SFO vs. OAK: San Francisco takes Port of Oakland to court over airport renaming

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) - The battle over the renaming of Oakland's airport made its way to federal court Thursday afternoon.

Court documents show the city of San Francisco believes the airport's recent name change to San Francisco Bay Oakland International Airport violates its longstanding trademark and causes confusion among travelers.

Inside court, attorneys for the Port of Oakland-which runs the airport-argued that was untrue and that the new name simply helps identify Oakland Airport with the Bay Area region.

The debate has gotten the attention of several airline analysts, including locally based Henry Harteveldt.

"A source at one airline has told me that his carrier routinely sees a couple of people a week show up at SFO when they've actually booked a flight out of Oakland," Harteveldt said.

Harteveldt says the airport's renaming is an attempt by Oakland leaders to attract more travelers and money to the East Bay hub.

But he questions whether or not it will actually work.

"We're not going to add or drop flights to OAK based off its name, just as we wouldn't add flights to another airport based off its name. They add flights or delete flights based off the financial performance," Harteveldt said.

At SFO, we spoke with several travelers Thursday.

That included Brad Hurst, who tells us while he understands Oakland Airport's desire to attract more passengers, he doesn't think the name change is the way to do it.

"Any time you change your name, I think it's kind of dumb. Because if you've been known for however many years, why change it?" Hurst said.

After hearing arguments Thursday, a judge said he would issue a written opinion at a later time.