they also fly extensively out of BUR for instance, and I am sure that if things got hot and heavy at LAX they'd move out of there too.

They prefer secondary airports to support their business model. I am not surprised they are leaving SFO.

Isn't SFO's problem due to the intersecting runways? SFO has 2 parallel runways used simultaneously for landings and another two, which intersect these 2, used for takeoffs. When there's fog, only one runway each for approach and landing can be used, which cuts volume by at least 50%.

LAX has 4 parallel runways so these can remain operational is almost any circumstance. At least you know delays there should only be caused by backed-up traffic and not due to reduced volume.

SFO's bigger problem is not the intersecting runways, but the parallel runways that are too close together (only 750' apart). Only 2 runways are used for arrivals on a good day (59 per hour) - when the visibility diminishes or wind changes direction, we get only 30 arrivals an hour. This means your Shuttle flight may not leave until tomorrow. (But your flight to LHR will probably be A*OK)

Better radar control systems could allow SFO to use both runways during inclement weather. They plan to cough up $20M to beef up the radar in the next year or so. This should help quite a bit.

JS wrote:
Yes, that's exactly what I'm looking at. These stats are compiled for each airport by airline.

To elaborate on Eastbay1K's comments on general SFO flight ops: When visibility is good, pilots can do side-by-side visual approaches. When the weather is bad and visuals are not permitted, they must do off-set IFRs, which reduces operations by 15-32 per hour. In good weather 60 airplanes an hour can land, in bad weather it ranges from 28 to 45, depending on when the pilots can sight the runways.

During winter storms, when the wind shifts to a southerly or southeasterly, different runways come into use. The arrival patterns are changed and, with three airports being in close proximity, it doesn't work smoothly. You are also then using the same runways for departures and arrivals and the arrival rate becomes very low.

Mikel51 -

I wish you were right that better radar would help the situation. Unfortunately, it is not radar that is the problem but the limitations of accuracy of the ILS approaches. Every instrument approach allows for a certain width of the approach path of arriving aircraft, even the most precise ones. With the parallel runways at SFO as close together as they are, the allowable width of the approach paths to the two runways overlap, and this is not acceptable in weather where the aircraft cannot see each other.

The aircraft fly the approaches on their own using their own instruments. Radar is not involved once the aircraft are within 6 or 7 miles of the airport. Hence, no improvements in radar alone will solve the problem at SFO.

Hopefully they'll increase the flights out of Oakland - much easier airport. However I can see UA's Shuttle flights skyrocketing in price from SFO after 3/4/01.