Which Bay Area cities are under a flight path?
The published landing and departure routes of San Francisco (SFO), Oakland (OAK) and San Jose (SJC), drawn over the 50 cities and towns of the four counties around them. The routes come from the FAA's own procedure file and the shading from the federal aircraft noise map. The figures in the table are measured from those two.
- 15 of 50cities have a published landing path overhead, below 3,000 ft
- 17 of 50have a coded departure route overhead, within 19 miles of the runway
- 26 of 50have at least 1% of their area on the federal aircraft noise map, from any airfield
- Final approach, from 3,000 ft down to the runway
- Coded departure route, first 19 miles
- Airport
- Aircraft noise, 2022: quieter to louder
City by city
Ordered by how much of each city the federal noise map shades. That map is the better guide to what is actually flown, but it covers every airfield the Bureau models, not only these three, so each row names the airfield its shading belongs to. Heights are of landing aircraft on the published glide path, above the runway, to the nearest 100 ft.
| City | County | Share of city on the noise map | Airfield that shading belongs to | Landing path overhead | Departure route overhead | Nearest drawn route |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Colma | San Mateo | 100% | San Francisco International | No | No | 0.6 mi (SFO 10L approach) |
| Brisbane | San Mateo | Over 99% | San Francisco International | No | Yes: OAK CNDEL5 | Overhead |
| South San Francisco | San Mateo | 96% | San Francisco International | Yes: SFO 10L, SFO 10R. Lowest under 500 ft above the runway, beside the airport | Yes: OAK CNDEL5; SFO GAPP7, GNNRR3, MOLEN9, SEGUL1, SNTNA2, SSTIK5, WESLA5 | Overhead |
| San Bruno | San Mateo | 94% | San Francisco International | Yes: SFO 10L, SFO 10R. Lowest under 500 ft above the runway, beside the airport | Yes: SFO GAPP7, GNNRR3, MOLEN9, SEGUL1, SNTNA2, SSTIK5, WESLA5 | Overhead |
| Millbrae | San Mateo | 74% | San Francisco International | No | Yes: SFO SSTIK5 | Overhead |
| Milpitas | Santa Clara | 72% | Mineta San Jose International | No | Yes: SJC SUNOL1 | Overhead |
| Daly City | San Mateo | 63% | San Francisco International | Yes: SFO 10L, SFO 10R. Lowest about 1,000 ft above the runway | Yes: SFO GAPP7, GNNRR3, MOLEN9, SEGUL1, SNTNA2, WESLA5 | Overhead |
| Alameda | Alameda | 61% | Oakland San Francisco Bay | Yes: OAK 10L, OAK 10R, SFO 19L. Lowest under 500 ft above the runway, beside the airport | Yes: OAK CNDEL5 | Overhead |
| Burlingame | San Mateo | 58% | San Francisco International | No | No | 0.6 mi (SFO NIITE4 departure) |
| Santa Clara | Santa Clara | 54% | Mineta San Jose International | Yes: SJC 12L, SJC 12R. Lowest under 500 ft above the runway, beside the airport | Yes: SJC LOUPE1, SPTNS1 | Overhead |
| Foster City | San Mateo | 51% | San Francisco International | Yes: SFO 28L, SFO 28R. Lowest about 1,500 ft above the runway | No | Overhead |
| San Leandro | Alameda | 50% | Oakland San Francisco Bay | Yes: OAK 28L, OAK 28R. Lowest under 500 ft above the runway, beside the airport | Yes: OAK KATFH3, SALAD5, SKYL1 | Overhead |
| Hayward | Alameda | 37% | Hayward Executive | Yes: OAK 28L, OAK 28R, OAK 30. Lowest about 1,100 ft above the runway | Yes: OAK KATFH3, SKYL1 | Overhead |
| Livermore | Alameda | 36% | Livermore Municipal | No | No | 1.7 mi (SJC SUNOL1 departure) |
| San Jose | Santa Clara | 27% | Mineta San Jose International | Yes: SJC 12L, SJC 12R, SJC 30L, SJC 30R. The airport is inside the city | Yes: SJC ALMDN4, LOUPE1, SPTNS1, SUNOL1, TECKY4 | Overhead |
