San Francisco International: Silicon Valley's Gateway

SFO's Role as Silicon Valley's Airport

San Francisco International Airport (IATA: SFO) sits on the San Francisco Bay in San Mateo County, equidistant between San Francisco to the north and Silicon Valley to the south, 21 kilometres from downtown San Francisco and 40 kilometres from downtown San Jose. This position makes it the primary airport for both the city of San Francisco and the entire Peninsula tech corridor, and it reflects this dual constituency in its operations: the airport handles a high volume of business travellers from tech companies, a strong domestic leisure market, and a significant international route network serving Asia, Europe, and Latin America.

SFO is operated by the City and County of San Francisco as a proprietary department, a municipal ownership model that allows the city to invest commercial revenues back into airport improvements while maintaining public accountability. United Airlines uses SFO as its primary West Coast hub, Alaska Airlines has a significant presence, and international carriers including Air France, Lufthansa, British Airways, Singapore Airlines, Japan Airlines, ANA, and the main East Asian carriers all serve the airport directly. In 2023, SFO handled 51.1 million passengers.

The airport is organised into four terminals — International Terminal (ITG), Terminal 1 (Boarding Areas B and C), Terminal 2 (Boarding Area D), and Terminal 3 (Boarding Areas E and F) — arranged in a horseshoe around the AirTrain loop. Unlike most US airports, all four SFO terminals are connected airside, meaning passengers with connections on different airlines can transit between terminals without re-clearing security. This is a significant operational advantage for the large number of United hub connections and for passengers connecting between international arrivals and domestic departures.

The International Terminal and BART Connection

SFO's International Terminal (ITG), opened in 2000, is the largest international terminal on the US West Coast and handles all departures to destinations outside the US and Canada. It is connected to the BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) station via an AirTrain journey of approximately 5 minutes and a brief walk through the terminal. BART trains run from the SFO station to San Francisco's Mission District in 27 minutes, to downtown San Francisco (Civic Center/UN Plaza) in 31 minutes, and onward to Oakland and Berkeley. The fare from SFO to downtown San Francisco is USD 10.65 using a Clipper card or the BART app; paper ticket fares are slightly higher.

BART runs from approximately 4:30 a.m. to midnight on weekdays and until 3 a.m. on Friday and Saturday nights, making it viable for early-morning departures and late-evening arrivals but not for the latest overnight international arrivals. The train frequency is every 15 minutes off-peak and every 10 minutes at peak hours. For business travellers heading to offices in the Financial District or South of Market (SoMa), BART delivers a door-to-door time that is typically faster than a taxi at anything other than 6 a.m. on a Sunday.

SFO Aviation Museum

SFO operates what is, by any reasonable measure, the finest aviation museum at any commercial airport in the world. The SFO Museum, accredited by the American Alliance of Museums, maintains rotating exhibitions in all four terminal buildings and in the international terminal's dedicated Aviation Museum and Library gallery. The museum's collection includes rare aviation artefacts, original airline advertising posters dating to the 1930s, aircraft models, uniforms, and primary documents from the history of aviation on the Pacific coast.

The permanent collection highlights include a rare set of Pan American World Airways transpacific route inaugural memorabilia — SFO was Pan Am's primary Pacific hub — and an extensive collection documenting the history of United Air Lines from its founding in the Bay Area. Temporary exhibitions have covered subjects including the design of airport architecture, the history of in-flight food service, and the cultural significance of airport retail. Entry to all exhibitions is free; opening hours match the terminal operating hours.

The museum's presence in the transit zones of all four terminals means that passengers with even a 30-minute connection can engage with substantive cultural content during their wait. This distinguishes SFO from virtually every other US airport, where terminal time between security and boarding is typically spent choosing between overpriced food and scrolling a phone. The quality of the exhibitions has influenced other airports — Denver International has since developed a visual art programme that now spans 40 installations through its terminals, citing SFO as the precedent.

Terminals, Lounges, and Dining

Terminal 2, home to American Airlines' SFO operations and Virgin Atlantic's Bay Area gates, underwent a complete renovation in 2011 and set a new standard for domestic US terminal design. The terminal was the first in the US to achieve LEED Silver certification for a major renovation project. Its food hall, developed in partnership with local San Francisco restaurateurs, includes a location of Nopa (one of SF's most celebrated neighbourhood restaurants), a branch of CIBO Espresso (the Australian café chain with strong Bay Area following), and a Recchiuti Confections chocolate counter that sells the Mission District confectioner's products at identical prices to the street-level shop.

United Airlines dominates the gate count at SFO and operates the United Club, its standard domestic lounge, in Terminals 2 and 3. United's Polaris Lounge in the International Terminal is the airline's flagship facility for international business class travellers, featuring day beds, spa showers, and a full table-service restaurant serving a menu curated by the airline's Chicago-based culinary team. The Polaris Lounge at SFO is one of five globally and is generally considered the best-executed of the five due to its superior finishes and consistently managed food quality.