Recently, the airport in the Californian city of Oakland had its name changed, albeit in quite a confusing way. The airport that was once known as Metropolitan Oakland International Airport (OAK) has changed its name to San Francisco Bay Oakland International Airport (OAK) last May, and it is confusing travelers.
Passengers Ending Up in the Wrong Airport
Since the name change in May, there have been multiple reports of passengers flying to Oakland instead of San Francisco by mistake. The new airport name now has San Francisco written before Oakland, confusing passengers who intended to fly to San Francisco International Airport (SFO).
The City of San Francisco, which owns SFO and also owns the trademark "San Francisco International Airport" filed a federal trademark lawsuit against Oakland to stop the change. The City Attorney David Chiu claimed in his motion that passengers were flying to SFO while their intended destination was Oakland. The name change also had an influence in social media, where travelers were geotagging the wrong airport in social media posts. Chiu quoted that,
The Name Change goes as Planned
While the City of San Francisco was ultimately unable to stop the name change, they consistently expressed a "strong objection" throughout the process. This was again shown by SFO spokesperson Doug Yakel at the Port of Oakland Board of Commissioners meeting, where he stated the following:
However, the confusion was soon downplayed by the Port's executive director Danny Wan, as he stated the following:
It is reported that a majority of entities were in support of the name change. These include Southwest, Spirit, Volaris, tourism heads for Berkely, the Tri-Valley, and obviously, Oakland.