page_title: San Francisco International Airport
section_title: Domestic expansion
hierarchical_section_title: San Francisco International Airport / History / Domestic expansion
caption_attribution_description: English: Thousands of people turned out for a day of aviation exhibits and the dedication of the new SFO Terminal on August 27, 1954.
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 first nonstops to the U.S. east coast were United Douglas DC-7s in 1954. The airport's new Terminal Building opened on August 27, 1954. The large display of aircraft including a Convair B-36 Peacemaker bomber, a marvel for its time. The building became the Central Terminal with the addition of the South Terminal and the North Terminal and was heavily rebuilt as the International Terminal in 1984 and then modified again as the current Terminal 2. Domestically, the April 1957 Official Airline Guide (OAG) lists 71 scheduled weekday departures on United (plus ten flights a week to Honolulu), 22 on Western Airlines, 19 on Southwest Airways (which was later renamed Pacific Air Lines), 12 on Trans World Airlines (TWA), seven on American Airlines and three on Pacific Southwest Airlines (PSA). As for international flights, Pan American had 21 departures a week, Japan Airlines (JAL) had five, and Qantas also had five.
caption: Opening gala at the Central Passenger Terminal (August 27, 1954)
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