"SFO's 'smart' plan for air-traffic growth"

Tuesday, February 8, 2005

Opinion
SFO's 'smart' plan for air-traffic growth
By John L. Martin
The San Francisco (CA) Chronicle


As passenger travel at San Francisco International Airport begins to recover
from a historic drop of 11 million annual passengers since January 2001, the
airport is focused on a "smart growth" strategy that targets specific types
of service and uses state-of-the art technology, allowing more efficient use
of limited physical space. 

The airport is now focused on increasing long-haul and international
service, because this type of service translates to larger aircraft with
more passengers per plane, but fewer flights. That, along with the
implementation of a new radar landing procedure, allows SFO to make more
efficient use of its limited runway capacity. The "smart growth" program at
SFO has resulted in a 12 percent growth in passenger traffic in the first 11
months of 2004, while the number of flight operations has grown by only 5.1
percent. Why? Larger planes with higher passenger loads. 

We are pleased that our recruitment efforts for international flights have
resulted in new services from SFO to New Zealand, Iceland, China, Vietnam
and Mexico at competitive fares. Virgin America's announcement that its
primary base of operations will be SFO will add to the continuing number of
competitively priced long-haul domestic flights. This is good news for the
entire Bay Area: A recent report by the Bay Area Economic Forum notes that
10 new domestic flights a day at SFO translates to 3,892 direct and indirect
jobs, $71 million in direct wage income and $23 million in annual state and
local taxes in the Bay Area. 

SFO's goal is to continue to handle the vast majority of the Bay Area's
international traffic as well as a majority of the long-haul markets. We
expect to see much larger international passenger growth than domestic
passenger growth in the coming years. The average overseas flight to Asia or
Europe at SFO handles, on average, 2.5 times as many passengers as the
average domestic flight. Thus, international flights make the most efficient
use of our limited runway capacity. 

Airport capacity, however, is a regional issue. The Bay Area must therefore
pursue a program of smart planning and growth when it comes to the most
efficient use of the region's smaller airports to provide the best service
to Bay Area residents. 

Oakland, San Jose and Sacramento International Airports are all undergoing
major terminal redevelopment and expansion programs. These Bay Area airports
will nonetheless eventually face constrained runway capacity. Thus, the Bay
Area needs to plan for the return and growth of commercial air service at
other regional airports, including Charles M. Schulz Sonoma County Airport
in Santa Rosa and Buchanan Field in Concord. (This will not affect the
operation of small, private aircraft into and out of these airports.) Plans
should also be made to ensure that Travis Air Force base is available for
commercial use should it ever be decommissioned as a military base. In the
long term, Stockton Airport and Livermore Municipal Airport should also grow
to meet forecasted regional demand. 

The development of similar smaller regional airports has already occurred in
Los Angeles and New York. In recent years, Long Beach has started to handle
much larger passenger volumes. The Palmdale Airport, east of Los Angeles,
has also recently been cleared for commercial use. 

Residents in the North Bay should once again have nearby commercial air
service, which was canceled after the Sept. 11 attacks, and should not have
to face a 90-minute drive to SFO or Oakland Airport. Sonoma County Airport
is properly moving forward on plans to extend its runway to handle regional
jet aircraft and upgrade its passenger terminal. Buchanan Field has also
previously handled commercial flights. Tentative plans to relocate that
airport should anticipate the future demand for commercial flights. 

Even with commercial flights, these airports will handle a relatively small
number of passengers. But their use will help to increase system capacity
and reduce Bay Area freeway traffic, thereby decreasing vehicle emissions.
It makes good environmental sense. 

The aviation industry has changed dramatically since Sept. 11, 2001, and the
shakeout is still occurring. The future of the industry is still unknown.
United Airlines, still in bankruptcy, accounts for almost 50 percent of
SFO's traffic. The model for Virgin America's domestic operation at SFO has
also not been announced. As these uncertainties are settled, SFO will begin
updating its projections. 

In the meantime, SFO will continue to target smart growth and the deployment
of technology to make the most of limited runway capacity. The new Precision
Runway Monitor system, a $20 million investment that allows planes to land
on parallel runways during certain bad-weather conditions, was inaugurated
in October. This has allowed us to increase operations by more than 30
percent in certain weather conditions. 

As the industry stabilizes, the Metropolitan Transportation Commission and
its Regional Airport Planning Committee should update the Regional Airport
System Plan to ensure coordinated and smart planning. Only after the airline
industry has started to stabilize and progress is made on updating the
regional plan should policy-makers revisit the issue of runway configuration
at SFO. 

John L. Martin is director of San Francisco International Airport.


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