San Francisco International Airport

San Francisco International Airport is the main international airport in the U.S. state of California that serves the San Francisco Bay Area. San Mateo County is where it's situated. Since May 27, 1927, San Francisco International Airport has been located in the same spot. The site was bought by the City & County of San Francisco in 1930. The name of the airport was first changed from Mills Field Municipal Airport of San Francisco to San Francisco Airport in 1931, and then again to San Francisco International Airport immediately following World War II to reflect the expanding international flight service that SFO was experiencing.

The second busiest airport in California, behind Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), is SFO, the major airport in the San Francisco Bay Area. By number of passengers carried in 2023, it ranked as the thirtyth busiest airport worldwide and the fourteenth busiest in the US. As United Airlines' principal transpacific gateway and a significant hub for maintenance, it is the airline's fifth-largest hub. Furthermore, Alaska Airlines uses it as a hub. A postal address with a San Francisco ZIP code is provided by the City and County of San Francisco, which also owns and operates the airport. To supervise the city-owned SFO Enterprises Inc.'s corporate acquisitions and venture activities, the San Francisco Airport Commission oversaw the company from 1999 to 2004.

The airport is located at an elevation of 13.1 feet on 5,207 acres. It features two intersecting sets of parallel runways with four asphalt runways. The runways at 14° from magnetic north are designated 01L/01R, and the runways at 284° are designated 28R/28L. Runways are called according to their magnetic heading, to the closest ten degrees. One of the first airports to do so was SFO, which now has a program called Fly Quiet that rates airlines based on how well they follow noise abatement guidelines when entering and leaving the airport. The Aircraft Noise Abatement Office launched the Jon C. Long Fly Quiet Program to incentivize airlines to fly as silently as possible at SFO. There are 120 gates at the airport, which are organized alphabetically in a counterclockwise ring over seven concourses (Boarding Areas A through G) and four terminals (1, 2, 3, and International). Some domestic and international flights are handled at the International Terminal (Boarding Areas A and G).