page_title: San Francisco International Airport
section_title: International Terminal
hierarchical_section_title: San Francisco International Airport / Terminals / International Terminal
context_page_description: San Francisco International Airport is an international airport near San Bruno and Millbrae in unincorporated San Mateo County. It is 13 miles south of downtown San Francisco, California. It has flights to points throughout North America and is a major gateway to Europe and Asia.
  SFO is the largest airport in the Bay Area and the second busiest in California, after LAX. In 2017, it was the seventh-busiest airport in the United States and the 24th-busiest in the world by passenger count. It is the fifth-largest hub for United Airlines and functions as United's primary transpacific gateway. It also serves as a secondary hub for Alaska Airlines. It is a major maintenance hub for United Airlines and houses the Louis A. Turpen Aviation Museum and Library.
  The airport is owned and operated by the City and County of San Francisco, despite it being located in San Mateo County. Between 1999 and 2004, the San Francisco Airport Commission operated city-owned SFO Enterprises, Inc., to oversee its business purchases and operations of ventures.
context_section_description: The International Terminal is composed of Boarding Areas A and G. Designed by Craig W. Hartman of Skidmore, Owings and Merrill, the terminal opened in December 2000 to replace the International Departures section of Terminal 2. It is the largest international terminal in North America, and the largest building in the world built on base isolators to protect against earthquakes. Food service focuses on quick service versions of leading San Francisco Bay Area restaurants, following other SFO terminals. Planners attempted to make the airport a destination in and of itself, not just for travelers passing through. The international terminal is a common-use facility, with all gates and all ticketing areas shared among international airlines and several domestic carriers. Common-use terminal equipment (CUTE) is used at check-in counters and gates. All international arrivals and departures are handled here (except flights from cities with customs preclearance). The International Terminal houses the airport's BART station, adjacent to the garage leading to Boarding Area G. The SFO Medical Clinic is located next to the security screening area of Boarding Area A. All gates in this terminal have at least two jetway bridges, except gates A3 and A12, which have one. Gates A1 and A2 can accommodate two aircraft. Six of the gates are designed for the Airbus A380, making SFO one of the first airports in the world with such gates when it was built in 2000. Gate A11 has three jetways for boarding. Four other gates have two jetways fitted for A380 service.
  The International Terminal completed a continuous ring of terminals, by filling in the last remaining gap to the west of then-existing terminals. Its geometry required that the terminal structure be built above the main access road, at enormous expense, including building dedicated ramps for connectivity to Highway 101. The design and construction of the international terminal was by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, Del Campo & Maru Architects, Michael Willis Associates, and built by Tutor Perini (main terminal building), Hellmuth, Obata, and Kassabaum in association with Robin Chiang & Company, Robert B. Wong Architects, and built by Tutor Perini (Boarding Area G), and Gerson/Overstreet Architects and built by Hensel Phelps Construction (Boarding Area A). The contracts were awarded after an architectural design competition.
  Most international flights operated by Star Alliance carriers, including all United international flights and select United domestic flights, are assigned to Boarding Area G's 14 gates (G1-G14). Most international flights operated by SkyTeam, Oneworld, and non-aligned international carriers board and deplane at Boarding Area A's 15 gates (gates A1–A15). However, Star Alliance carrier Avianca El Salvador operates out of Boarding Area A, and non-aligned carriers Aer Lingus, Fiji Airways, and WestJet typically park at Boarding Area G. Boarding Area A is also used by domestic carriers Frontier Airlines, Sun Country Airlines, and Hawaiian Airlines. When all gates in an airline's designated international boarding area are full, the passengers will board or deplane from the opposite international boarding area. Air Canada, Aer Lingus, and WestJet operate from airports with United States border preclearance, allowing arriving passengers to skip the wait at customs and immigration when they arrive at SFO, and exit the airport from the departure level.
  The two main designations for the International Terminal are "I", and "INTL" (abbreviations for "International"). Oftentimes travel itineraries will say "T-I", and this has led to instances where passengers misinterpret the "I" as Terminal 1, especially since both Boarding Area A and Boarding Area G are used for a limited number of domestic flights.
caption: Interior view of the International Terminal check-in area
exif: {"Image Software": "Picasa 2.7", "Image ExifOffset": "50", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0210", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "126", "EXIF ImageUniqueID": "679957b3c6f0e3511eaef8ee1f461e2d"}