San Francisco is seeking to expand its reach in the UK as it targets the resumption of direct flights from Gatwick and Manchester.
Direct flights are currently available only from Heathrow, after the Manchester route was stopped in 2019 when Thomas Cook collapsed, and Norwegian withdrew flights to Gatwick in December 2020.
This summer, United Airlines is operating 21 flights per week to Heathrow, while Virgin Atlantic is operating 14 and British Airways has 12.
More: Aer Lingus restarts San Francisco flights from Dublin
Director of international marketing and aviation development at San Francisco airport Melissa Andretta said she was targeting increased flight numbers and hopes to see direct flights return to Gatwick and Manchester within the next two years, although “nothing is set in stone”.
Speaking toTravel Weekly in London, she said: “Part of the reason we are here is to try to get a flight back to Gatwick as we know it is a more convenient airport for many people and it gives more options to our customers.
“When Norwegian Airlines stopped flights to Gatwick it was sad for the airport as we like to offer a good mix of premium and low fare carriers. We are keeping our fingers crossed that flights to Gatwick could happen as soon as June 2023.
“We also used to have Virgin Atlantic and Thomas Cook operating seasonal flights to Manchester, but they were stopped prior to the pandemic.
“We would like to begin flying to Manchester again as we want more options for people to get to different areas in the UK, and we’d love to see that happen by 2024.”
Since the pandemic, San Francisco has seen UK visitors spend additional time in the city as average stays increased from two or three days to four or five.
The combination of the length of stay increase and a slow recovery in flights to China means the UK is currently the number one international source market for San Francisco by visitors and spend.
The city plans to increase the number of UK visitor numbers from 270,000 in 2022 to 353,000 in 2023 and reach 425,000 in 2024, which would exceed its 2019 UK visitor numbers of 377,000.
Senior director of Global tourism development at San Francisco Travel Daniel Schwartz said: “The pandemic has certainly opened up more opportunities for UK tour operators to sell San Francisco.
“While occupancy rates aren’t back to pre-pandemic levels due to multiple factors including source market recovery and conventions business, we’re still seeing attractive rates for the leisure market and are working with the trade to capitalise on this opportunity and drive sales.
“Meanwhile, China – San Francisco’s largest international market pre-pandemic – remains essentially closed, and corporate travel has been slower to recover due to the proportion of technology companies which more aggressively adopted remote working policies.
“For these and other reasons, leisure travel has been able to benefit from an increase in availability and lower rates compared with 2019, contributing to increased length of stay and new, more affordable San Francisco itineraries.”