Last Friday, the Oakland Board of Port Commissioners voted unanimously to change the name of the Oakland International Airport to San Francisco Bay Oakland International Airport. This change only applies to the official name of the airport and not the airport code (which is OAK). San Francisco officials are not happy with this change and think it will confuse travelers.

I think the change is honestly fine. Both airports are about the same distance via public transportation to downtown San Francisco and having another airport offload some of SFO’s traffic is a good idea. Both airports are located in the San Francisco Bay as well.

This is more of a PSA to readers who fly into San Francisco to make sure they are transiting through the right airport. As a general rule, I always enter the airport code + “airport” (e.g. OAK airport) into Google Maps to make sure I am going to the right one.

I do wonder if this means we will start to see a larger international presence at the San Francisco Bay Oakland International Airport and perhaps more international routes for the greater San Francisco area in general.

What are your thoughts on this? Do you find the name change confusing?