SFO One of Most Expensive Airports in Nation, San Jose and Oakland Among Cheapest

    Nov. 15, 2019

    By Mallory Moench

    Source San Francisco Chronicle (TNS)

    We’ll give you the bad news first: SFO is one of the most expensive airports in the country. That’s according to a study released Thursday by the Points Guy, a travel and lifestyle website.

    But the good news is that airports in neighboring Oakland and San Jose rank among the least expensive. San Jose is the fourth most affordable and Oakland fifth, while San Francisco is the fourth most expensive.

    Flights were on average more than $100 cheaper out of Oakland than San Francisco. But the South Bay airport had cheaper amenities, beating out its East Bay competitor for a better ranking. At San Jose, app-hailed rides average $15 versus $22 at Oakland. Luggage cart rentals are 25 cents less and a coffee three cents cheaper.

    SFO is the seventh busiest passenger airport in the country and served 57.7 million passengers from July 2017 to June 2018, the airport’s most recent economic impact report said. Visitor spending generated more than $12.5 billion in revenue.

    The Point Guy’s study looked at the 50 busiest airports in the country. It ranked the average cost of round-trip domestic airfare using Bureau of Transportation Statistics to make up 50% of an airport’s score. Then it weighed baggage-cart rental fees, overnight parking fees, ride-hail costs to and from the nearest city center, the average cost of a cup of coffee from Starbucks or a comparable chain and other factors, like the number of restaurants.

    “Airfare is only part of the equation when calculating the true cost of a vacation,” Scott Mayerowitz, the site’s executive news director, said in a press release Thursday. “Sometimes it might actually be cheaper to pay $10 more per ticket in order to save much more on a taxi or food at the airport. Savvy travelers can use our research to make informed decisions ahead of their next trip.”

    The airports that outpriced SFO were in other urban centers. Newark Liberty International Airport was the costliest, followed by JFK Airport in New York. The third priciest was Washington Dulles in Virginia, which serves the nation’s capital.

    Mallory Moench is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: [email protected] Twitter: @mallorymoench

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    Josh Smith