SFO: Cancellations and delays ease
As passengers and airlines slogged through a second week of runway construction at San Francisco International Airport that has limited the airport’s capacity, there was some good news for travelers: Flight cancellations and delays eased, and an early end to the work seemed at hand.
Flight interruptions eased over the weekend after the airport entered the second phase of runway construction Saturday, which was 48 hours ahead of schedule.
“We continue to run ahead of schedule, so we do expect to complete the project early,” airport spokesman Doug Yakel said in an email Tuesday.
Delays dipped to 301 Sunday, then rose to 374 Monday at the start of the workweek, which was on par with delay numbers at the same time last week. Cancellations also grew from 59 Sunday to 77 Monday. But that was still fewer flights canceled than at the same time last week, when there were more than 100. By 2 p.m. Tuesday, there were 186 delays and 24 cancellations, according to
the tracking site FlightAware.
In March, the airport announced the construction project to create a new base layer below the runway surface, scheduling it for Sept. 7 to 27 to avoid busy holiday seasons and ensure dry weather. Engineers discovered that the area was deteriorating in 2017 while repaving the runway.
“This is a big inconvenience and we know it, but we have to do it,” airport Commissioner Eleanor Johns said. “We did as much planning as we could, and we have a city that will be visited for many years to come.”
The Federal Aviation Administration, the airport and airlines developed plans to mitigate the impact on passengers months in advance. Warned by the FAA, which sets hourly flight arrival rates, that capacity could be reduced by half, airlines voluntarily cut traffic by 13%. Thousands of delays and cancellations stacked up last week, affecting around onethird of flights.
Before construction, around 22% of SFO’s departures and arrivals were delayed this year, which is slightly higher than the national average, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation. SFO flights were canceled around 2.6% of the time, compared with 2.3% nationwide.
Yakel said weather is SFO’s greatest challenge, as fog often reduces visibility and limits the runways that can be used.
“Some of our air travel in and out in bad weather is just as bad,” Johns said about construction delays.
No other runway projects like this one are planned in the near future, Yakel said.