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San Francisco International Airport (KSFO) is a major Class B international gateway on the shore of San Francisco Bay in San Mateo County, roughly 12 miles southeast of downtown San Francisco. Owned and operated by the City and County of San Francisco, it serves as a hub for United Airlines and Alaska Airlines and ranks among the busiest airports in the United States. For a simulator pilot it offers a demanding mix of parallel heavy-jet runways, dense Bay Area airspace and a rich aviation history stretching back to 1927.
San Francisco International Airport is a large, heavily used international airport situated on the western shore of San Francisco Bay in San Mateo County, California. Owned and operated by the City and County of San Francisco, it is a hub for United Airlines, for which it serves as the principal transpacific gateway and a major maintenance base, and also for Alaska Airlines. For the simulator pilot, KSFO is notable for its closely spaced parallel runway pairs, the classic visual approach along the bay shoreline, and its status as one of the busiest and most historically significant airports on the American west coast.
KSFO lies within Class B controlled airspace in the San Francisco Bay Area, approximately 12 miles (19 km) southeast of downtown San Francisco, in an unincorporated part of San Mateo County near Millbrae, Burlingame and San Bruno. The airport sits directly on the bay shoreline, and approach and departure control for the area is provided by NorCal Approach and Departure.
KSFO has four physical runways, all hard-surfaced and lit. The main parallel pair, 10L/28R and 10R/28L, runs east-west along the bay shoreline: 10L/28R is 11,840 ft (with 28R equipped with an ILS) and 10R/28L is 11,368/11,060 ft, with 28L also equipped with an ILS. A second, shorter parallel pair, 01L/19R and 01R/19L, is aligned roughly north-south, with 19L (8,761 ft) equipped with an ILS; the reciprocal 01R is 8,159 ft, while 19R and 01L are 7,824 ft and 7,142 ft respectively. Field elevation is 10 ft.
KSFO is served by NorCal Approach on 128.325 MHz (with a secondary frequency of 133.95 MHz and 134.5 MHz used for initial contact by NorCal Approach), and by NorCal Departure on 120.9 MHz (northwest/east departures) and 135.1 MHz (southeast/west departures). The tower operates on 120.5 MHz, with Ground on 121.8 MHz and Clearance Delivery on 118.2 MHz. ATIS is broadcast on 113.7 MHz, and an AWOS is available on 118.05 MHz. UNICOM is on 122.95 MHz. Instrument approaches are available, with ILS equipment fitted to runways 28R, 28L and 19L.
As a Class B airport handling heavy scheduled airline traffic, arriving and departing aircraft operate under positive control from NorCal Approach and Departure and from the KSFO tower; VFR traffic must obtain clearance to enter the surrounding Class B airspace before approaching the field.
The airport sits directly on the San Francisco Bay shoreline, making the waterline itself a useful visual reference when approaching from the north or south. The surrounding towns of Millbrae, Burlingame and San Bruno lie immediately to the west of the airport and can assist in orientation for a pilot tracking inbound over the peninsula.
San Francisco International Airport began as Mills Field Municipal Airport, dedicated on May 7, 1927, on 150 acres of pasture leased from the estate of Darius Ogden Mills. San Francisco purchased and expanded the site to 1,112 acres from August 1930, and the airport was renamed San Francisco Airport in 1931; "International" was added at the end of the Second World War as overseas services expanded rapidly. Early scheduled carriers included Western Air Express, Maddux Air Lines and Century Pacific Lines, and United Airlines, formed in 1934, quickly became the dominant carrier, beginning Douglas DC-3 service to Los Angeles and New York in January 1937; a new PWA-funded passenger terminal opened the same year. During the Second World War the airport was used as a Coast Guard base and as an Army Air Corps training and staging base, operating as Naval Auxiliary Air Facility Mills Field and Coast Guard Air Station, San Francisco. Pan American World Airways moved its Pacific and Alaska seaplane operations to the airport in 1944 after Treasure Island was requisitioned for military use, and began postwar service to Honolulu and onward across the Pacific. The airport became an increasingly important international gateway after the war, with British Commonwealth Pacific Airlines opening foreign-carrier service from Australia via Honolulu in September 1946, and Pan Am launching round-the-world flights from San Francisco in 1947. Delta Air Lines, having acquired Chicago and Southern Air Lines in 1953, used its inherited route authority to begin some of its first international jet services from San Francisco with Convair 880 aircraft in 1962.
San Francisco International Airport remains a major hub for United Airlines, serving as its principal transpacific gateway and a significant maintenance facility, and is also a hub for Alaska Airlines. It continues to operate as one of the busiest airports in the United States, handling substantial scheduled passenger and cargo traffic across its four long, lit runways, three of which are equipped with ILS approaches.
