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Oakland International Airport (OAK) has not been having a good time recently. Last year, I wrote about how the airport was changing its name to Oakland San Francisco Bay Airport (OAK). Fear that passengers would confuse this airport with San Francisco International Airport (SFO) saw a judge agree and grant SFO’s motion to block the name change. The name was originally going to be San Francisco Bay Oakland International Airport (OAK), but the words were reordered and that was also not okay. The airport also saw its last nonstop flight to Europe end. This all is bad enough for the airport, but to make matters worse, passenger numbers have been plummeting. So much so that Oakland International Airport (OAK) saw the biggest drop of any major US airport.
The naming controversy brought attention and sparked conflict with San Francisco International Airport (SFO), but it failed to boost traffic at Oakland International Airport (OAK). The San Francisco Standard reports that in the 12 months through September 2025, the airport saw about 8.2 million domestic passengers (down 17% from the previous year). Passenger numbers fell 15.5% in the first three quarters of 2025.
While domestic travel nationwide has remained flat, Oakland International Airport (OAK) experienced the steepest decline of all 93 major US airports in the first half of 2025. The next-largest drop was at Chicago Midway International Airport (MDW) (which was down 12.9% year over year).
The Port of Oakland (the airport’s operator) says that the drop is related to less business travel. This seems like it only accounts for a part of the drop. Nearby San Francisco International Airport (SFO) is growing with both business and leisure travelers while offering nonstop flights to Europe, Asia, Australia, and across the United States.
Part of the airport’s losses have to be tied to the airlines that fly there. Southwest holds 83.3% of the passengers while Spirit Airlines commanded 6% of flyers before it pulled out of the airport back in September. American and United do not fly to Oakland and Delta only offers a handful of flights. It’s no wonder it’s flailing with the three of those airlines focusing next to no attention to SFO’s little brother.
Anthony’s Take: I’ve only flown to Oakland International Airport (OAK) once and to San Francisco International Airport (SFO) more than 200 times. Oakland needs some new airlines or it will continue to lag. It’s identity crisis did not help it, but I don’t think the name change attempt hurt it either.
(Image Credits: Ronan Furuta via Unsplash and Southwest Airlines.)
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Advertiser & Editorial Disclosure: The Bulkhead Seat earns an affiliate commission for anyone approved through the links above This compensation may impact how and where links appear on this site. We work to provide the best publicly available offers to our readers. We frequently update them, but this site does not include all available offers. Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed, or approved by any of these entities.
