> Published Saturday, April 29, 2006, in the San Mateo County Times > > SFO to shut runway as part of upgrade > > One of San Francisco International Airport's main runways is shutting > down for more than two weeks, but the closure is not expected to > affect travelers and area residents, according to an airport > official. [...] > During the repaving, departing planes will be diverted to one of the > airport's two runways traditionally used for arrivals, Richardson > said. "There will be no impact on arrivals or departures," he said. Well, it didn't seem to work like that on Tuesday, when I was on UA892 to DEN, and we waited in a very, very long line of aircraft trudging out to use 28L/28R. This was at a non-peak time (11 AM) and even so, we were delayed about 20 minutes. I take that flight often -- it's a 767-300 -- and usually we use rwy 1R, although once during the winter storms we used 19L. What was odd on Tuesday is that even though it's 1L that's being repaved, 1R was not in use at all, even though the weather was nice and the wind was nearly calm. Departures and arrivals all had to share 28L/28R, and it was pretty busy. So I'm dubious about it not having an impact on arrivals or departures. -- Michael C. Berch mcb@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx