Originally Posted by Palal
Actually, the official census metro area name is "San Jose - San Francisco - Oakland Metro Area" so SJC would count. SFO and OAK are close enough to be considered SF airports. SFO is actually outside city limits (about 15 miles out), although technically it's a piece of San Francisco outside the city limits. So, because SFO is some distance away, Oakland Airport is actually closer (if you take a straight-line distance). And we all know that all three serve the same customers, so yes, SF area has at least 3 commercial airports.
As a San Franciso native, I agree. The Census Bureau has defined these 276 metropolitan areas in the U.S., and I think that they do it in on a somewhat qualitative/subjective basis to determine what the bona fide single "region" is -- looking at actual commuting patterns, etc. I believe that the average middle-class leisure traveler who lives in the greater San Franciso Bay Area would consider taking a flight out of any of these three airports, just as people in the greater New York and D.C. areas probably consider all three of their respective airports viable choices. (I did when I lived in these places.) Obviously these are generalizations.