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San Francisco International Airport (contact us for your
San Francisco airport limousine service) is a major international Airport
(contact us for your San Francisco airport limousine service) located 13
miles (21 km) south of San Francisco, California, adjacent to the cities
of Millbrae and San Bruno in unincorporated San Mateo County. The Airport
(contact us for your San Francisco airport limousine service) has flights
to destinations throughout the Americas and is a major gateway to Europe,
Asia, and Australasia.
San Francisco is the largest Airport (contact us for your San Francisco
airport limousine service) in the San Francisco Bay Area. As of 2005, San
Francisco International Airport (contact us for your San Francisco airport
limousine service) is the fourteenth largest in the United States[1] and
the twenty-third largest Airport (contact us for your San Francisco
airport limousine service) in the world,[2] in terms of passengers. It is
a major hub of United Airlines, and is expected to become the main hub of
Virgin America when the airline begins operations in 2006.
The Airport (contact us for your San Francisco airport limousine service)
enjoys a connection to an adjacent freeway, U.S. Route 101, as well as
having its own Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) station adjoining one of its
terminals. Interstate 380 intersects Highway 101 north of the Airport
(contact us for your San Francisco airport limousine service), providing
further connections to the region.
San Francisco Airport (contact us for your San Francisco airport limousine service)
has numerous passenger amenities, including a wide range of food and drink
establishments, shopping, baggage storage, public showers, a medical
clinic, and assistance for lost or stranded travelers and military
personnel. The Airport (contact us for your San Francisco airport limousine service)
hosts the Louis A. Turpen Aviation Museum, the San Francisco Airport
(contact us for your San Francisco airport limousine service) Commission
Aviation Library, and both permanent and temporary art exhibitions in
several places in the terminals. Public Wi-Fi is available throughout most
of the terminal area, provided by T-Mobile for a fee.[3]
History
The Airport (contact us for your San Francisco airport limousine service)
was first opened on May 7, 1927 on 150 acres (607,000 m²) of cow pasture.
The land was leased from prominent local landowner Ogden L. Mills, and was
named Mills Field Municipal Airport (contact us for your San Francisco
airport limousine service). It remained Mills Field until 1931, when it
was renamed San Francisco Municipal Airport (contact us for your San
Francisco airport limousine service). "Municipal" was replaced
by "International" in 1955.
After the war, United Airlines took up residence at San Francisco Airport
(contact us for your San Francisco airport limousine service), using the
Pan Am terminal for its flights to Hawaii and other U.S. cities. In 1954,
the Airport (contact us for your San Francisco airport limousine service)'s
Central Passenger Terminal opened for passenger service.[5] Jet service to
San Francisco Airport (contact us for your San Francisco airport limousine service)
began in the late 1950s: United built a large maintenance facility at San
Francisco for its new Douglas DC-8s. In July 1959 the first jetway bridge
installed in the United States. In 1974, a new terminal was built for
domestic flights, and the CPT became an international terminal (known
today as Terminal 2).
During the economic boom of the 1990s and the dot-com boom, San Francisco
Airport (contact us for your San Francisco airport limousine service)
became the 6th busiest international Airport (contact us for your San
Francisco airport limousine service) in the world. However, since 2001,
when the economic boom times ended, San Francisco Airport (contact us for
your San Francisco airport limousine service) has fallen back out of the
top twenty.[2]
San Francisco Airport (contact us for your San Francisco airport limousine service)
has expanded continuously through the decades. Most recently, a new $1
billion international terminal opened in December 2000, replacing Terminal
2 as the international terminal.[5] This terminal contains a world-class
aviation library and museum.[6] An extension of the Bay Area Rapid Transit
system to the Airport (contact us for your San Francisco airport limousine service)
opened on June 22, 2003, allowing passengers to board trains directly at
the Airport (contact us for your San Francisco airport limousine service)'s
international terminal bound for San Francisco or points in the East
Bay.[7] BART trains also offer a quick trip to the nearby Millbrae
Station, where passengers can board Caltrain commuter rail trains bound
for San Jose and the Peninsula and SamTrans bus service bound for the
Peninsula. In 2003, the AirTrain shuttle system opened, conveying
passengers between terminals, parking lots, the BART station, and the
rental car center on small automatic trains.
San Francisco International Airport (contact us for your San Francisco
airport limousine service) at night. It is not uncommon for San Francisco
Airport (contact us for your San Francisco airport limousine service) to
experience significant delays in adverse weather, when only one of the
Airport's (contact us for your San Francisco airport limousine service)
four runways can be used a time. Airport (contact us for your San
Francisco airport limousine service) planners have floated proposals to
extend the Airport's (contact us for your San Francisco airport limousine service)
runways further into San Francisco Bay in order to accommodate the next
generation of super-jumbo aircraft. In order to expand further into the
bay, the Airport (contact us for your San Francisco airport limousine service)
would be required by law to restore bay land elsewhere in the Bay Area to
offset the fill. Such proposals have nevertheless met resistance with
environmental groups, fearing damage to the habitat of animals living near
the Airport (contact us for your San Francisco airport limousine service)
and bay water quality.
As such, San Francisco Airport (contact us for your San Francisco airport limousine service)
suffers from loss of service as many airlines, especially low-cost
carriers such as Southwest Airlines, JetBlue Airways, and ATA Airlines
increasingly shift service to the other two major Bay Area Airports
(contact us for your San Francisco airport limousine service), Oakland and
San Jose, which continue to expand for the time being. However, San
Francisco Airport (contact us for your San Francisco airport limousine service)
has superior land connections compared to Oakland and San Jose, being
directly connected to U.S. Route 101, Interstate 380, and the BART system.
However, recovery at San Francisco Airport (contact us for your San
Francisco airport limousine service) has been evident. Icelandair
commenced San Francisco-Reykjavík service on May 18, 2005, and Spirit
Airlines began daily service to Detroit on May 25, 2006. In addition,
Qantas began service from Sydney in March 2006, and began service to
Vancouver on June 14, 2006. United Airlines will expand service to Seoul
from seasonal to year-round in October 2006, and, starting April 1, 2007,
reinstate non-stop service to Taipei and add more flights to Hong Kong.[8]
United Airlines has also applied for flights from San Francisco Airport
(contact us for your San Francisco airport limousine service) to
Guangzhou, China.[9] In addition, San Francisco Airport (contact us for
your San Francisco airport limousine service) will be the base of
operations for Virgin America when the airline begins operations in late
2006.
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