SFO runway overhaul

San Francisco International Airport just took one of its runways out of service for more than six months, from March 30 to October 2, and that means every arrival and departure now has to fit onto the airport’s two west-facing runways instead. (flysfo.com) The closed strip is Runway 1 Right, and the work is not a quick patch job: the airport says crews are repaving the surface, improving nearby taxiways, upgrading lighting, and repainting runway markings in a project priced at $180 million. (flysfo.com) Airports usually buy time by spreading planes across more concrete, and SFO just lost that flexibility. During the closure, all takeoffs and landings shift to Runways 28 Left and 28 Right, while the parallel Runway 1 Left is turned into a taxiway to keep planes moving on the ground. (flysfo.com; flyingmag.com) That change is most noticeable outside the airport fence. SFO said some neighborhoods will get more departing traffic overhead, and airport officials mailed notices to about 16,000 residents in the path of Runways 28 Left and 28 Right before the closure began. (flysfo.com; flyingmag.com) The runway project would already slow things down on its own, but it landed at the same time as a separate Federal Aviation Administration limit on how many planes can arrive each hour at SFO. The Federal Aviation Administration cut the airport from 54 arrivals an hour to 36, with 9 of those lost slots tied to the construction and 9 tied to a permanent safety rule change. (usnews.com) The safety issue is unusually specific to San Francisco. The Federal Aviation Administration said SFO has closely spaced parallel runways just 750 feet apart, and the surrounding Bay Area airspace is crowded enough that the old pattern of landing two planes at once on parallel runways is no longer acceptable there. (usnews.com) That is why a closed runway can ripple far beyond one strip of pavement. Airport spokesperson Doug Yakel told the Associated Press that about 25% of arriving flights are expected to be delayed by 30 minutes or more, even though the airport’s earlier estimate for the construction alone was less than 10% of flights delayed, mostly around 9:00 a.m. and 8:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. (usnews.com; flysfo.com) What has not broken is the part passengers see first. As of April 9, 2026, average security waits at SFO were still running about 10 to 15 minutes, even while flight schedules were absorbing runway and arrival-capacity pressure. (ibtimes.com.au) SFO can keep those checkpoint lines moving because it uses the Transportation Security Administration’s Screening Partnership Program, where screening is still supervised by the federal agency but carried out by private contractor Covenant Aviation Security. The airport says that separate staffing model has insulated security operations from the federal funding disruption hitting other airports. (flysfo.com; ibtimes.com.au) So the strange split at SFO right now is this: the line to reach the gate can still be normal, but the line in the sky is tighter than it used to be. If your trip touches San Francisco before October 2, the bottleneck is more likely to be runway capacity and arrival sequencing than the checkpoint at the terminal. (flysfo.com; usnews.com; ibtimes.com.au)