History
The airport opened on May 7, 1927 on 150 acres (61 ha) of cow pasture. The land was leased from prominent local landowner Ogden L. Mills, who had leased it from his grandfather Darius O. Mills, and was named Mills Field Municipal Airport. It remained Mills Field until 1931 when it became San Francisco Municipal Airport. "Municipal" was replaced by "International" in 1955.
United Airlines used Mills Field as well as the Oakland Municipal Airport starting in the 1930s. The March 1939 Official Aviation Guide shows 18 airline departures on weekdays— seventeen United and one TWA. The aerial view c. 1940 looks west along the runway that is now 28R; the seaplane harbor at right is still recognizable north of the airport. Earlier aerial looking NW 1943 vertical aerial (enlargeable)
After the war United Airlines used the Pan Am terminal 37°38′05″N 122°23′24″W / 37.6347°N 122.39°W / 37.6347; -122.39 for its DC-6 flights to Hawaii starting in 1947. SFO is now one of five United Airlines hubs and their largest maintenance facility.
In 1954 the airport's Central Passenger Terminal opened. (It was heavily rebuilt into the international terminal c. 1984, then re-rebuilt into present Terminal 2.) The April 1957 Official Airline Guide shows 71 scheduled weekday departures on United (plus ten flights a week to Honolulu), 22 on Western, 19 on Southwest, 12 on TWA, 7 American and 3 PSA. Pan American had 21 departures a week, Japan Air had 5 and QANTAS had 5. Jet flights at SFO began in March 1959, with TWA 707-131s; United built a large maintenance facility at San Francisco for its new Douglas DC-8s. In July 1959 the first jetway bridge was installed, one of the first in the United States.
The first international nonstops were ANA/BCPA DC-4s to Vancouver in 1946-47; the first nonstops to the East Coast were United DC-7s in 1954. TWA's L1649 nonstops to Europe started in 1957 and Pan Am tried to fly 707-320s nonstop Tokyo to SFO starting 1960-61 (the westward nonstops had to await the 707-320B).
The airport closed following the Loma Prieta earthquake on October 17, 1989, reopening the following morning. It suffered some damage to runways.
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