Mineta San Jose INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT (KSJC)
AIRPORT TRAVEL GUIDE

Overview

Mineta San Jose International Airport (KSJC), officially the Norman Y. Mineta San Jose International Airport, or commonly referred to simply as SJC, is located in San Jose, California, in the heart of Silicon Valley.  It is one of three commercial airports that serve the larger San Francisco Bay Area, the others being SFO and OAK.  SJC’s primary catchment area is the South Bay region of the Bay Area.

In 2019, SJC was ranked as the 35th overall busiest airport in the United States, and 5th busiest medium hub size airport, serving over 15.6 million passengers.

Airlines

12 airlines currently have service to SJC.  San Jose International Airport is served by all three US legacy carriers, American, Delta and United; low cost carriers Alaska, jetBlue, and Southwest; ultra-low cost carrier Frontier; Hawaiian Airlines; and international carriers Air Canada, All Nippon Airways, British Airways, and Volaris.

Southwest is by far the dominant carrier at SJC with about a 55% market share, with Alaska being the second largest at about a 10% market share.

All three of the world’s major airline alliances – Star Alliance, SkyTeam, and oneworld – serve SJC.

Destinations

Mineta San Jose International Airport is connected via nonstop flight to a number of destinations up and down the West Coast in Washington, Oregon, and California, as well as Hawaii, through its two largest carriers, Southwest and Alaska.  Other airlines at SJC connect the city with their major hubs such as Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Detroit, Houston, Las Vegas, Minneapolis, Phoenix, Salt Lake City, etc.  Additional domestic destinations in the Midwest and East Coast, including Nashville, New York, and Boston are also served by SJC’s carriers.

SJC’s international carriers provide a link to British Columbia and Ontario, destinations in Mexico, London, and Tokyo.

Check with your airline to see specific flights and destinations.

Terminals

Located on a land-constrained site, SJC has two terminals, arranged in a linear building complex oriented parallel to its runways. On the north end of the airport is Terminal A, which handles a majority of SJC’s airlines and international flights.  On the south end of the airport is the newer Terminal B, which is home to operations for Alaska Airlines and Southwest Airlines

Landside

Each terminal has its own parking facilities, ground transportation, arrivals, and pickup curbs, along with their own ticket counters, baggage claims, and TSA Security Screening Checkpoints. The entrances to the terminals are located about half a mile apart.

Both landside terminals have two public floors, with baggage claim and ticketing occurring at the ground level, and the security screening checkpoints and meeter-greeter areas occurring on the second level.

Airside

SJC’s airside has a total of 36 gates – Terminal A is home to gates 1 thru 16 and Terminal B is home to gates 17 thru 36. The entire airside at SJC is connected post-security, so passengers can enter the sterile zone through whichever security checkpoint they choose.  Due to the extensive presence of Southwest and Alaska in Terminal B, with dozens of flights throughout the day, Terminal A’s checkpoint lines are typically shorter than those in Terminal B.

Because of the aforementioned land constraints, SJC’s airside is entirely single-loaded, meaning gates and plane parking occurs only on one side of the terminal.  This has the effect of stretching out the terminal’s length – the entire airside is roughly 1 mile long.  However, the longest walks from TSA to one’s gate, and vice versa, should only be about 1/4 to 1/3 of a mile due since the terminal entry and exit points occur towards the middle of each terminal.  Furthermore, airlines’ gate assignments and operations are clustered, so chances are if you have a connecting flight, you will only need to traverse a portion of the airside terminal.

Also a result of the terminal’s linear layout, you will not find concentrated nodes (or “food courts”) of places to eat and shop like you might at other airports.  Instead, concessions and retail spaces are spread out evenly along the linear terminal.

Rental Cars

Mineta San Jose is one of several airports across the United States with a Consolidated Rental Car (CONRAC) facility where all rental car agency counters and car pickup/drop off areas are located in a single building.

The CONRAC at SJC is located at the south end of the airport, across from the Terminal B baggage claim. Passengers arriving in Terminal B (Alaska and Southwest Airlines) can access the rental car center by using a crosswalk from the baggage claim.  Those arriving in Terminal A (all other airlines) have a number of options for reaching the rental car center – they can either walk about a 0.5 mile through the interior of the airport and exit at the Terminal B baggage claim, walk along a sidewalk on the exterior of the airport, or catch one of the SJC shuttle buses from the ground transportation curbside next to Terminal A’s baggage claim.

11 car rental agencies serve SJC, including major national chains such as Alamo, Avis, Budget, Dollar, Enterprise, Hertz, National, and Thrifty.  Smaller chains include Fox Rent A Car, Payless, and Sixt Rent A Car.

Most car rental agencies at SJC are open for operation 18 or more hours per day, providing a lot of scheduling flexibility for passengers to rent cars.

Last Updated: January 2021