Oakland International Airport (OAK) is rebranding once again, trying to take advantage of its proximity to San Francisco. Will San Francisco International Airport (SFO) object this time around?
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Drama over Oakland Airport’s controversial rebranding
Airports are businesses, and of course they do what they can to attract as much traffic as possible. In early 2024, we saw the Port of Oakland try to rebrand its international airport, as “San Francisco Bay Oakland International Airport.”
The idea behind this was obvious — OAK wanted to emphasize its proximity to San Francisco, to get more traffic among travelers looking to visit San Francisco. As you’d expect, executives at SFO weren’t happy about this, because any gain for OAK would be a loss for SFO. So they filed a lawsuit to try and block this rebranding.
A judge granted a preliminary injunction against OAK, demanding that the airport stop using the name “San Francisco Bay Oakland International Airport,” and to not use “San Francisco Bay” in any promotions or products.
The judge decided that SFO would suffer irreparable harm from OAK’s name change, and that OAK violated SFO’s trademark for the airport. As the judge explained, “because the two airports offer identical services, the near identity of the marks makes them confusingly similar,” and that using the term “San Francisco” in OAK’s name “when there is in fact no affiliation, connection or association between the Oakland airport and San Francisco is contrary to how airports in the United States are normally named.”
Oakland Airport tries to add San Francisco to name, again
The Port of Oakland has now announced a new name for OAK, as the airport is being rebranded as “Oakland San Francisco Bay Airport.” Essentially, authorities are trying to do the same thing as last year, except they’re reversing the order of “Oakland” and “San Francisco Bay.”
Here’s how Craig Simon, Director of Aviation at the Port of Oakland, describes this:
“We are proud to be a central gateway to the Bay Area, and we’re proud to embrace a name that reflects both our local roots and regional reach. ‘Oakland San Francisco Bay Airport’ does both, putting Oakland first and highlighting our central location in the Bay Area for all visitors.”
The Port Board will consider adopting the new name at its July 10, 2025, meeting. Ahead of this, OAK executives have sent a letter to SFO executives, justifying why they believe that this is appropriate:
This new name is responsive to the court’s Order and your prior stated concerns about the existing Board Approved Name. It does not incorporate the entirety of SFO’s name and it does not start with the words “San Francisco.” Instead, it leads with “Oakland” — drawing an immediate connection to its location and identity as part of the City of Oakland (not the City and County of San Francisco), and is then followed by OAK’s location on the Bay. Many other airports use similar naming conventions to indicate geographic location or proximity. Given these changes, the City should not have any concerns about any purported potential for consumer confusion regarding the proposed name.
I’m no lawyer, but I feel like this name change is reasonable. I can understand the objection if the airport’s name started with “San Francisco,” and how that could cause confusion. However, “Oakland San Francisco Bay Airport” seems totally reasonable to me. After all, the airport is in Oakland, and the body of water that it’s on is called San Francisco Bay.
If there’s any claim of confusion among consumers, I feel like the word order should address those concerns. Anyway, we’ll see how this plays out…
Bottom line
Last year, OAK tried to rebrand as San Francisco Bay Oakland International Airport. SFO took big issue with this, and a judge sided with SFO, and demanded that OAK cease using that branding. Now the airport is trying to rebrand once again, as Oakland San Francisco Bay International Airport, this time just flipping word order.
If you ask me, that seems like a reasonable rebranding that addresses concerns about potential confusion. For that matter, the name sort of just reflects the reality of the airport’s geography — the airport is in Oakland, and on San Francisco Bay. That’s not to say the airport authority won’t face legal issues, but at least that’s my take…
What do you make of OAK’s latest rebranding attempt?
Maybe Oakland should take a page from Trump's playbook and start calling it Oakland Bay.
This is a prime example of liberalism.
Lipstick on a pig. Oakland needs a new city administration and another 1000 police officers.
See what happens when you can "name your own pronoun".
Renaming an airport is a joke to all of you.
But not using a correct pronoun triggers chaos.
Politically correct airport?
Ah, the San Francisco 49ers, who play their games 45 miles south of San Francisco in Santa Clara. Maybe they should start being called the San Jose 49ers, as that's only a few miles away. Also the Anaheim Angels of Los Angeles, only about 20 miles from downtown Los Angeles, albeit in another county.
IMHO, OAK’s issue isn’t name but the lawlessness of the Oakland city. Improve that and rest will follow.
just watch OAK name themselves OSF :P
Golden Gate International
It’s a long and convoluted name.
