YVR has a floatplane airport adjacent to the "South Terminal" section of the International airport and a separate floatplane base downtown.

San Francisco only has one airport. You could make the argument that OAK is a secondary airport serving the frater Oakland/SF region. SJC is in a different metro area so really would not be considered an airport for SF. SJC primarily serves the San Jose/Silicon Valley area as well as the Greater Santacruz and Monterey areas.

OK, so what is the smallest metropolitan area, both in the U.S. and worldwide, with multiple airports that actually currently have scheduled commercial service? (I hope that this question does not degenerate into an argument about what constitutes a "metropolitan area.")

Well, I use the US 2000 census that lists 276 Metropolitan areas (from New York, 21million to Enid, OK, 57,813). Browsing from the bottom of the list, I found #120 Brownsville-Harlingen-San Benito, TX, 335,227. BRO and HRL both have scheduled services, and the two airports are 26 miles apart.

I'm not sure what the purpose is of limiting this question to city limits only, but since we seem to be: LAX is the only one of those airports in the city of Los Angeles. While many of the communities in the San Fernando Valley are really neighborhoods of L.A., Burbank is its own city. BUR is very close to the L.A. border, but the others are all pretty far away.

And given that San Jose (population 904,000 in 2004) is larger than San Francisco (population 744,000 in 2004), maybe we should be calling SFO a subsidiary airport to SJC

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.

It doesn't matter. Many airports are located outside the city limits, it's all about what area they serve.

I think it's that none of us quite gets what the thread is about.

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.

Seattle (does Boeing Field still have limited service?)

Southwest is negotiating to build a terminal at Boeing field and Alaska indicates if it happens, they want one there too.

Istanbul also has two and is the only city (that I know of) which has aiports on two different continents.

IST - Istanbul Ataturk Airport (by far the larger airport, on the European side)
SAW - Sabiha G�k�en Airport (served primarily by LCC's and is on the Asian side)

Ummmmm, no.
King County pulled the plug on the negotiations last fall. See http://archives.seattletimes.nwsourc...&date=20051012

Well, in theory - there are two, Mirabel (supposedly for long haul flights) and Dorval (for domestic and flights to the USA), but Mirabel was so unpopular with travellers and airlines due to the distance from the city centre that all major commercial flights have shifted to Dorval. Mirabel, if it is used at all now, is for some charter flights and general aviation.

SFO-OAK-SJC are "The Bay Area"

I routinely fly into SJC and out of SFO in the same day. The drive is about 45 minutes. OAK is the prefered airport of many in the Bay Area, and increasingly many are chosing to fly from SJC rather than SFO. San Jose, Oakland and San Francisco are however considered a combined Major Metro Area.

You should also note thet SFO is not in San Francisco, it is in the City of South San Francisco....but in San Francisco County.

Using your logic SFO is not a San Francisco airport. DCA and IAD are not DC airports, while DCA technically is given a DC address it is in Arlington Virginia. EWR is not a New York airport as it is in NJ. CVG is not a Cinncinatti airport because it is in Kentuky. NRT is not a Tokyo airport because it is well outside of Tokyo.....and the only London airport would be LCY as the other airports are not in the City of London, they are in Boroughs of London.