Flights Operating Smoothly At Oakland Airport

For the most part, flights are arriving and departing on time from Oakland International Airport.

The plane crash that killed two people and injured 180 at San Francisco International Airport on Saturday has created some logistical changes at Oakland, but it has not caused any significant flight delays.

Brian Kidd, a spokesman for Oakland Airport, said about 280 scheduled flights will move in and out of the East Bay airport on Sunday.

As of noon, there had only been two flights on Sunday that had been diverted from SFO to Oakland. On Saturday, 11 flights were diverted there.

That compares to the 27 flights that were sent to Mineta San Jose International Airport and the 16 diverted to Sacramento International Airport.

A handful of flights have also been transferred Saturday to Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Seattle and Phoenix.

Kidd said two or three more flights might be diverted to Oakland on Sunday afternoon or evening.

So far, the diversions have had little impact.

"At this time, we're in pretty good shape," said Kidd.

That goes for Houston, Texas, resident Glenn Whitehead, 52, as well. He landed in Oakland after his flight to San Francisco from Los Angeles was cancelled this 
morning. He was grabbing a connecting flight to get home. 

“It worked out pretty well,” Whitehead said. “I actually got here earlier.”

Whitehead has been a recreational pilot for 15 years and lives near the runway of a small community airport in Texas. He’s also flown Asiana Airlines out of 
South Korea into San Francisco. 

He said the current events shouldn’t give current fliers any pause.

“I know there are a lot of people that are somewhat concerned about flying, so if 
they see something like that, it spooks them a little bit,” Whitehead said. “When I was driving to the airport this morning, there was a crash and that looked like a fatality. So again, you have to put it in perspective. Look at the numbers.”

Numbers aside, Kidd noted Jet Blue has shuttled some SFO passengers by bus to Oakland so they could catch flights home.

Virgin America has been sending flights and passengers to San Jose, where they have operations. That airline does not fly into Oakland.

San Francisco still only has two of its four runways open. That is causing planes to approach and take off on flight paths different from normal.

Kidd said Oakland planes are accommodating the change by departing in a southeasterly direction instead of the airport's normal north or northwest flight path.

Oakland Airport has three runways. Two are generally used for smaller general aviation planes while the main 10,000-foot-long runway is used for commercial jetliners. So far, that one runway has been enough.

Kidd said Oakland Airport doesn't expect any flight delays on Monday or in the days ahead. He said the nice weather has helped keep operations smooth.

However, passengers are always advised to check with their airline to make sure there are no problems.

Patch staffer Brian de los Santos contributed to this story