Little-known Bay Area city will keep San Francisco in its airport’s name

The entity once known as Oakland International Airport will be allowed to keep “San Francisco” in its name after the two cities reached a settlement last week.

The agreement finally puts to bed a bizarre two-year slapfight between San Francisco and the Port of Oakland that involved lawsuits and multiple iterations of a moniker that included both cities’ names.

In 2024, the port — which manages the Oakland airport — changed the name from Oakland International Airport to San Francisco Bay Oakland International Airport, hoping to entice travelers by emphasizing the hub’s proximity to SF.

At the time, the number of people flying into Oakland was declining after a brief post-pandemic rebound, and the airport was losing routes.

The effort largely failed, while having the secondary impact of annoying San Francisco leaders, who swiftly sued, arguing that the name would confuse travelers. In 2025, the port swapped the two cities within the name to produce “Oakland San Francisco Bay Airport.”

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San Francisco didn’t like that either, but the parties entered mediation in December and have now settled. The new name is fine, as long as “Oakland” always appears before “San Francisco” in all materials and the airport does not add the letters SF to its code, OAK.

“When more visitors come to the Bay Area, our entire region benefits. San Francisco cares deeply about the success of all of our Bay Area airports and tourist destinations,” San Francisco City Attorney David Chiu said in a statement. “We are pleased that we could come to a mutual resolution that accomplishes Oakland’s goals while still protecting the San Francisco International Airport trademark.”

Oakland port attorney Mary Richardson said she was also pleased.

“We’re proud Oakland fought for and preserved the right to retain our airport’s full name that puts Oakland first and recognizes OAK’s location on the San Francisco Bay,” Richardson said in a statement. “We believe more awareness of the airports in the region benefits all consumers.”

The settlement agreement (opens in new tab) does not mention a payment from Oakland to San Francisco but stipulates a $50,000 penalty if the Port of Oakland breaks the rules.