Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Airport Operations topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
SFO: Passenger traffic near pre-pandemic levels; new routes and leadership changes highlighted
Summary
SFO officials reported 52.3 million passengers in 2024 (up 4% from 2023), new seasonal and year-round routes, an internal leadership change and noise office program updates including portable monitoring and home treatment statistics.
San Francisco International Airport served 52,300,000 passengers in 2024, an increase of about 4% over 2023, the airport director told the SFO Community Roundtable on Feb. 5. Flight operations rose by 0.4% during the year, a sign airlines are increasing capacity by using larger aircraft rather than adding flights.
The airport reported new services and leadership changes: Frontier added seasonal service to Vail in late December, and United will begin daily nonstop flights from SFO to Panama City beginning May 20. The airport’s previous director, Ivar Sattero, has retired and Mike Nikornket — formerly CFO and executive vice president at Denver Airport and a former SFO finance official — began as SFO director on Jan. 2.
Why it matters: Passenger volumes, new routes and leadership affect airport operations, noise patterns and regional transportation planning.
Noise office update Bert (noise office) reported progress on noise-mitigation programs including repairs, replacements and portable monitors. He said the flight-quiet automation issue was resolved with the vendor, reports are being completed for posting, and the portable noise monitoring program is under review with several permanent locations in place along the peninsula.
Program figures cited by the noise office included a drop in the number of homes in design from 60 to 32, ongoing construction and bidding for treatment units, a satisfaction rating of 97.14 percent, and an increase in treated homes cited in the presentation from 28 to 51.
Safety and staffing The airport director commented on a recent midair collision at Reagan National and said the NTSB investigation will take time; SFO’s experience with a 2013 fatal accident led staff to expect a thorough probe that can take about a year to reach final causal findings. The director also said publicly available FAA data showed a tower head count of about 28 against a target of 30, including trainees; SFO staff said they are in regular contact with the FAA and are not currently seeing the kinds of staffing mitigations used at other U.S. airports.
What members asked Members asked about air traffic controller vacancies and whether SFO has had to reassign controller work (for example, combining helicopter and airline monitoring). Airport staff said controller staffing questions are best answered by the FAA but that they continue to monitor the situation closely and remain in communication with the agency.
Context and next steps Airport staff said they will introduce the new airport director at a future roundtable meeting. Noise office staff plan to finish posting updated flight-quiet reports and continue evaluation of the portable noise monitoring locations and the repair-and-replacement pipeline.
