Passengers Fly to the Wrong Airport After Oakland Airport Renaming

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 Port of Oakland Board of Commissioners stated that the name change was due to many reasons. One of the reasons was that many travelers do not know that the airport directly faces San Francisco Bay, or that the City of Oakland is actually part of the Bay Area. 

Another reason was to end the confusion between Oakland Airport (OAK) and Auckland Airport (AKL) in Auckland, New Zealand. The confusion between Oakland and Auckland is especially important for Chinese people, as both airports were written in the same way in simplified Chinese (奥克兰).

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,

“San Francisco has invested millions in making San Francisco International Airport the world-class airport it is today. We have built an incredible brand that we must protect. Oakland has a trademark for Oakland International Airport. It should use that and stay away from San Francisco’s brand.” 
 

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: 

“We understand the importance of growing passenger activity. But as airports, we also have an obligation to serve the passengers by reducing the sources of confusion and stress from air travel.”

However, the confusion was soon downplayed by the Port's executive director Danny Wan, as he stated the following:

“I fail to see the confusion …. It clarifies to the world that OAK is on the San Francisco Bay. It does not confuse and leads to more nonstop option choices at the airport. This is not about San Francisco. We’re not trying to confuse or copy them.”
 

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.