At least eight new routes coming to Mineta San Jose International Airport
At least eight new flights will launch from Mineta San Jose International Airport this year, adding to a 15 percent increase in passengers in 2017 that has made the airport the fastest growing in the nation.
Southwest will fly to Spokane, Houston, St. Louis and Orlando, and add a flight to Chicago’s Midway Airport. Frontier will add service to Atlanta and Cincinnati, and Delta will go to New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport. Frontier had also announced plans to add a Colorado Springs flight, although that route has been delayed.
On Tuesday, the San Jose City Council unanimously approved landing fee waivers and marketing money for the airlines, a move it has endorsed for a number of other airlines and routes before. Designed as a way to help the airlines offset the risks and costs of launching the new routes, the city hopes the waivers and funding will prompt airlines to risk launching new routes from San Jose, the smallest of the Bay Area’s three major airports.
The support, which will vary by flight but expire after no more than several years, will be far less than other airport fees the airlines must pay, the airport’s director said in a memo, and the new routes will also bring in more revenue from parking and concessions.
Since a 2014 push, according to the memo, the airport has launched seven new airlines and almost tripled the number of routes with airline competition from 8 to 22. With the nine new routes this year, the airport will have 54 domestic and international routes.
“Gaining better access to national and international markets and technology centers has long been a priority of the region’s business,” reads the memo, authored by John Aitken, director of aviation for the airport. “Community and business leaders and travelers have clearly expressed their strong desire to the airport for improved access between San Jose and key domestic and international cities.”
That task became more difficult after oil prices increased in 2008 and airlines moved flights to major hubs like San Francisco. The fee waivers, while not unique to San Jose, are meant to be an incentive to operate out of San Jose.
Known as the Air Service Support Program, shorthaul domestic routes get a 100 percent landing fee waiver for a year and up to $25,000 in marketing dollars while new international routes outside North America get a 100 percent fee waiver for 18 months, a 50 percent fee waiver for the next year, and up to $500,000 in marketing funds.
In the last two years, Southwest has increased the number of cities it serves from San Jose from 13 to 24. Frontier launched out of San Jose last year, and Delta has expanded its footprint in San Jose in the last two years.