San Francisco International Airport (SFO) officials will open the rest of the Mayor Edwin M. Lee International Terminal departures hall on Tuesday, September 1, as more foreign airlines start to resume flights to the U.S.
It’s a small but encouraging sign that demand for air travel is ticking up, however slowly it might be.
Half of the international terminal has been closed since April, according to the San Francisco Chronicle, when the coronavirus pandemic began devastating air travel.
The airport consolidated international flights into the international terminal’s “G gates” on the opposite end of the airport’s horseshoe shape. The gates reopening will be the “A gates.” According to the newspaper, these are the routes coming back to SFO:
– Emirates resumes flying from its Dubai hub on Sept. 1.
– SWISS resumes flights from Zurich on Sept. 2.
– United will add additional flights to Shanghai (via Seoul) on Sept. 4 and resumes flights to Munich on Sept. 9.
– COPA Airlines will resume flights to Panama City on Sept. 4.
– Air Canada has tentatively scheduled non-stop flights from Montreal to resume on Oct. 2.
– Fiji Airways plans to resume flights from Nadi on Oct. 2.
– TAP Air Portugal resumes flights from Lisbon on Oct. 2.
– Lufthansa will resume flights from its Frankfurt hub on Oct 3.
In 2019, 44 airlines operated international flights out of SFO; at the moment, 19 airlines have returned to the airport.
