=20 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- This article was sent to you by someone who found it on SF Gate. The original article can be found on SFGate.com here: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=3D/c/a/2002/05/03/MN43646.DTL ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Friday, May 3, 2002 (SF Chronicle) SFO takes tremendous hit in 2001 air travel count/Ranking in U.S. tumbles f= rom 5th to 10th Marshall Wilson, Chronicle Staff Writer San Francisco -- San Francisco International Airport, which not long ago was mobbed by passengers who spent freely at the growing number of restaurants and shops, had the greatest annual percentage drop in passengers of any major airport in the world last year. Northern California's largest travel portal fell five spots to rank 10th on the list of the nation's busiest airports, according to an airport industry group. Meanwhile, about the same number of passengers flew into or out of Mineta/San Jose International in 2001 as in 2000. And Oakland International, bucking a worldwide trend, saw more air travelers pass through its gates last year than in 2000. There are many reasons that San Francisco International foundered while Oakland and San Jose weathered the rocky Bay Area economy and the aftermath of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. For one, low-cost carriers have all but pulled out of SFO, which has a worldwide reputation for chronic bad-weather delays. Southwest Airlines, the only major carrier that did not cut its schedule after the terrorist attacks, moved all operations out of San Francisco International last year, citing the flight delays as the primary reason. It increased service at Oakland, as did other carriers. Tom Parsons, CEO of Bestfares.com, an Internet travel agency, said it is typically more expensive to fly short-haul routes along the West Coast out of San Francisco than Oakland or San Jose. Both airports have marketing campaigns pushing the idea that they are more convenient and less expensive than SFO. For years, officials at San Francisco International have tried to positi= on their airport as the gateway to the Pacific Rim. Key among those efforts was the December 2000 opening of a $1 billion international terminal, the centerpiece of a multibillion-dollar expansion and renovation. But lucrative international travel, instead of growing steadily as in previous years, fell 6.4 percent at San Francisco last year. Airlines, Parsons said, have shifted more international flights to Los Angeles as the economy has weakened, relying on the greater population base of Southern California to fill seats. Meanwhile, domestic travel last year fell a whopping 18 percent at SFO. And United Airlines, by far the largest carrier at San Francisco International, with about half of all passenger traffic, trimmed its schedule by nearly a third, more than any other major airline, after the terror attacks. The result was that about 6.4 million fewer passengers used SFO last year than in 2000, or 34.6 million versus 41 million, according to the Airports Council International in Switzerland. At the San Jose airport, about 13.09 million travelers flew in or out la= st year, nearly the same number as in the previous year. OAKLAND PASSENGER COUNT UP At Oakland International, about 11.4 million people passed through the gates last year, up 7.5 percent from 2000. Rankings for San Jose and Oakland were not available. For San Francisco, falling out of the top five means more than losing bragging rights over Denver, Houston, Phoenix, Las Vegas and Minneapolis-St. Paul, all of which leapfrogged over SFO in the national rankings. The 15.7 percent drop translates to millions of dollars in lost revenue from tourists and trade, according to analysts. The decline began early in the year and accelerated after Sept. 11. "With the implosion of the dot-coms, we've probably had a bigger hit in the Bay Area economy than in any other area of the United States," said Sean Randolph, president of the Bay Area Economic Forum. "It's an indication of the economy as a whole." DOWN TO 1,000 FLIGHTS DAILY Since the terrorist attacks, airlines have cut the number of daily fligh= ts at San Francisco International from about 1,250 to an average of about 1,000, said airport spokesman Ron Wilson. "It's not completely a result of Sept. 11. It started with the Silicon Valley companies going belly up and then grew worse with the economic downturn, " Wilson said. The drop at SFO, along with higher bills for security after the Sept. 11 attacks, left the airport with a $100 million deficit and prompted officials to scrap plans to build a new hotel on airport property and renovate an aging terminal. While SFO Director John Martin predicted it could take three or four yea= rs for domestic travel to return to 2000 levels, he said international passenger numbers could rebound by the end of this year. United Airlines recently added a third daily Tokyo flight. "That's a very good sign," Martin said. A ranking of the world's busiest airports is online at www.airports.org.= / E-mail Marshall Wilson at marshallwilson@sfchronicle.com. DECLINE IN AIRPOR= T PASSENGERS In a ranking of the nation's busiest airports, San Francisco Internation= al=20 fell from fifth busiest in 2000 to 10th busiest last year. The chart shows = the=20 number of passengers at each airport in 2001 and the percentage change from= =20 2000.=20 . Rank Airport Total passengers Percent change 1 Atlanta 75,849,375 -5.4 2 Chicago 66,805,339 -6.9 3 Los Angeles 61,024,541 -8.3 4 Dallas/Ft. Worth 55,150,689 -9.2 5 Denver 36,086,751 -6.9 6 Phoenix 35,481,950 -1.6 7 Las Vegas 35,195,675 -4.2 8 Minneapolis/St. Paul 35,170,528 -4.4 9 Houston 34,794,868 -1.3 10 San Francisco 34,626,668 -15.7 Source: Airports Council International Chronicle Graphic ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Copyright 2002 SF Chronicle