of schedules by airlines, and a lack of demand all contribute to this. British Airways ended service in October 2018. Level moved its operations to
SFO, as did Norwegian Air Shuttle for its seven routes serving OAK. Southwest Airlines ended systemwide service with
Newark Liberty International Airport in November 2019, followed by discontinuing three more routes with OAK effective January 2020. Three other routes are currently suspended by Southwest until further notice, while American did the same during summer 2019 for service with
Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport. Due to the
COVID-19 pandemic,
JetBlue withdrew operations from OAK in April 2020 while
American Airlines withdrew in early June 2020. However, some traffic is returning. In December 2022
Volaris El Salvador announced nonstop flights connecting Oakland with
San Salvador beginning the following spring of 2023. In late summer of 2023,
Avianca El Salvador announced seasonal nonstop service from Oakland to
San Salvador. In September 2023,
Viva Aerobus announced nonstop service between Oakland and
Monterrey. In 2024, the airport announced that it was changing its official name from
Metropolitan Oakland International Airport to
San Francisco Bay Oakland International Airport. The Port of Oakland Board of Commissioners approved the new name on April 11. Among the reasons given for the change were that many travelers do not understand that the City of Oakland is part of the Bay Area Another reason was to reduce the long-running confusion between OAK and
Auckland Airport in
Auckland,
New Zealand. The confusion has been especially severe for
Chinese-speaking travelers, because the two cities' names are written identically in
simplified Chinese () and must be distinguished by context. The city attorney of
San Francisco, which owns SFO, filed a federal trademark lawsuit against Oakland for the decision. The Port of Oakland filed a countersuit, pointing out that SFO is not located in San Francisco either, but rather in
San Mateo County. On November 12, 2024,
U.S. Magistrate Judge Thomas S. Hixson granted SFO's motion for a preliminary
injunction and ordered OAK to stop using the new name while the case remained pending. While pursuing an appeal of this preliminary
injunction order to the
U.S. Ninth Circuit Court, the Port of Oakland Board of Commissioners then approved a new name in July 2025,
Oakland San Francisco Bay Airport, stating that they were "putting Oakland first", both literally and figuratively. In reaction, SFO stated that they were "disappointed" and were reportedly considering further legal options. In 2026, the lawsuit was settled, allowing Oakland to call the airport Oakland San Francisco Bay Airport. As part of the agreement, the city of Oakland cannot highlight the words "San Francisco Bay" in any way. The airport must use "San Francisco Bay" instead of just "San Francisco", and it is not allowed to have the word "international" in its name, despite offering international flights.
Proposed developments OAK handled 13.38 million passengers in 2019 but is projecting passenger numbers to reach 20 million by 2028, and 25 million by 2035. To handle this expected growth, the Port of Oakland is considering a major expansion to consolidate and modernize existing terminals while creating a third passenger terminal. Also as part of the project, OAK plans to reconfigure cargo facilities and improve roadways, parking, and other support facilities. ==Facilities==