Oakland International Airport is preparing for a potential legal battle after the Oakland Board of Port Commissioners voted unanimously on Thursday to change the airport’s name to San Francisco Bay Oakland International Airport.
The name change has got neighboring San Francisco International Airport hot under the collar and the Port of San Francisco is now threatening to sue Oakland if it pushes ahead with the controversial new moniker.
The issue at stake is whether Oakland is infringing on its much bigger rival’s trademark rights by using the name San Francisco Bay, but Oakland points out that the name simply clarifies where the airport is geographically located.
The hope is that the name change will raise awareness amongst potential travelers about how close Oakland is to San Francisco, given the fact that one-third of domestic travelers don’t actually realize that OAK is located in the San Francisco Bay Area.
In fact, Oakland Airport is just 11 miles as the crow flies from San Francisco Airport across San Francisco Bay and is the closest airport to nearly 60 per cent of the Bay Area’s residents.
“We are standing up for Oakland and the East Bay; this will boost inbound travelers’ geographic awareness of the airport by highlighting the airport’s location on the San Francisco Bay,” commented Port Commission President Barbara Leslie after the vote passed uncontested on Thursday.
“This name will make it clear that OAK is the closest major airport, for 4.1 million people, three national laboratories, the top public university in the country, and California’s Wine Country,” Leslie continued.
A number of airlines have already thrown their weight behind Oakland’s proposed name change, including Southwest, Spirt and Mexican low-cost carrier Volaris.
Southwest Airlines hopes that with Oakland Airport adopting a more “relevant and contemporary naming convention”, more travellers looking for flights to the Bay area will book flights to OAK, acting as a boon for the local economy and employment.
The proposal isn’t, however, a done deal yet, and the name change will be discussed in a second reading on May 9. It’s expected that the proposal will once again be approved, but at that point, the airport could face a legal showdown with SFO.
The name “San Francisco Bay” better suits the “trying to gentrify” city of Oakland – nothing like putting a new coat of paint on a Ford Pinto and calling it a Ferrari.