$1-Billion Expansion Plan Considered for S.F. Airport

Spurred by a surge in Asian tourism, San Francisco International Airport planners are considering a six-year, $1-billion expansion plan.

A preliminary master plan calls 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.

Planners expect swelling 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 complex, which would cost $250 million to $300 million, would add 26 international gates to the busy airport and a dozen baggage carousals.

Completion in 1995

The plans also include installation of an automated “people-mover” shuttle system to carry passengers between the domestic and international terminals and parking garages. 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 two months, said Jason Yuen, the airport’s chief of planning and construction.

No Traffic Problems

The expansion would be funded by airport revenues and perhaps revenue bonds, Yuen said. He also said the new facilities would not increase noise at an airport that is criticized as 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.”

Yuen said airport users would not have to contend with traffic problems as they did when its big parking garage was built. “We’re not going to have that happen again,” he said. “We’ll plan it so we can construct the terminal without any impact on the roadways. We’re going to build over the airspace of the entrance to the airport.”