San Francisco Airport

Hardly any major airport has a runway system as idiosyncratic as San Francisco’s. Four runways, arranged as two pairs that intersect in a big cross – and within each pair the runways lie so close together that almost nowhere else would anyone think of landing on them in parallel. Add fog from the Pacific, the bay right behind the fence and United Airlines with its most important gateway to Asia. If you want to understand SFO, you have to understand above all one thing: how wind, weather and these runways work together.

From a stopgap on the bay to a Pacific hub

It all started small and, in fact, only as a temporary solution. In 1927 the city of San Francisco leased a piece of shoreline land belonging to the Mills family and dedicated Mills Field Municipal Airport there on May 7. The stopgap quickly became a permanent solution: from 1930 the grounds grew to about 450 hectares, and in 1931 the airport was given the name San Francisco Airport. It has carried the addition “International” since the end of the Second World War.

The Pacific shaped the airport from the start. In 1944 Pan Am moved its big flying boats to SFO because the military had taken over its previous base on Treasure Island. After the war, flights to Honolulu departed from here, and later Pan Am connections around the world – more on the airline’s history in the profile of Pan Am. In March 1959 TWA brought the jet age to San Francisco with the Boeing 707, nonstop to New York.

United Airlines plays a role of its own; shortly after its founding in 1934 it established itself as the most important airline at the airport. Today SFO is its central gateway across the Pacific and the site of one of the largest maintenance bases in the industry. California airlines such as the historic Pacific Southwest Airlines and later Virgin America, which had its base at SFO and was absorbed into Alaska Airlines in 2018, have also shaped the picture.

The runway cross: two pairs, extremely close

The heart of SFO is four runways in two pairs. The east–west pair consists of 10L/28R at about 3,618 meters and 10R/28L at about 3,469 meters – these are the long runways that fully loaded long-haul jets need as well. Across from them lies the north–south pair 01R/19L (about 2,637 m) and 01L/19R (about 2,332 m). Both pairs intersect in the middle of the grounds.

The special thing is the spacing. The centerlines of each pair’s runways are only about 230 meters apart. For comparison: at Munich Airport the two parallel runways are separated by a good 2.3 kilometers, about ten times as much. In San Francisco, by contrast, aircraft on the two 28 runways are so close together that you can fit two aircraft in one frame on approach.

This distribution is the normal case, but not a law. Which runway is used for what at any moment is decided by air traffic control based on wind, weather, traffic and construction work. In 2026, for example, runway 01R/19L is being resurfaced over several months – such work noticeably shifts traffic. What is behind runway designations and wind direction is explained in the article Understanding the runway direction in use at an airport.

March 2026: the end of side-by-side landings

For decades SFO was known for a spectacle that drew spotters from all over the world: two aircraft that, in good weather, set up to land at the same time on 28L and 28R, almost wing to wing. This was only possible in good visibility, because the pilots had to keep each other in sight. In poor visibility, instrument rules require a much larger lateral spacing between parallel approaches than SFO has – then the number of landings per hour has always dropped drastically.

At the end of March 2026, the US aviation authority FAA ended this procedure permanently. According to reports from trade media such as AVweb, it prohibits simultaneous side-by-side landings on the closely spaced parallel runways even in clear weather, because the visual procedures used until now no longer meet today’s safety standards. Instead, aircraft come in staggered, with greater spacing from each other. Together with the ongoing runway rehabilitation, the maximum arrival rate thus fell from 54 to 36 flights per hour – a third fewer.

For you as a spotter this means two things. As things currently stand (October 2026), the classic picture of two jets flying exactly side by side is a thing of the past. You will still see paired approaches at a short offset to both 28 runways, though – and the lower capacity means that arrivals tend to back up and run late at peak times. So plan with a buffer and check arrival times live.

Wind, fog and the Southeast Plan

In San Francisco the wind mostly blows from the west off the Pacific. That is why, in normal operations, aircraft land coming in from the east over the bay on 28L and 28R, while departures run mainly on 01L and 01R toward the north, crossing the landing runways. Heavy long-haul jets that need more runway for takeoff sometimes switch to the long 28 runways.

If the wind shifts to south or southeast in rainy weather, the airport switches to the so-called Southeast Plan: then departures are on 10L and 10R and landings on 19L and 19R. This happens on only a small share of days a year, but it turns all vantage points upside down. A spot that is perfect in west-flow operations can then stay completely empty.

The second big factor is fog. Especially in the summer months, a layer of sea fog and low clouds often pushes over the bay in the morning. That lowers not only photo quality but also the number of possible landings, because, as described, approaches to both runways at the same time are only possible in a limited way. The layer often lifts during the day – so the afternoon is often the safer choice. Weather maps as in our article on Windy and other weather services help you judge.

United, Alaska and the terminals

SFO has four terminals arranged in a ring around the central parking garage. Harvey Milk Terminal 1 with boarding areas B and C was rebuilt step by step between 2019 and 2024; it is named after the civil rights activist and former city supervisor Harvey Milk. Since 2024, Alaska Airlines has concentrated all of its San Francisco operations there, together with its group sister Hawaiian Airlines. Terminal 2 with boarding area D is the oldest core of the airport and reopened in 2011 after a rebuild; today it is used by Southwest and Air Canada, among others. Terminal 3 with boarding areas E and F is used mainly by United for domestic flights.

The International Terminal with boarding areas A and G opened in December 2000; in 2024 the airport announced it would name it after former Senator Dianne Feinstein. It was one of the first airport buildings in which gates were designed for the Airbus A380 from the start; six positions are provided for it. In the G boarding area United handles its international flights, in the A boarding area most foreign airlines.

