{"id":143040,"date":"2026-01-21T12:24:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-21T12:24:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/143040\/"},"modified":"2026-01-21T12:24:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-21T12:24:07","slug":"san-jose-oakland-airports-suffered-rough-start-to-holiday-travel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/143040\/","title":{"rendered":"San Jose, Oakland airports suffered rough start to holiday travel"},"content":{"rendered":"

San Jose<\/a> and Oakland airports<\/a> saw sharp drops in November passenger traffic, while San Francisco<\/a> posted one of its strongest holiday travel months on record, a review shows.<\/p>\n

San Jose Mineta International Airport reported that it handled nearly 831,000 passengers during November \u2013 down 13% from the same month in 2024. The decline is tied to wider shifts in the airline and airport business, including falling demand, according to Ana State, a spokesperson for the airport.<\/p>\n

\"AA traveler exits Oakland San Francisco Bay Airport , November 2025.\u00a0(Ray Chavez\/Bay Area News Group)<\/p>\n

During November, Oakland San Francisco Bay Airport accommodated about 704,300 passengers, the travel hub reported. That was down 11.9% from the same month in 2024.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe decline in intra-California business travel has been the primary factor that we have observed affecting passenger trends,\u201d said Kaley Skantz, a spokesperson for the East Bay aviation hub.<\/p>\n

In sharp contrast, San Francisco International Airport reported robust passenger activity during November, a month that included the getaway periods for Thanksgiving 2025. It handled just over 4.3 million passengers, which was up 1.7% from the same month the year before.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis period includes the Thanksgiving holiday, which was our busiest ever,\u201d said Doug Yakel, a spokesperson for SFO.<\/p>\n

The struggles at Oakland and San Jose airports appear to be part of weaker trends for the aviation complexes that go well beyond a one-month blip, according to this news organization\u2019s compilation and analysis of monthly reports.<\/p>\n

Over the 12 months that ended in November 2025, San Jose handled 10.84 million passengers. That was down 8.2% from the 11.8 million passengers that the South Bay travel center accommodated over the one-year period that ended in November 2024.<\/p>\n

State said overall economic fundamentals in Silicon Valley will help bolster future performance of the San Jose airport.<\/p>\n

\u201cSan Jose remains California\u2019s most dependable airport for on-time performance and continues to serve more than 40 nonstop destinations,\u201d State said.<\/p>\n

Oakland San Francisco Bay Airport handled just under 9.3 million passengers over the one-year period ending in November, which represented a decline of 14.8% from the 10.91 million passengers that traveled during the 12-month stretch that ended in November 2024.<\/p>\n

Officials in Oakland noted that they have been able to entice additional new services for the East Bay hub.<\/p>\n

\u201cFour new daily nonstop flights to San Diego on Alaska Airlines have been announced and will begin service on April 22,\u201d Skantz said.<\/p>\n

San Francisco International Airport handled 54.58 million passengers over the 12 months that ended in November. That equated to an increase of 5.3% compared with the 51.85 million passengers during the one-year period ending in November 2024.<\/p>\n

Despite elevated heights for San Francisco, all three airports have yet to zoom back to their pre-pandemic economic altitudes in 2019.<\/p>\n

San Jose\u2019s one-year performance through November was 30.7% below the record-high 15.65 million passengers it accommodated in 2019. Oakland\u2019s totals were 30.5% below the 13.38 million it handled in 2019 and San Francisco\u2019s totals were 5.1% below the 57.49 million passengers it saw in 2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will continue working with existing and potential new carriers and encouraging them to add new service at Oakland Airport,\u201d Skantz said.<\/p>\n

Similarly, San Jose airport officials believe some hopeful signs are coming into view over the horizon.<\/p>\n

\u201cTravel demand fluctuates over time, and we continue to work closely with our airline partners to support future growth while delivering a reliable, passenger-focused experience,\u201d State said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"San Jose and Oakland airports saw sharp drops in November passenger traffic, while San Francisco posted one of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":143041,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[11972,2875,389,184,13719,387,7,8,332,9858,383,1533,181,12610,100,14293,143,145,18880,144,395,396,603,88,397,198,200,420],"class_list":["post-143040","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-air-travel","tag-airlines","tag-alameda-county","tag-bay-area","tag-bay-area-travel","tag-business","tag-california","tag-california-news","tag-east-bay","tag-east-oakland","tag-economy","tag-keywee","tag-latest-headlines","tag-millbrae","tag-news","tag-north-san-jose","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-international-airport","tag-oakland-news","tag-peninsula","tag-san-francisco-county","tag-san-francisco-international-airport","tag-san-jose","tag-san-mateo-county","tag-santa-clara-county","tag-south-bay","tag-things-to-do"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143040","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=143040"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143040\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/143041"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=143040"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=143040"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=143040"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}