Question about the airport.... (San Jose, San Francisco: credit, hotels, homes)

[AllenSJC]

So why is Norman Mineta San Jose International Airport so small, smaller than Oakland International and much smaller than SFO?

If San Jose is the 10th largest city in America, larger than San Francisco, why do we get a rather modest airport? Lots of airlines have cut back at SJC. In fact, the only airline I can think of that really still has a substantial presence there is Southwest.

Does it have to do with airfares at SJC? Or maybe the economic downturn hit San Jose worse than San Francisco, and the airlines invested too much into SFO, so they cut back on the low hanging fruit (SJC)? Maybe it's the location of the airport? It is pretty close to the downtown...

Or maybe it's because more people want to go to San Francisco (tourists) than San Jose?

[gnomatic]

Originally Posted by AllenSJC

So why is Norman Mineta San Jose International Airport so small, smaller than Oakland International and much smaller than SFO?

If San Jose is the 10th largest city in America, larger than San Francisco, why do we get a rather modest airport? Lots of airlines have cut back at SJC. In fact, the only airline I can think of that really still has a substantial presence there is Southwest.

Does it have to do with airfares at SJC? Or maybe the economic downturn hit San Jose worse than San Francisco, and the airlines invested too much into SFO, so they cut back on the low hanging fruit (SJC)? Maybe it's the location of the airport? It is pretty close to the downtown...

Or maybe it's because more people want to go to San Francisco (tourists) than San Jose?

If you are really curious and want more indepth analysis, you should check out the forums at flyertalk.com.

[silverkris]

Originally Posted by gnomatic

If you are really curious and want more indepth analysis, you should check out the forums at flyertalk.com.

Flyertalk is great for that - I frequent that forum, too. Just a few points:

• SJC can't expand physically in terms of raw land because it is hemmed in on all sides.
• They also have a curfew for takeoffs and landings as well.
• It's always been a secondary airport to SFO; AA tried to make it a hub for their flights (including nonstops to Paris and Taipei, briefly, in the 90's) and it didn't work.
• The airline business is always tough in even good times; the relative lack of connecting flights (critical mass) didn't make it economically feasible for a lot of flights so many airlines cut back.
• SJC's best bet is as a O/D (origin and destination) port which is much more convenient to Silicon Valley and it's not as prone to weather related delays as SFO.

[sonarrat]

It would certainly be a much bigger deal if it wasn't for SFO. That said, San Jose did just add a "B" terminal. I've been through it and it's a really impressive sight. All I could think was, "This is SJC?"

[hsw]

Business travelers tend to pay bills at any airline or airport or any major city's most costly hotels/restaurants/bars

Tourists tend to not have much money or create lucrative jobs, so who in any major business region like SV really cares whether any airport appeals to poor leisure travelers?

Where do most SV business travelers routinely fly?...NYC or Chicago or Dallas or Houston or London or Stuttgart/Frankfurt/Munich or Tokyo...where world's major consumers of tech have HQs....for such business travel, SFO offers most direct flts on large cabin birds w/decent business/first class cabins

And biggest titans in SV generally keep their private birds at SJ, not SFO (as SJ is closer to major offices/homes in Woodside area and has less fog/wind issues vs SFO)....and the google guys fly out of Moffett (presumably after driving their Prius out to their gas-guzzling bird)

[humboldtrat]

Originally Posted by hsw

Business travelers tend to pay bills at any airline or airport or any major city's most costly hotels/restaurants/bars

Tourists tend to not have much money or create lucrative jobs, so who in any major business region like SV really cares whether any airport appeals to poor leisure travelers?

Where do most SV business travelers routinely fly?...NYC or Chicago or Dallas or Houston or London or Stuttgart/Frankfurt/Munich or Tokyo...where world's major consumers of tech have HQs....for such business travel, SFO offers most direct flts on large cabin birds w/decent business/first class cabins

And biggest titans in SV generally keep their private birds at SJ, not SFO (as SJ is closer to major offices/homes in Woodside area and has less fog/wind issues vs SFO)....and the google guys fly out of Moffett (presumably after driving their Prius out to their gas-guzzling bird)

I keep the space shuttle at Teterboro for easy access to my Goldman Sachs gig in Manhattan.

[mstnghu2]

Originally Posted by hsw

Business travelers tend to pay bills at any airline or airport or any major city's most costly hotels/restaurants/bars

Tourists tend to not have much money or create lucrative jobs, so who in any major business region like SV really cares whether any airport appeals to poor leisure travelers?

