Bay area rivals Oakland and San Francisco are entering a new era of feuding.
For decades, the competition between the “City by the Bay” and its more down-to-earth neighbor centered on the duels between professional football and Major League Baseball teams. But with the Raiders fleeing Oakland and the Athletics looming, the two cities apparently needed a new thing to feud about.
Make way for airports.
On Tuesday, the city of San Francisco asked a federal judge for a preliminary injunction to bar Oakland’s airport from using its new name, San Francisco Bay Oakland International Airport. Despite the new name, the East Bay airport will retain its OAK code and “I Fly OAK” logo, and its runways will continue to hug the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay.
San Francisco claims in court documents that the airport’s new name infringes on trademarks, confuses travelers and is a thinly veiled attempt to lure customers away from San Francisco International Airport.
“While Oakland Airport serves a large portion of the Bay Area’s travelers as SFO, it serves far fewer,” San Francisco’s attorneys wrote in the court document. “What better way to attract new customers, service providers, and airlines than to adopt a copycat brand?”
The Port of Oakland fired back in a press release this week, saying San Francisco was simply trying to “wipe OAK off the map.”
“This is not and has never been about SFO or confusion,” Mary Richardson, an attorney for the Port of Oakland, said in a statement. “This is about making travelers aware of the choices they have when traveling to and from the nine counties of the San Francisco Bay Area.”
The fight began in the spring after the Oakland Port Commissioners voted to change the name of Oakland International Airport to the more inclusive San Francisco Bay Area International Airport.
Port Commissioners Chair Barbara Leslie said at the time that the move was intended to help travelers better understand the airport’s location. The Oakland airport, which opened in September 1927, is known as the location where Amelia Earhart took off on her ill-fated attempt to fly around the world.
But San Francisco International Airport, in operation since May 1927, immediately opposed the name change, arguing that it would cause confusion. Days after the Oakland Port Commissioners voted in favor of the new name in April, the city of San Francisco filed a lawsuit in federal court.
San Francisco City Attorney David Chiu said in a statement this week that the airport’s branding update had prompted travelers to book flights to San Francisco International Airport with the intention of going to Oakland. Others were redirected to the wrong airport by digital assistants and ride-hailing services.
Attempts to engage with Oakland officials to find alternative names have been unsuccessful, Chiu said.
“San Francisco has invested millions to make San Francisco International Airport the world-class airport it is today. We have built an incredible brand that we need to protect,” he said. “Oakland has a trademark for Oakland International Airport. They should use that and stay away from the San Francisco brand.”
In his statement, Richardson accused San Francisco of trying to stifle competition and position SFO as the only airport serving the Bay Area. “That is not the case, and OAK will continue to aggressively compete for its position in the Bay Area.”
