SAN FRANCISCO (NEWSnet/AP) — Oakland officials are planning to change name of the city’s airport to San Francisco Bay Oakland International Airport, despite San Francisco threatening a lawsuit.

The Board of Commissioners for the Port of Oakland voted unanimously Thursday to move forward with the name-change, according to the announcement. They have scheduled a second vote and final approval on May 9.

The airport is officially named “Metropolitan Oakland International Airport.” It is generally known as Oakland International Airport, with the three-letter code OAK.

Oakland airport officials have said travelers unfamiliar with the region fly into San Francisco’s airport even if their destination is closer to the Oakland airport across the Bay. Modifying the name to San Francisco Bay Oakland International Airport will help change that, they say.

“We are standing up for Oakland and the East Bay,” Port Commission President Barbara Leslie said in a statement after the vote. “This name will make it clear that OAK is the closest major airport, for 4.1 million people, three national laboratories, the top public university in the country, and California’s Wine Country.”

For nearly an hour, the commissioners listened to public comments that included some Oakland residents and several airline representatives who supported the name-change, and representatives of San Francisco tourism and hospitality interests who opposed it.

The name-change suggestion had upset San Francisco officials, who say it will confuse travelers, especially those flying in from abroad.

Ivar C. Satero, director of San Francisco’s airport, had said they are “deeply concerned” over the potential for customer confusion and disservice. San Francisco City Attorney David Chiu on Tuesday threatened to sue Oakland officials if they pursue the name-change, arguing it would violate the city's trademark on “San Francisco International Airport.”

Once final approval comes next month, “staff will move forward with the formal renaming, including working with air carriers, other airports, and local agencies to reflect the modification in airport and airline systems,” the port commission said in a statement.

Oakland airport officials are looking at the name-change at a time when the city, like many other major cities, is noticing rising crime and is losing the last professional sports team that called the city of 430,000 people home. Last week the Athletics announced that the team will leave Oakland after this season and play temporarily at a minor league park near Sacramento until their planned new stadium in Las Vegas is built.

Craig Simon, the Port of Oakland’s interim aviation director, said Oakland’s airport has lost 39 of 54 new routes added from July 2008 to March 2024.

“Market research and interviews with airline partners have shown that routes have not performed as well as they should have due to the lack of geographic awareness, making air carriers reluctant to sustain and add new routes in Oakland,” Simon said in a statement before the vote.

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