| Norman Y. Mineta San Jose International Airport | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| IATA: SJC – ICAO: KSJC – FAA LID: SJC | |||
| Summary | |||
| Airport type | Public | ||
| Owner | City of San Jose | ||
| Serves | San Jose, California | ||
| Location | San Jose, California, USA | ||
| Elevation AMSL | 62 ft / 19 m | ||
| Coordinates | |||
| Website | |||
| Map | |||
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SJC
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| Runways | |||
| Direction | Length | Surface | |
| ft | m | ||
| 12L/30R | 11,000 | 3,353 | Concrete |
| 12R/30L | 11,000 | 3,353 | Concrete |
| 11/29 | 4,599 | 1,402 | Asphalt |
| Statistics (2006, 2010) | |||
| Passenger boardings (2006) | 5,283,407 | ||
| Aircraft operations (2006) | 213,107 | ||
| Based aircraft (2006) | 176 | ||
| Passengers (2010) | 8,246,064 | ||
| Sources: airport web site,[1] FAA Airport Master Record[2] and FAA Passenger Boarding Data[3] |
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Norman Y. Mineta San Jose International Airport[1] (IATA: SJC, ICAO: KSJC, FAA LID: SJC) is a city-owned public-use airport serving the city of San Jose[4] in Santa Clara County, California, United States. It is named for San Jose native Norman Yoshio Mineta, who was Transportation Secretary in the Cabinet of George W. Bush, and Commerce Secretary in the Cabinet of Bill Clinton, although the airport is also named to recognize Mineta's service as a Councilman for, and Mayor of, San Jose. It is a U.S. Customs and Border Protection international Port of entry.[5] It is located two nautical miles (4 km) northwest of Downtown San Jose,[2][6] near the intersections of three major freeways, U.S. Route 101, Interstate 880, and State Route 87. The airport's dominant carrier is Southwest Airlines. Alaska Airlines, along with its regional subsidiary, Horizon Air, is the second largest carrier at the airport. Alaska Airlines also operates most of its departing flights from the Bay Area out of SJC. The airport offers free Wi-Fi in all its terminal buildings.
The San Jose City Council has considered changing the name of the airport to San Jose/Silicon Valley Mineta International Airport. The city believes that the new name would help the airlines' marketing strategy.
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Despite San Jose's position as the most populous city in the Bay Area, SJC is the smallest of the three Bay Area airports offering scheduled service (10.9 million passengers annual in 2006), with less than one third the passengers of the region's major international airport San Francisco International Airport (SFO), and fewer passengers than Oakland International Airport (OAK). Like the Oakland airport, it attracts Bay Area residents who find SFO to be inconveniently distant from their homes.
SJC is situated as a "downtown airport". Its relatively convenient location for residents and visitors near downtown San Jose has also led to some drawbacks. It became surrounded by the city and had little room for expansion. The proximity to downtown has also led to restrictions on heights of buildings in downtown San Jose by safety margins set in FAA regulations.[7][8][9]
In 1939, Ernie Renzel, a wholesale grocer and future mayor of San Jose, led a group that negotiated an option to purchase 483 acres (1.95 km2) of the Stockton Ranch from the Crocker family, to be the site of San Jose's airport. Renzel led the effort to pass a bond measure to pay for the land in 1940. In 1945, test pilot James Nissen leased about 16 acres (65,000 m2) of this land to build a runway, hangar and office building for a flight school. When the city of San Jose decided to develop a municipal airport, Nissen sold his share of the aviation business and became San Jose's first airport manager. Both Renzel and Nissen were instrumental in the development of San Jose Municipal Airport over the next few decades, culminating with the opening of what is now Terminal C in 1965.[10][11]
In the early 1980s San Jose International Airport was one of the first U.S airports to participate in the noise regulation program enacted by the U.S. Congress for delineation of airport noise contours and developing a pilot study of residential sound insulation. This program succeeded in its objective of demonstrating that residences in the airport vicinity could be retrofitted in a cost-effective manner to reduce interior sound levels from aircraft noise substantially.[12]
In 1990, San Jose International Airport greatly expanded with the opening of Terminal A. Plans at the time called for a Terminal B to be eventually built between Terminals A and C.
