By Blake Brittain
A U.S. judge on Tuesday temporarily blocked the Port of Oakland from using “San Francisco” in the Oakland airport’s name, finding the name change would likely cause consumer confusion and harm the city of San Francisco.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Thomas Hixson said in the decision that changing the name of Metropolitan Oakland International Airport in nearby Oakland to “San Francisco Bay Oakland International Airport” would likely mislead consumers into thinking it is connected with San Francisco.
A spokesperson for the Port of Oakland said the port is “continuing to review the recent ruling and considering all available options.”
Spokespeople for San Francisco did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the decision.
The Port of Oakland announced plans in March to change the name of its airport, which its board of commissioners unanimously approved in May.
San Francisco sued Oakland for infringing its airport’s trademarks in April, arguing the Oakland airport’s similar new name would confuse travelers. It asked in September for a preliminary order forcing the port to stop using the new name, which Hixson granted on Tuesday.
“Including ‘San Francisco’ in the name of the Oakland airport when there is in fact no affiliation, connection or association between the Oakland airport and San Francisco is contrary to how airports in the United States are normally named and is highly likely to be confusing,” Hixson said.
Oakland’s airport is 12 miles (19 km) east of San Francisco and just over 30 miles from San Francisco International Airport, whose airport code is SFO.
San Francisco International served 47 million passengers in fiscal year 2023 while Oakland’s airport served more than 11 million, according to city reports.
The Port of Oakland told the court in May that airports in Chicago, Dallas, London, Paris and Beijing peacefully share their cities’ names and said its branding and continued use of the OAK airport code would prevent confusion.
The port also said the new name was an “accurate geographic descriptor of OAK’s location on San Francisco Bay.”
The judge said it was “extremely rare” for a major U.S. airport to “bear the name of a different city than the one that owns it,” noting that Chicago and Dallas each own the two airports that bear the cities’ names.