| Sunnyvale | Santa Clara | 24% | Moffett Federal Airfield | Yes: SJC 12R. Lowest about 1,100 ft above the runway | No | Overhead |
| Dublin | Alameda | 23% | Livermore Municipal | No | No | 3.1 mi (OAK 28R approach) |
| Pacifica | San Mateo | 15% | San Francisco International | Yes: SFO 10L, SFO 10R. Lowest about 1,400 ft above the runway | Yes: SFO GAPP7, GNNRR3, MOLEN9, SEGUL1, SNTNA2, WESLA5 | Overhead |
| Oakland | Alameda | 13% | Oakland San Francisco Bay | Yes: OAK 10L, OAK 10R, OAK 12, OAK 28L, OAK 28R, OAK 30. The airport is inside the city | Yes: OAK CNDEL5, HUSSH2, KATFH3, SALAD5, SKYL1; SFO TRUKN2 | Overhead |
| Pleasanton | Alameda | 13% | Livermore Municipal | No | No | 1.0 mi (SJC SUNOL1 departure) |
| San Mateo | San Mateo | 12% | San Francisco International | No | No | 0.1 mi (SFO 28L approach) |
| San Francisco | San Francisco | 10% | San Francisco International | Yes: OAK 10L, OAK 10R. Lowest about 2,500 ft above the runway | Yes: OAK CNDEL5, HUSSH2; SFO NIITE4 | Overhead |
| Redwood City | San Mateo | 7% | San Francisco International | No | No | 0.4 mi (SFO 28L approach) |
| Union City | Alameda | 5% | Hayward Executive | Yes: OAK 30. Lowest about 2,700 ft above the runway | Yes: OAK KATFH3 | Overhead |
| Fremont | Alameda | 3% | Mineta San Jose International | Yes: SJC 12L, SJC 12R. Lowest about 2,300 ft above the runway | Yes: OAK KATFH3, SKYL1; SFO GAPP7 | Overhead |
| Mountain View | Santa Clara | 1% | Moffett Federal Airfield | No | No | 2.4 mi (SJC 12R approach) |
| Menlo Park | San Mateo | Under 1% | No | No | 1.9 mi (SFO GAPP7 departure) | |
| Half Moon Bay | San Mateo | None | No | Yes: SFO SSTIK5 | Overhead | |
| Newark | Alameda | None | No | No | Under 0.1 mi (OAK KATFH3 departure) | |
| Hillsborough | San Mateo | Under 1% | No | No | 1.6 mi (SFO SSTIK5 departure) | |
| Morgan Hill | Santa Clara | None | No | No | 2.2 mi (SJC TECKY4 departure) | |
| Belmont | San Mateo | None | No | No | 2.3 mi (SFO 28L approach) | |
| Palo Alto | Santa Clara | None | No | No | 2.4 mi (SJC 12R approach) | |
| Campbell | Santa Clara | None | No | No | 2.6 mi (SJC 30L approach) | |
| San Carlos | San Mateo | None | No | No | 2.9 mi (SFO 28L approach) | |
| East Palo Alto | San Mateo | None | No | No | 3.0 mi (SJC 12R approach) | |
| Emeryville | Alameda | None | No | No | 3.4 mi (OAK HUSSH2 departure) | |
| Berkeley | Alameda | None | No | No | 3.9 mi (OAK HUSSH2 departure) | |
| Piedmont | Alameda | None | No | No | 3.9 mi (SFO 19L approach) | |
| Atherton | San Mateo | None | No | No | 4.0 mi (SFO 28L approach) | |
| Cupertino | Santa Clara | None | No | No | 4.1 mi (SJC LOUPE1 departure) | |
| Albany | Alameda | None | No | No | 4.4 mi (SFO NIITE4 departure) | |
| Los Gatos | Santa Clara | None | No | No | 4.9 mi (SJC 30L approach) | |
| Los Altos | Santa Clara | None | No | No | 5.6 mi (SJC 12R approach) | |
| Saratoga | Santa Clara | None | No | No | 5.8 mi (SJC 30L approach) | |
| Woodside | San Mateo | None | No | No | 6.5 mi (SFO 28L approach) | |
| Monte Sereno | Santa Clara | None | No | No | 6.7 mi (SJC 30L approach) | |
| Los Altos Hills | Santa Clara | None | No | No | 6.9 mi (SJC 12R approach) | |
| Portola Valley | San Mateo | None | No | No | 9.3 mi (SJC 12R approach) | |
| Gilroy | Santa Clara | None | No | No | 11.0 mi (SJC TECKY4 departure) |
Not cities, but under a route: 7 unincorporated communities in these counties have a drawn route overhead: Ashland, Castro Valley, Cherryland, El Granada, Fairview, Montara, San Lorenzo. They are outlined with a dashed line on the map.