In November 2001, the airport was renamed after Norman Yoshio Mineta, who is a native of San Jose, its former mayor and congressman, former United States Secretary of Commerce and former United States Secretary of Transportation. In December 2003, the airfield was named after former mayor Ernie Renzel.[13]
In August 2004, the city broke ground on the North Concourse, the first phase in a three-phase, nine-year expansion plan. The master plan, designed by Gensler and The Steinberg Group, called for a single consolidated terminal that contains 40 gates (eight more than present), an international concourse, and expanded security areas. The terminal would be named after James Nissen. The sail-shaped facade would greet up to 17.6 million passengers a year. A people mover system would link the new terminal with VTA light rail and the planned BART station adjacent to the current Santa Clara Caltrain station. Cargo facilities would be moved to the east side of the airport. A long term parking garage would be constructed at the current location of the rental car operations. A new short term parking structure would also be constructed at the site of current Terminal C short term parking lot.
In November 2005, a scaled-back airport improvement plan was approved and announced.[14][15] The new two-phase plan called for a simplified Terminal B, rather than the initially proposed James Nissen Central Terminal, with a North Concourse to replace the aging Terminal C. In addition, Terminal A would be expanded for additional check-in counters, security checkpoints, and drop-off/pick-up curbside space. The new plan cost $1.3 billion, less than half of the original plan's cost of $3 billion. The first phase was completed in June 2010, when Terminal B and the North Concourse officially opened for service.[16][17] The second phase, adding a South Concourse to Terminal B, is to be built when demand is sufficient.
San Jose's first airline flights were Southwest Airways DC-3s on the multistop run between SFO and LAX, starting in 1948-49. Southwest (later called Pacific) was the only airline until 1966, when PSA started flying Electras nonstop from LAX, with 727s later that year. (SJC's first airline jets were Pacific 727 nonstops to LAX earlier in 1966). In 1968 United Airlines arrived, with 727 nonstops from Denver, Chicago and LAX, and DC-8s from New York Kennedy and Baltimore.
American Airlines opened a hub at San Jose in 1988, using slots it obtained in the buyout of Air California in 1986. Reno Air, a startup based in Reno, Nevada, took over many of American's gates until it was bought out by American in 1998. The American hub lasted only a few years because of a downturn in the economy.
After the dot-com bubble burst in 2001, the city lost several flights because of a decrease in demand. Air Canada discontinued its flights to Toronto and Ottawa, Canada, and American Airlines stopped its nonstop flights to Taipei, Taiwan; Vancouver, Canada; and Paris, France. American also dropped its focus city service to Miami, St. Louis, Seattle, Portland, Denver, and Phoenix; the airline's flights to Southern California were downgraded to American Eagle regional flights.
Dramatic reduction at SJC continued throughout 2004. Alaska Airlines halted its San Jose–Puerto Vallarta and Cabo San Lucas seasonal routes, Horizon Air discontinued its twice daily San Jose-Tucson service. and American Airlines discontinued its San Jose–San Luis Obispo and San Jose–Boston Logan links.
In October 2005, Hawaiian Airlines began nonstop daily service from Honolulu to San Jose. This made San Jose Hawaiian's fifth gateway city in California, along with San Diego, Los Angeles, Sacramento and San Francisco.[18][19] However, one year later, in October 2006, American Airlines discontinued the San Jose–Tokyo-Narita route, which was San Jose's last remaining link with an international overseas destination.
SJC suffered with many mid-tier airports during the 2008 rise in oil prices as airlines reduced marginal services to improve profitability. SJC lost much of its transcontinental U.S. service in the fall with Continental ending Newark flights, JetBlue ceasing Boston service, and United ending longtime service to its Chicago-O'Hare and Washington Dulles hubs.[1] The New York Times reported that between 2007 and 2009, SJC lost 22% of its seat capacity.[20]
In the summer of 2009, American Airlines ceased service to Austin, Texas. However, Alaska Airlines announced afterward it would begin new routes to Austin from SJC, and would upgrade service to Portland, Oregon, which was run by regional subsidiary Horizon Air, to commercial jet service which began on September 2, 2009.
In 2010, service expanded at SJC for the first time in several years. JetBlue Airways resumed San Jose/Boston routes, although it discontinued service to Long Beach on the same day. Volaris entered into service at SJC in May 2010, with flights to Guadalajara, Mexico. Alaska Airlines added service to Kahului, Kona, Lihue, and Los Cabos/San José del Cabo.[21] The airline also doubled its daily flights to several destinations on its regional subsidiary, Horizon Air and added service to Guadalajara, Mexico, which began on December 15, 2010. Alaska now operates most of its flights out of the Bay Area from San Jose.
