=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/chronicle/archive/2002/06= /07/BU60169.DTL ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Friday, June 7, 2002 (SF Chronicle) Oakland Airport busier than ever despite terror's toll David Armstrong, Chronicle Staff Writer Like all the nation's airports, Oakland International Airport was hit ha= rd by the events of Sept. 11. Unlike some, the Oakland airport is recovering fast. Oakland airport officials said Thursday that passenger traffic through t= he first four months of this year ran 5 percent above that of the same period in 2001 -- months before fears of terrorism kept many people away from airplanes and airports. In 2001, even given the slow fourth quarter, Oakland's airport recorded 11. 4 million passengers, an increase of 7.5 percent from its 10.6 million passengers in 2000. By comparison, the Air Transport Association estimates that yet-to-be- released figures will show a nationwide drop of 7.4 percent in domestic passenger traffic from 2000 to 2001. San Francisco International Airport's passenger count dropped from 41 million to 34.6 million from 2000 to 2001, while Norman Y. Mineta San Jose International Airport's traffic was flat at 13 million passengers. The biggest reason for the difference is Southwest Airlines, Oakland's director of aviation, Steven Grossman, said. Southwest, the largest carrier in Oakland and a pivotal player since it began operations there in 1989, pulled all its flights out of San Francisco airport in March 2001, simultaneously adding eight daily flights in Oakland. Southwest cited frustrations with delays at SFO; its operations at Mineta San Jose International Airport were unaffected. Then came Sept. 11, and alone among the major U.S. carriers, Southwest declined to lay off any staff or reduce its number of flights anywhere in its system. "Southwest is the only airline that didn't cut back. That gave us a base to work from," Grossman said at a state of the airport luncheon and briefing on Thursday. "Within a month, Southwest added two flights a day from Oakland to New Orleans." Since then, JetBlue, a low-cost carrier based in New York, has launched flights between Oakland and John F. Kennedy Airport, and Southwest has launched three daily flights between Oakland and Washington Dulles International Airport. "Our new advertising campaign will stress that you don't need to go to S= FO anymore to get a nonstop across the country," said George Turner, Oakland airport's marketing director. Oakland has long positioned itself as a low-cost, convenient, relatively stress-free alternative to larger, busier SFO and San Jose. It hasn't all been smooth flying lately for Oakland, though. Grossman said the airport will spend an additional $6 million this year for security, installing federally mandated baggage screening devices and building 10 new security stations in its overcrowded terminals. This year, Oakland expects to serve 12 million fliers, he said, with traffic ballooning to 16 million to 18 million by the end of the decade. "We're putting 12 million people into a box designed for 6 or 7 million," Grossman said. "We have to grow." In line with that, Oakland is pushing ahead with an ambitious, previously announced $1.5 billion expansion that will continue for the next four years. The airport plans to renovate and combine its two terminals into one with a grand central concourse, and construct a parking garage and surface parking lot. The 98th Avenue corridor from I-880, which will serve as the new main entrance to the airport, is also presently being landscaped and reconfigured. E-mail David Armstrong at davidarmstrong@sfchronicle.com.=20 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Copyright 2002 SF Chronicle