Passengers swamp San Francisco Airport

Press, 19 August 1978, Page 23

Passengers swamp San Francisco Airport

From

JOHN HUTCHISON

in San Francisco

San Francisco is the port of entry for a big percentage of the New Zealanders who visit the United States. For those whose air-travel experience has been limited to the relative serenity of the facilities at Auckland, Wellington or Christchurch, the introduction to San Francisco International Airport can be unnerving.

The fifth-biggest airport in the United States, it has been swamped in the last 12 months by nine million more passengers than it was designed to accommodate, and the monthly increase in July accelerated to 20 per cent’ The inadequacy Of customs and immigration facilities, the insufficiency of its 5000-vehicle public parking areas, and the pandemonium created by a vast expansion project are disconcerting enough for the American traveller familiar with his country’s airport inconveniences. Even the 29.000 people who work at the airport find the place a bit bewildering. For the newly arrived foreigner, sagging with luggage and jet lag, the confusion and discomfort can be an exhausting encounter. Airport officials say

that things will be better by mid-February when a huge new building sprawls across 28 acres to drain off eight million more passengers annually from the two terminals now running, when 4000 more parking spaces are opened, and when S3OM is spent to improve the customs and immigration area. At the moment, however, the construction going on in the midst of record hordes of passengers is only adding to the congestion. The traveller who makes his way through all the turmoil to the street is still 16 miles from downtown San Francisco. Two bus lines serve city terminals which are still a taxi-ride from most hotels. A direct taxi from the airport costs from $l6 to $2O. The best bet for most travellers is the airporter service to the downtown air terminal, near many hotels. The fare is $1.40. The traveller who has not booked his room in advance may have difficulty finding accommodation. The passengers who crowd the airport also jam the hotels. San Francisco is the favourite tourist city of Americans, and Japanese and Europeans, attracted by the bargain American dollar, are arriving in record numbers.

The improvements in course at San Francisco International Airport may improve its convenience to travellers, but they are faced with dread by the 150,000 people who live near enough to be affected by its noise, traffic and air pollution. The 21-million passenger figure for the year ending in June will reach 31 million in 1990, bringing intolerable problems, say the critics who maintain a barrage of protest against enlargement of the facility. They see the present construction of a new building covering 1.4 million square feet as something which will only make a monster more monstrous — louder, busier and more noxious. “It’s bad now,” said a housewife weary of the sound of giant aircraft overhead. “I just can’t even image what it will be like five years from now.” The commission which runs the airport has no comforting answer. There is no other place to put a San Francisco airport, and the two other metropolitan airports in the San Francisco Bay area — Oakland International and San Jose —- have all they can manage in passenger loads now.