How to read this
- The lines are published routes, not radar tracks. Aircraft fly either side of them, and a city with no line can still hear aircraft.
- This shows where the routes are, not how many aircraft use them. Which runways are in use depends on the wind, and the FAA's file does not say how often each is flown. The noise shading is the better guide to that.
- Landing lines are each runway's final approach, from 3,000 ft down to the runway, at the glide angle the FAA publishes. "SFO 28L" means runway 28 Left at San Francisco. 4 runway ends have no published glide angle and are not drawn: SFO 01L, SFO 01R, OAK 15, OAK 33.
- Departure lines are the coded departure procedures, drawn for their first 19 miles, or as far as their named waypoints go if that is less: where controllers take over and steer aircraft by radar, the line stops. Names such as GAPP7 are the FAA's own names for them.
- Heights are above the runway, not above the ground. A city on a hill is closer to the aircraft than its figure says. Read each figure as give or take 100 ft.
- Arrivals further out are not drawn. Before the final approach, aircraft descending towards an airport are steered by air traffic control, higher up and over a wide area. Cities under those arrival streams show no line here.
- The noise shading is the aviation layer of the National Transportation Noise Map, 2022 edition, from the US Bureau of Transportation Statistics. It is a modelled 24-hour average, drawn over land only (which is why an approach over the bay has no shading until it reaches the shore), and it includes airfields this page draws no routes for, such as Livermore's and Hayward's own. The table names, for each city, the airfield inside its patch of shading; where water cuts a patch off from its airport, it is named for the airport whose approach runs through it, and where a patch holds two airfields, for the nearer. The Bureau publishes it to track trends and says it should not be used to evaluate noise at an individual location, so this page gives a share of a whole city and never a figure for an address.
- City outlines are approximate. They are the Census Bureau's generalised boundaries, good to a few hundred feet, so treat anything right on a city line as approximate.
- Cities only. The table lists incorporated cities and towns in San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara and Alameda counties. San Francisco airport (SFO) is on unincorporated land, inside no city. Oakland airport (OAK) is inside the city of Oakland. San Jose airport (SJC) is inside the city of San Jose.
Sources
Flight procedures: FAA Coded Instrument Flight Procedures (CIFP), cycle 2610, effective 2026-10-01. The FAA supplies the CIFP "as is", without warranty of any kind, and neither the FAA nor its personnel is liable for its content or for any use made of it. This page is not for navigation.
Aircraft noise: US Department of Transportation, Bureau of Transportation Statistics, National Transportation Noise Map 2022.
City and county boundaries: US Census Bureau cartographic boundary files, 2023.
About Sky Score
Sky Score shows aircraft noise, air quality and flood risk for homes, from official open data. It covers city regions across England, and New York, on the map. Full scores for each Bay Area city are in progress. If your city is not here, or something on this page looks wrong, write to support@skyscore.co.uk.