When OAK Thrives, the East Bay Benefits

By John Albrecht, Aviation Marketing Manager, Oakland San Francisco Bay Airport

Can you remember the last time you bought an actual, physical, paper ticket for a flight? Oh, those days, when you could roll up to the airport ticket counter or your local travel agent, regale them with your hopes and dreams, and then walk out with an actual printed ticket in hand – for a flight, on an airplane!

The good news for everyone is that e-tickets replaced paper tickets, airline websites and apps as well as online travel agents (“OTAs”) like Expedia came on the scene, and then metasearch engines, like Google Flights, aggregated search functions, funneling the offerings of the world into handy lists that appear to consider all of the variables.

But do they? Consider all the variables? Do they show you all the options, including those at OAK?

Do metasearch engines consider variables like how long it takes to drive to one airport versus another? Or how much the Uber fare will be, or the cost of parking? What about the likelihood your flight will be delayed?

And even more importantly – does that metasearch engine consider which booking has the potential to give back to East Bay communities, to keep those East Bay dollars circulating in the local economic ecosystem?

The choices we make when we travel mean something

That is something that online searches might not be telling you: Oakland San Francisco Bay Airport is typically the convenient, economical, closer airport for travelers in the East Bay. (And, of course, many in SF prefer OAK’s reliability as well.) The East Bay is also where most employers, including the largest employers, in the San Francisco Bay Area are located. OAK is a major driver of the local economy, and a direct link between what we value in our community – our goods, our people, our ideas – and the rest of the country and the world. The airport is proudly operated by the Port of Oakland and is a publicly owned facility – essentially owned by the people of California – and is operating for their benefit.

Intentionally choosing OAK means a better bottom line – and a more vital East Bay.

Every day, too many travelers spend more time and money than they should by overlooking OAK airport. We’ve heard travel managers complain about $300 invoices from employees who took rideshares from Hayward or Dublin to the west bay airport – sometimes passing right by OAK. In fact, for 59 percent of the San Francisco Bay Area population, OAK airport is closest to home. And, at OAK a flight is ten percent more likely to depart on time, according to data from the Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS). These are all factors that will never show up in an online flight search, but add them up, and choosing OAK can equal a shorter, less stressful, more economical trip.

But it’s not just about the bottom line.

Our local economy is driven by a diverse set of leaders—from UC Berkeley and our three East Bay-based national labs to the innovation and tech economy in the Tri Valley and 680 Corridor —and OAK belongs on that list. The airport itself employs more than eight thousand people, from baggage handlers to concession workers to cargo loaders and flight attendants. Southwest alone has about 2,600 local employees at OAK; your flight attendant or pilot could easily be your neighbor.

Beyond direct operations, OAK supports a wide network of suppliers and generates significant indirect economic activity—from hotels and rental cars to restaurants and freight distribution centers. Together, this ecosystem produces roughly $218 million in annual local revenue and supports nearly 2,000 community jobs. When an airline adds a new route at OAK, these benefits multiply: new jobs are created, visitor spending rises, and local businesses and suppliers see increased demand.

It’s a positive economic feedback loop that has the potential to contribute in a major way to the development of the East Bay, beyond job creation. A well-used airport means a region that is well-connected to national and global markets means trade, growth, vitality and a stronger visitor economy. We all know that shopping local is a key way to invest back into the community. Flying out of OAK is the same thing.

And while growth is great, it’s worth noting that many of the major Bay Area employers are already rooted in the East Bay and have been here for decades, in some cases more than a century (we’re looking at you UC Berkeley, Clorox, Safeway and Kaiser Permanente). Newcomers like Workday and 10x Genomics are only adding to the vitality and diversity of the region we call home.

We’re in this together.

The local economy is growing, and the airport needs to grow with it. But the reality is that airlines will only add flights and routes when they see businesses using that airport for business travel. Look at the roughly 15 daily flights between OAK and Hollywood-Burbank, affectionately known around here as the “Pixar Express”, thanks to the constant flow of employees between their Emeryville campus and Disney’s headquarters in Burbank. If other East Bay businesses follow Pixar’s lead, there’s no reason we can’t be nicknaming new routes to New York or Boston after the companies that decide to tweak their travel policies in favor of the airport closest to home.

It’s why we here at OAK started the OAK100, a new program that recognizes and celebrates the local companies that commit to supporting OAK by adopting travel policies that consider OAK first. Members of the OAK100 commit to supporting their community and booking with OAK whenever practical. It’s worth making a deliberate choice and making that choice your policy, because when OAK thrives, the East Bay benefits.