San Jose Airport Community Open House

The public is invited to tour the brand new Terminal B and concourse, and the completely renovated Terminal A at Mineta San Jose Airport. Once inside, guests will be given "open house boarding passes" entitling them to learn more about the $1.3 billion dollar project, as well as the airlines and vendors serving the airport. The red-ribbon cutting takes place at 8:30 AM Saturday, June 26th, with hourly tours scheduled throughout the day Saturday and Sunday. The tours are free of charge, but you must pre-register and provide initial screening information for TSA security clearance.

Tough Choices Ahead for San Jose Airport Officials

Officials at San Jose-Mineta airport warn that painful choices will need to be made in order to prevent "failure," according to airport aviation director Bill Sherry. A significant drop in flights and passengers, combined with a hefty $1.3 billion renovation bill mean that airport will need to consider big changes - and soon. At a special City Council session this week, many suggestions, including lifting the overnight flight curfew, and suspending the current living wage for airport personnel were discussed. Read more from the SJ Mercury News.

American Airlines To Ground San Jose-Austin Nerd Bird Route

The Austin American-Statesman reports American Airlines will cease flights between San Jose and Austin effective August 25, 2009. Flights between these cities, often dubbed the "nerd bird" route because of the large number of high-tech workers, have been part of the Silicon Valley for over 15 years. American cites the cancellation on the overall recession and a weakening demand on business travel, including on the Nerd Bird. Read the full story here.

San Jose Airport Opens New Ticketing Lobbies

(Press Release)

Spacious new street-level ticketing lobbies opened at Terminal A of Mineta San José International Airport (SJC) Wednesday morning (May 13), expanding the number of ticketing stations by 60 percent.

The new ticketing lobbies are the first newly-constructed customer space to open in the airport's comprehensive $1.3 billion terminal area modernization program, and the first of several major improvements for Terminal A that will come into service over the rest of this year.

Southwest Airlines now occupies the entire South Ticketing Lobby, and the North Lobby is shared by American, Hawaiian, and Mexicana Airlines. Because of SJC's innovative shared-use technology foundation, in the future multiple carriers can easily use the same ticket counters and aircraft gates as new flights are added to serve San José.

Passengers walking across the bridge from the Terminal A garage now will go down the new escalators to check in at the new ticket counters. In addition, Terminal A now has a much longer curb for departing passengers to unload and conveniently check in at street level.

The space vacated by the old upstairs ticket counters now will be cleared out to make way for an expanded and efficient new security checkpoint that will help reduce passenger wait times and improve their travel experience at SJC when it is completed this fall.

"It was quite a challenge to orchestrate the complex series of steps with contractors, airlines, and the airport so that we could make the entire switch overnight," said Steve Pagan, SJC project manager for the Terminal A improvements.

"We've been planning the details for months so that we could complete construction, move equipment and technology systems from upstairs to downstairs in one night, and be ready for our customers first thing in the morning without missing a beat."

Phase 1 of SJC's $1.3 billion terminal area improvement program involves the modernization and replacement of the airport's terminal facilities. The overall project includes the construction of a new Terminal B and Concourse that will take the place of Terminal C, originally built in 1965, along with upgrades and expansion at Terminal A to provide more spacious and comfortable waiting areas and faster security check-in systems.

Over the next year, SJC will be completing major elements of the program. Interim activation of the Terminal B Concourse will take place this summer when several gates will be used by Southwest until the rest of the terminal is completed next summer.

The program also includes a new 3350-space rental car and public parking garage directly in front of Terminal B; expanded space for more options for quality food, beverage, and retail services; and improved roadways serving the airport for more convenient access.

The modernization program is scheduled for completion by the end of 2010.  Plans for future airport expansion in Phase 2, which would extend Terminal B and add new gates, will be contingent on reaching growth triggers for the number of flights or passengers pre-established in collaboration with the airlines serving San José.

ABOUT MINETA SAN JOSÉ INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT
Mineta San José International Airport, a self-supporting enterprise, is owned and operated by the City of San José.  SJC served 9.7 million passengers and handled approximately 162 million pounds of air cargo in 2008.  SJC has approximately 150 flights a day on 13 domestic and international carriers to 27 nonstop destinations.

Mineta San José International Airport is located in San José, California's third largest city and the nation's tenth largest city (population 1,007,000).

For more Airport information, visit www.sjc.org, or call Airport Customer Service at (408) 501-0979.  Motorists can also tune their radios to 530 AM within two miles of SJC for current information on airport traffic, parking and security.

San Jose Airport Loses 1 Million Passengers

(From NBCbayarea.com)

Mineta San Jose International Airport has told San Jose city officials that passenger traffic fell by one million people in 2008. Airport officials said airline capacity reductions throughout the nation and the deep economic recession have contributed to the drop off.

The passenger traffic numbers dropped from 10.7 million in 2997 to 9.7 million in 2008. That is a 8.8 percent drop. Airport officials said December 2008 traffic fell 14 percent to 689,000, compared to 813,000 in December 2007.

That was the 15th straight month that passenger traffic had dropped compared to one year earlier, airport officials reported. Airport traffic had not been under 700,000 passengers since February, 1995.

Full story