Where do most SV business travelers routinely fly?...NYC or Chicago or Dallas or Houston or London or Stuttgart/Frankfurt/Munich or Tokyo...where world's major consumers of tech have HQs....for such business travel, SFO offers most direct flts on large cabin birds w/decent business/first class cabins

And biggest titans in SV generally keep their private birds at SJ, not SFO (as SJ is closer to major offices/homes in Woodside area and has less fog/wind issues vs SFO)....and the google guys fly out of Moffett (presumably after driving their Prius out to their gas-guzzling bird)

Tourism actually is a major industry and contrary to your faulty information, many tourists actually do have money. They wouldn't be able to afford to travel if they were dirt poor as you seem to think they are. I'm not sure where you come up with your "facts". How do you figure that tourists are all "poor leisure travellers". I never travel for business, since my job doesn't require it. I guess I'm a poor leisure traveller since my Caribbean cruise last summer only cost me $4500.

Tourists are people who spend some of their hard earned money to do something outside of work and go somewhere to relax and enjoy themselves and not be married to their jobs 24/7.

I will give you credit since you finally posted something without including "Palo Alto" at least three times. Your ignorant elitist attitude is pretty ridiculous though. You really have no idea what you're talking about when you post stuff.

[sonarrat]

Originally Posted by hsw

Where do most SV business travelers routinely fly?...NYC or Chicago or Dallas or Houston or London or Stuttgart/Frankfurt/Munich or Tokyo...where world's major consumers of tech have HQs....for such business travel, SFO offers most direct flts on large cabin birds w/decent business/first class cabins

In my experience, the tech hot spots are Hsinchu, Tokyo, Shanghai, Incheon, Dresden, Tel Aviv, Austin, Portland, Richmond, Albany. Most of the domestic spots are very well served by San Jose.. international not so much.

[silverkris]

Originally Posted by mstnghu2

Tourism actually is a major industry and contrary to your faulty information, many tourists actually do have money. They wouldn't be able to afford to travel if they were dirt poor as you seem to think they are. I'm not sure where you come up with your "facts". How do you figure that tourists are all "poor leisure travellers". I never travel for business, since my job doesn't require it. I guess I'm a poor leisure traveller since my Caribbean cruise last summer only cost me $4500.

Tourists are people who spend some of their hard earned money to do something outside of work and go somewhere to relax and enjoy themselves and not be married to their jobs 24/7.

I will give you credit since you finally posted something without including "Palo Alto" at least three times. Your ignorant elitist attitude is pretty ridiculous though. You really have no idea what you're talking about when you post stuff.

Contrary to hsw's implied post that SJC seems to composed of supposedly "low-yield" tourist traffic, in reality SJC has a lot of business traffic, because it's a lot more convenient to many major Silicon Valley companies. Intel, Apple, Cisco, Google, Yahoo, Synopsis, Cadence, SanDisk, VeriSign, Intuit, to name a few, are all within 20 minutes of SJC, which is more convenient than SFO. And no, SV workers don't all travel to major international destinations such as London or Frankfurt that are served by SFO. Plenty of them have to travel domestically, which they do. For example, one often must travel to other tech centers like Austin, or Portland (centered on Hillsboro), and you can fly to there from SJC easily. And fares from SJC aren't necessarily lower than those originating or terminating at SFO.

I think hsw is talking about "high yield" travellers who tend to fly biz or 1st class to major international destinations, and which tend to be on business, which means someone else is paying the freight. That said, a lot of companies have restricted or gone away from allowing staff to fly C-class fares for budgetary reasons. This includes many of the major employers I've mentioned above.

Nevertheless, as you've implied, travellers who fly on lower fares are a significant market sector. And they're not just tourists. Everyone wants to save a buck, right? Southwest Airlines business model is to go into so-called secondary airports like OAK, SJC, Chicago's Midway (MDW) and tapped into an underserved market. Southwest (WN) is now SJC's largest carrier. And not all of them are so-called low-yield tourists - a lot of business folks fly on Southwest because they offer a lot of frequent flights at very decent fares.

Anyway, I share your opinion on much of hsw's posts, which seem to suggest that he doesn't live in the area and has at best a shallow, myopic view of Silicon Valley.

[bigdumbgod]

Originally Posted by silverkris

Everyone wants to save a buck, right?

Only the wretched unwashed bottom-feeders.

Signed,

Narcisstic Palo Alto Engineers Blogging Guild