On the United side, long-haul types such as the Boeing 777-300ER, the 777-200ER and the Boeing 787-9 dominate. On domestic routes you see the 737 MAX 9 and other members of the 737 family, complemented by regional jets such as the Embraer E175, which partners like SkyWest fly on behalf of United. If you want to tell the long-haul jets apart reliably, the article Telling the Boeing 777 and 787 apart helps.

The gateway to the Pacific: long-haul from around the world

What makes SFO especially appealing for spotters from Europe is the long-haul traffic. According to current schedules, airlines from all over Asia connect the Bay Area with their hubs: EVA Air and China Airlines from Taipei, Cathay Pacific from Hong Kong, Korean Air from Seoul as well as ANA and Japan Airlines from Tokyo. Taipei and Seoul are among the airport’s most-used international destinations; in Europe they are London Heathrow and Frankfurt.

From Oceania come Qantas from Sydney and Air New Zealand from Auckland, from Southeast Asia Singapore Airlines. The Middle East is represented by Emirates from Dubai and Turkish Airlines from Istanbul. From Europe fly Lufthansa from Frankfurt and Munich, British Airways and Virgin Atlantic from London Heathrow, Air France, KLM and seasonally Condor, among others.

Which types these airlines use changes with the season and schedule. For you the mix means: on a good afternoon, widebody jets taxi along the 28 runways in a variety that comes together at hardly any other US airport of this size. Star Alliance, oneworld and SkyTeam are all strongly represented in San Francisco; how to recognize their special liveries is shown in the article on alliance liveries.

Cargo and maintenance

Besides passenger traffic, SFO is an important cargo airport. In 2025 about 537,000 tons were handled. A large share flies in the belly of long-haul jets, plus pure freighters, including from FedEx, DHL, Kalitta Air, Amazon Air as well as the cargo divisions of EVA Air, China Airlines and Korean Air.

A special case is the United Airlines maintenance base in the western part of the grounds. It is one of the largest maintenance sites in the world and, besides its own fleet, serves aircraft of numerous other airlines. The huge “Superbay” hangar, which United and American use together, has room for several widebody aircraft at once. For spotters that means: occasionally aircraft show up that are not in the normal schedule – such as ferry and test flights after maintenance work.

Where you stand as a spotter

SFO lies right on the water, and that is exactly what determines the spotting options. Approaches to 28L/28R come in from the east over the bay, and departures from 01L/01R head north out over the bay. Public parks and shoreline trails around the grounds therefore offer most of the vantage points – in Millbrae, for example, Bayfront Park on the southwest edge of the airport, which our spot guide describes in detail.

Because the runways lie partly far out, you generally need a decent telephoto lens for frame-filling shots. Over the water and the warm asphalt, heat shimmer also forms easily on sunny afternoons; tips on this are in the article Avoiding heat shimmer. The article Plane spotting in San Francisco gives you a compact overview of the best places and times of day.

Inside the airport, passengers should take a look at what the SFO Museum offers. It shows changing exhibitions in several terminals and operates the Aviation Museum & Library on aviation history in the International Terminal. Above Terminal 2, the SkyTerrace observation deck also opened in February 2020. Whether and when it is accessible, you should check beforehand on the airport’s website.

Safety and well-known incidents

The closely spaced parallel runways and the location on the water have put SFO in the headlines several times. On July 6, 2013, Asiana Flight 214, a Boeing 777-200ER, touched down too low and too slowly on approach to 28L, hit the seawall with its tail and burned out. Three people died – it was the first accident of a 777 with fatalities.

In July 2017, an Air Canada Airbus A320 at night on approach to 28R mistakenly lined up with the parallel taxiway, where several aircraft were waiting for takeoff. Only just before a catastrophe did the crew initiate a go-around; the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) investigated the case extensively. Both events have shaped the debate about approach procedures at SFO. The FAA justified its 2026 decision in general terms with safety standards for separation.

Expansion and the question of more space

The airport’s basic problem is well known: it has no room. In the late 1990s the idea therefore came up to fill in parts of the bay in order to move the parallel runways further apart. Broad resistance formed against the project from environmental groups, costs rose considerably, and the runway relocation has not been carried out to this day.

Instead of new runways, the airport invested in terminals and access: the International Terminal in 2000, AirTrain and BART connection in 2003, the rebuild of Terminal 2 through 2011 and the new Harvey Milk Terminal 1 through 2024. That does nothing for runway capacity – and since March 2026 it has even dropped noticeably.

SFO in comparison

On the West Coast, Los Angeles Airport is the big competitor: more traffic, more airlines and, with spots like Imperial Hill, considerably closer vantage points. SFO, by contrast, scores with the United hub, the strong Asia traffic and its unique runway cross. Inland, Chicago O’Hare is United’s second big hub, and on the East Coast New York JFK Airport takes on the role of the international gateway.

On the other side of the Pacific lie many counterparts of the SFO connections, such as Hong Kong Airport and Tokyo Haneda Airport. If you plan a whole US trip around spotting, the articles Plane spotting trip to the USA and US N-numbers help.

Conclusion

San Francisco Airport is not a place where you simply stand at the fence and get going. The runway cross, the fog, the Southeast Plan and, since March 2026, the FAA’s new rules make it more demanding than many other hubs. In return you get a mix that is rare: United widebody jets in series, long-haul airlines from all over Asia and Oceania and approaches over the water of the bay.

As everywhere, wind, light and timing decide. If you check the runway direction in use, fog forecast and arrivals board beforehand, you will be standing on the right shore at the right time in San Francisco.