I still think changing to Oakland San Francisco Bay Airport is a tad too much, but I could see it changing to Oakland Bay Area International Airport.
Isn’t there an exact parallel to this situation in the DMV area?
Washington Reagan National Airport (DCA)
Washington Dulles International Airport (IAD)
Baltimore-Washington International (BWI)
"Washington" for DCA and IAD are fair game. BWI is stretching a bit. More egregious are Orlando area airports: Sanford (SFB) calling itself "Orlando Sanford International" and Melbourne (MLB) naming itself "Melbourne Orlando International." (MLB is way out in left field)
Not a single one of those airports has any problem drawing traffic unlike OAK. Why is that? I'm flying out of DCA tomorrow. Going in I know I don't have to worry about my safety or stepping in piles of human excrement. All three are in very vibrant areas unlike OAK where businesses are leaving. The solution should be obvious.
I am a SFBA native, and last month, I got into a Lyft going to OAK and nearly had a heart attack when I looked up my flight and saw "San Francisco" as the first words in the airport name. The potential for confusion was real. This will reduce it.
SFBA natives riding in in Lfyts / Ubers usually know if they are on 101 or 880 ;)
imho the word order probably helps address the likelihood of confusion issue, but they're still going to have to deal with the fact that using 'San Francisco' "when there is in fact no affiliation, connection or association between the Oakland airport and San Francisco is contrary to how airports in the United States are normally named."
Maybe we should rename this "Bay of America"...
Entirely reasonable to have SF Bay in the name, since it's literally next to SF Bay. Fair marketing too, given proximity and even good transit access to downtown SF.
It’s basically *in* SF Bay.
It is indeed. "San Francisco Bay Area" or simply "Bay Area" encompasses Oakland, San Jose, and San Francisco. So Oakland is not *next* to the Bay Area, it's well and truly within it, and it's fully deserving of this name change.
I was thinking they could go with Bay Area International Airport or Oakland Bay Area International Airport. Bay Area is a common term for the region.
A lot of SF residents find OAK more convenient. And it's right there, not like it's miles and miles away.
Interestingly though none of the NYC airports officially have "New York" in their name. Both Chicago airports use "Chicago" but are located in Chicago while only LAX uses "Los Angeles" so there is some precedent to keeping OAK from using "San Francisco" (though I'm not sure about "San Francisco Bay"). On the other hand DFW...
A lot of SF residents find OAK more convenient. And it's right there, not like it's miles and miles away.
Interestingly though none of the NYC airports officially have "New York" in their name. Both Chicago airports use "Chicago" but are located in Chicago while only LAX uses "Los Angeles" so there is some precedent to keeping OAK from using "San Francisco" (though I'm not sure about "San Francisco Bay"). On the other hand DFW isn't located in "D" nor is it located in "FW"
I couldn’t care less about the name of any airport.
Just a little further south, newly hired PhDs at Meta Superintelligence Labs are on the verge of changing the world. And schmucks are fighting like schoolchildren over a name?
Truly a display of the variance of intelligence within homo sapiens.
You might not care, but sadly a lot of people really do have negative impressions of Oakland and it's enough to actually prevent them from flying there even when it would better suit their agendas and budgets.
Evan if you ignore "reputations"/impressions, as others have mentioned OAK is just as conveniently located to downtown SF as SFO... and the term "San Franciso Bay" encompasses more than just the west side of the bay.
I'm all...
You might not care, but sadly a lot of people really do have negative impressions of Oakland and it's enough to actually prevent them from flying there even when it would better suit their agendas and budgets.
Evan if you ignore "reputations"/impressions, as others have mentioned OAK is just as conveniently located to downtown SF as SFO... and the term "San Franciso Bay" encompasses more than just the west side of the bay.
I'm all for this change... ironically that's the same name Norwegian used to use for OAK lol.
You spent your time commenting in this thread and completely missed your own reflection while you were at it. So congrats on proving your own point about homo sapiens.
I think a city-wide airport code would be much more helpful for them than a name change. When I search for flights to NYC, I type in NYC to check prices at all three. SF should offer the same for SFO and OAK (and maybe SJC).
I love this idea. When I lived in NorCal, OAK and SJC were usually much simpler/easier to use than SFO, and the locations are great.
Yes. that's what OAK needs - to coordinate w/ airlines and search OTAs to make the list for San Francisco. The way LAX and BUR shows up for Los Angeles (although there are certainly more choices) and IAD, DCA, BWI shows up for Washington.
Little brother syndrome.