Billion-Dollar Expansion Planned for S.F. Airport

San Francisco International Airport is planning a $1-billion expansion, including a new international terminal complex and a train-like, people-mover shuttle system, planners said today.

Newly completed draft plans call for the construction of twin interconnected terminals straddling the current entrance to the airport that would be capable of handling 5,000 passengers an hour, including customs inspections, the planners said.

The complex, which would cost $250 million to $300 million, would add 26 international gates to the busy airport and a dozen baggage carrousels.

The plans also include installation of an automated people-mover shuttle system to carry passengers between the domestic and international terminals and parking garages.

Hope to Finish by 1995

It would resemble systems now in use in airports in Dallas-Ft. Worth, Miami, Seattle-Tacoma and Tampa.

Airport planners said they are hoping to begin the construction next year and to finish the job by 1995. The final master plan for the proposal is expected to go before the Airport Commission in about two months, Jason Yuen, the airport’s chief of planning and construction, said.

Planners expect surging Asian tourism to boost the number of travelers going through the San Francisco facility to more than 42 million. The airport served 30 million passengers in 1988.

The expansion would be funded by airport revenues and perhaps revenue bonds, Yuen said.

No Increase in Noise

Yuen said the construction of the new facilities would not increase noise at the airport. Critics say the airport is already too congested and noisy.

“By building a new international terminal we’re actually making life more pleasant for the passengers,” Yuen said. “It does not create or generate more traffic or passengers coming to the airport. We are a conduit to serve the transportation public. We don’t generate the business.”