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San Francisco International Airport (contact us for your
San Francisco airport shuttle) is a major international Airport (contact
us for your San Francisco airport shuttle) 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 shuttle) 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 shuttle) in the San Francisco Bay Area. As of 2005, San Francisco
International Airport (contact us for your San Francisco airport shuttle)
is the fourteenth largest in the United States[1] and the twenty-third
largest Airport (contact us for your San Francisco airport shuttle) 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 shuttle) 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 shuttle), providing further connections to the
region.
San Francisco Airport (contact us for your San Francisco airport shuttle)
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 shuttle)
hosts the Louis A. Turpen Aviation Museum, the San Francisco Airport
(contact us for your San Francisco airport shuttle) 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 shuttle) 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 shuttle).
It remained Mills Field until 1931, when it was renamed San Francisco
Municipal Airport (contact us for your San Francisco airport shuttle).
"Municipal" was replaced by "International" in 1955.
Starting in 1935, Pan American World Airways used the facility as the
terminal for its "China Clipper" flying boat service across the
Pacific Ocean. Domestic flights did not begin en masse, however, until
World War II, when Oakland International Airport (contact us for your San
Francisco airport shuttle) was taken over by the military and its
passenger flights were moved to San Francisco.[4]
After the war, United Airlines took up residence at San Francisco Airport
(contact us for your San Francisco airport shuttle), using the Pan Am
terminal for its flights to Hawaii and other U.S. cities. In 1954, the
Airport's (contact us for your San Francisco airport shuttle) Central
Passenger Terminal opened for passenger service.[5] Jet service to San
Francisco Airport (contact us for your San Francisco airport shuttle)
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 shuttle) became the 6th
busiest international Airport (contact us for your San Francisco airport shuttle)
in the world. However, since 2001, when the economic boom times ended, San
Francisco Airport (contact us for your San Francisco airport shuttle) has
fallen back out of the top twenty.[2]
San Francisco Airport (contact us for your San Francisco airport shuttle)
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 shuttle)
opened on June 22, 2003, allowing passengers to board trains directly at
the Airport's (contact us for your San Francisco airport shuttle)
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 shuttle) at night It is not uncommon for San Francisco Airport
(contact us for your San Francisco airport shuttle) to experience
significant delays in adverse weather, when only one of the Airport's
(contact us for your San Francisco airport shuttle) four runways can be
used a time. Airport (contact us for your San Francisco airport shuttle)
planners have floated proposals to extend the Airport's (contact us for
your San Francisco airport shuttle) 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 shuttle) 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 shuttle) and bay water quality.
As such, San Francisco Airport (contact us for your San Francisco airport shuttle)
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 shuttle), Oakland and San Jose,
which continue to expand for the time being. However, San Francisco
Airport (contact us for your San Francisco airport shuttle) 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 shuttle) 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 shuttle) to Guangzhou, China.[9] In
addition, San Francisco Airport (contact us for your San Francisco airport
shuttle) will be the base of operations for Virgin America when the
airline begins operations in late 2006.
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