Despite the addition of service, Frontier Airlines pulled out of SJC in May 2010, citing lack of profitability on its single flight from the airport to Denver, Colorado.
In August 2010, Mexicana Airlines also suspended all its flights out of the airport and its other destinations permanently due to bankruptcy.[22] In the same month, Southwest Airlines announced it would begin nonstop flights to Austin, Texas. Several months later, Alaska announced it was ending service to Austin, likely due to the increased competition from Southwest.
In September 2011, Hawaiian Airlines announced that it would begin service to Maui starting on January 10, 2012. On the same day, Alaska Airlines announced that it would upgrade its service to Kahului and Kauai to daily flights; currently, Alaska flies to Kahului four times a week and to Kauai three times a week.
In December 2011, All Nippon Airways announced it would begin service between San Jose and Tokyo in 2012, restoring the link between the two cities that had been lost since American pulled out of the route in 2006. The airline will serve the route with the Boeing 787, making San Jose one of the first two cities in the United States to see scheduled 787 flights.[23]
A 2010 study by J.D. Power and Associates revealed that San Jose Airport has the lowest passenger satisfaction rating of any comparable small airport in the United States.[24][25] San Jose Airport ranked the lowest in each of the six categories surveyed: accessibility, baggage claim, check-in, terminal facilities, security check, and food/retail services; however, this survey was conducted before the new Terminal B was opened and before the renovation of Terminal A was completed.
SJC's new consolidated parking and rental facility, CONRAC, has been fitted with new public art featuring hands of people in Silicon Valley. The art is on the outside of the facility and can be seen from more than one mile away. Artist Christian Moeller designed the new "Hands" mural.[26]
Norman Y. Mineta San Jose International Airport covers an area of 1,050 acres (420 ha) at an elevation of 62 feet (19 m) above mean sea level. It has three runways: 12L/30R and 12R/30L each have a 11,000 by 150 feet (3,353 × 46 m) concrete surface and 11/29 has a 4,599 by 100 feet (1,402 × 30 m) asphalt surface.[2] The runway separation is less than ideal: 700 feet between centerlines.
For the 12-month period ending December 31, 2006, the airport had 213,107 aircraft operations, an average of 583 per day: 59% scheduled commercial, 14% air taxi, 27% general aviation and <1% military. At that time there were 176 aircraft based at this airport: 50% single-engine, 6% multi-engine, 38% jet, and 6% helicopter.[2]
From 1960 to 2010, San Jose State University operated a flight-simulator facility for its aviation program in buildings at the southeast corner of the airport. The university has since relocated to the Reid-Hillview Airport located about 5 miles to the southeast.
| Rank | City | Passengers | Carriers |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Los Angeles, California | 476,000 | American, Horizon, Southwest, United |
| 2 | Phoenix, Arizona | 356,000 | Southwest, US Airways |
| 3 | Orange County, California | 354,000 | Southwest |
| 4 | San Diego, California | 312,000 | Southwest |
| 5 | Seattle, Washington | 298,000 | Alaska, Southwest |
| 6 | Las Vegas, Nevada | 289,000 | Southwest |
| 7 | Denver, Colorado | 266,000 | Southwest, United |
| 8 | Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas | 244,000 | American |
| 9 | Burbank, California | 212,000 | Southwest |
| 10 | Portland, Oregon | 211,000 | Alaska, Horizon, Southwest |
There are currently two terminals at the airport, Terminal A, opened in 1990, and Terminal B, opened in 2010. The airport's first modern terminal building, Terminal C, was opened in 1965 and closed in 2010.
In 2009, the gates at the airport were renumbered in preparation for the addition of Terminal B. Gate A16B at the north end became Gate 1, and Gate A1A at the south end became Gate 16.[28]
Terminal A has 16 gates: 1-16.
Designed by a team of architects and engineers led by HTB, Inc., Terminal A and its adjoining parking garage were originally designed and built in 1990 for American Airlines. The overall program was led by a joint team of San Jose Airport and Public Works staff known as the "Airport Development Team". The project was awarded the Public Works Project of the Year by the California Council of Civil Engineers. It underwent extensive renovation and expansion in 2009, with larger ground-level ticketing counters, more curbside parking space, larger security checkpoints, and more concessions. The renovations and expansion was designed by Curtis W. Fentress, FAIA, RIBA of Fentress Architects.
