Master Plan Study
at San Diego International Airport

San Diego International Airport is the busiest single-runway commercial airport in the U.S.

The San Diego International Airport is a single-runway airport handling over 225,000 aircraft operations annually, making this runway the busiest in the United States. A comprehensive airport master plan study was initiated with the goal of developing a balanced solution to the region’s air transportation facility and its supporting infrastructure, and to serve as a guide in implementing airport-related capital improvements over the next 25 years.  PBS&J staff was responsible for managing the master planning effort.

The master plan study was an all-encompassing effort that addressed airfield capacity considerations, passenger terminal improvements, cargo facility development, parking improvements for aircraft and vehicles, access enhancements, multimodal connections, noise and off-airport land use concerns, environmental issues, and financial/economic considerations. With both landside and airside infrastructure nearing capacity, the study evaluated increasing airfield and terminal area capacity, and included a comprehensive surface traffic and infrastructure analysis to ensure that these elements were balanced with other airport development.

Controversy over a replacement airport, the downtown location of the airport, and the airport being the San Diego region’s primary source of air transportation, prompted a regionwide community outreach program as a means for soliciting input and gaining stakeholder support for the airport development program. The community outreach program encouraged participation from all interest groups, including tenants and users, airport neighbors, business interests, civic/homeowner associations, local/regional planning agencies, intermodal planning organizations, elected officials, and the media. The result of this aggressive community outreach effort was consensus on the majority of the master plan recommendations.