Oakland International Airport (OAK) on the West Coast of the United States is preparing for a legal showdown with its close neighbor San Francisco International Airport (SFO) after its officials voted unanimously in favor of changing the airport’s official name to San Francisco Bay Oakland International Airport.
The decision, resulting from a vote held on April 11, 2024, is widely expected to light a legal incendiary that will provoke the operators of San Francisco International Airport to launch a robust lawsuit over the use of the words ‘San Francisco’ which it claims to hold trademark rights over.
The legal issue to be decided by any court hearing the potential case will be whether Oakland is infringing that alleged trademark by using the name San Francisco Bay. However, Oakland has publicly pointed out that the new name simply helps passengers to understand to which US city the airport is most closely located geographically. The airport claims that one-third of airport users are unaware of the airport’s close proximity to the downtown area of San Francisco itself.
Oakland Airport (OAK) lies just 11 miles (17 kilometers) in a direct line from San Francisco International Airport (SFO) situated directly across San Francisco Bay and claims it is the closest airport to nearly 60% of the Bay Area’s residents. It also takes just an eight-minute journey from the airport terminal to downtown San Francisco using the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) light rail system with trains every six minutes.
“We are standing up for Oakland and the East Bay; this will boost inbound travelers’ geographic awareness of the airport by highlighting the airport’s location on the San Francisco Bay,” commented Port Commission President Barbara Leslie after the vote passed uncontested. “This name will make it clear that OAK is the closest major airport, for 4.1 million people, three national laboratories, the top public university in the country, and California’s Wine Country.”
Several major US airlines have already thrown their support behind Oakland’s proposed name change. These include Southwest Airlines, Spirt Airlines, and Mexican low-cost carrier Volaris. Southwest Airlines has said that it hopes that with Oakland Airport adopting a more “relevant and contemporary naming convention,” more travelers looking for flights to the Bay area will book flights to OAK, acting as a boon for the local economy and employment.
Although the proposed name change has cleared the first hurdle to being given the go-ahead, a further reading of the full proposal will be undertaken in a second meeting on May 9, 2024. Should it progress beyond that stage, then a formal proposal is likely to be submitted to city and state authorities. It is at this point that any formal legal objection will be lodged by officials from SFO, should they choose to do so.
Legal precedent would indicate that despite any objections raised by SFO authorities, the proposed name change is likely to succeed. After all, Chicago has O’Hare and Midway Airports, Washington has Dulles and Reagan-National Airports, and Dallas has Love Field and Dallas Fort Worth Airports to name but a few existing examples across the US.
However, as with all litigation, the outcome of any legal proceedings can never be completely guaranteed, and it will be up to the lawyers to argue their clients’ respective cases and for the presiding judge to make the final decision in what could turn out to be an intriguing case of airport nomenclature.