SFO Runway Repaving Now Set to Be Completed Early, Normal Operations to Resume

Hallelujah for SFO travelers. A repaving project that began in late March and which, combined with new FAA restrictions, cause significant delays at SFO this summer, is set to be finished three days early.

Runway 1R or 1 Right is set to to reopen September 29, as the Chronicle reports via SFO officials. A repaving project that began on March 30 was set to be completed October 2, but the contractor, Granite Construction, has reportedly brought it in ahead of schedule.

While the repaving was taking place, all takeoff and landing traffic was moved onto Runways 28L and 28R (28 Left and 28 Right), with Runway 1L only used as a taxiway. As SFist explained back in March, these two longer runways are the ones used in the most common configuration at SFO, as dictated by prevailing winds on the Bay, and initially this was not supposed to cause too many delays.

But, within days we learned that the FAA was ordering SFO to cease its longstanding practice of permitting simultaneous, parallel landings, out of safety concerns, which further reduced the airport's hourly capacity and led to delays averaging 20 minutes for the past five months.

Some kind of compromised was reached in August, and the FAA decreed that SFO could resume closely staggered parallel landings, which boosted capacity from 36 arrivals per hour to 45 on clear days.

After September 29, though, with all the runways back in play, airport spokesperson Doug Yakel says that arrivals should go up to 48 per hour in clear weather. This is compared to 54 before the repaving and restrictions came into play, but Yakel tells the Chronicle that the airport rarely hit that number on a day to day basis, and 48 should feel more or less like "normal operations."

SFO's last major runway repaving project took place in the first half of 2024, when Runway 28L was taken out of commission. Because it is a more frequently used runway, that project led to significant delays at the airport for over five months.