The terminal includes an international arrivals building, which contains Gates 15 and 16. All international flights (all of which depart at Terminal A) at the airport must clear customs from this building in order to proceed to their gates. The gates used in this building are also used for arrivals of Volaris flights.
Terminal A had an Admirals Club across from Gate 8 for American Airlines passengers, however the club closed in September 2010, with the airline citing rising costs, and cutbacks in its flight schedule at San Jose for the club's closure.
The concourse was designed by Gensler (see inset photo) and the Terminal by Fentress Architects. Construction management was provided by Hensel Phelps Construction Co. The terminal officially opened on June 30, 2010. Its design features dramatic daylit spaces, modern art, shared use ticket counters/gates, and chairs with power cords and USB ports on the armrest to charge laptops or handheld devices.
The terminal has recently earned a LEED Silver certification from the U.S. Green Building Council in recognition of the airport's significant commitment to environmentally sustainable design and construction.[29]
The North Concourse of Terminal B has 12 gates: 17-28.
The first six gates of the new concourse were opened to the public on July 15, 2009. The remaining gates were opened on June 30, 2010. Southwest Airlines is the primary tenant, along with Alaska Airlines, Horizon Air, and Delta Air Lines.[30]
The South Concourse will be built once traffic levels reach a certain level determined by the city of San Jose to justify the expansion.
| Airlines | Destinations | Terminal |
|---|---|---|
| Alaska Airlines | Guadalajara, Honolulu [begins April 10, 2012],[31] Kahului, Kona, Lihue,[32] Portland(OR), San Jose del Cabo, Seattle/Tacoma [33] | B |
| Alaska Airlines operated by Horizon Air | Boise, Los Angeles,[34] Portland (OR), Sacramento Seasonal: Mammoth Lakes, Palm Springs [begins February 17][35] |
B |
| American Airlines | Chicago-O'Hare, Dallas/Fort Worth | A |
| American Eagle | Los Angeles | A |
| Delta Air Lines | Atlanta, Minneapolis/St. Paul Seasonal: Salt Lake City |
B |
| Delta Connection operated by SkyWest Airlines | Salt Lake City | B |
| Hawaiian Airlines | Honolulu, Kahului [begins January 10, 2012] | A |
| JetBlue Airways | Boston, New York–JFK | A |
| Southwest Airlines | Austin,[36] Burbank, Chicago-Midway, Denver, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Ontario, Orange County, Phoenix, Portland (OR), Reno/Tahoe, San Diego, Seattle/Tacoma | B |
| United Airlines | Denver, Houston-Intercontinental | A |
| United Express operated by SkyWest Airlines | Denver, Los Angeles | A |
| US Airways | Phoenix | A |
| Volaris | Guadalajara | A |
This terminal was built in 1965, before jet bridges (elevated corridors that connect planes to the terminal) became common at airports. Instead of using jet bridges, Terminal C mostly used airstairs. Some airlines, including Alaska Airlines[39] and SkyWest Airlines, used turboway ramps. In preparation for construction of Terminal B, the north end of Terminal C, previously home to gates C14–C16, which housed Alaska Airlines, Horizon Air, and Frontier Airlines, was closed for demolition in December 2007. The remaining portion of the terminal was reconfigured, including the addition of a new, larger, consolidated security checkpoint. The demolition of the north end occurred in February 2008, officially clearing the way for construction of Terminal B. [40]
In December 2009, United Airlines, Continental Airlines, and JetBlue Airways moved to new or reconstructed gates in Terminal A, as the area within Terminal C containing the three airlines' gates was demolished. Other airlines operating at that time within Terminal C remained in the terminal until the North Concourse of Terminal B opened in June 2010.
The Terminal C baggage claim was closed for demolition on February 2, 2010. This allowed for completion of the airport's new roadways. The terminal was officially closed on June 30, 2010. The remaining portions of the terminal were torn down in July 2010, and the space the terminal occupied now serves as a surface parking lot.
Private and corporate aircraft are based on the opposite side of the runway from Terminals A and B, on Coleman Avenue.
The airport's web site lists ground transportation options at SJC including taxis, limousines, rental cars, shuttles, and public transportation, which are located on or accessible from the airport.[41]
The free VTA Route 10 Airport Flyer bus connects the airport to the Santa Clara Station for Caltrain and ACE commuter rail services as well as numerous local buses; and to the Metro/Airport Light Rail Station for VTA's light rail service.
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