World City Guide

Getting There By Air

San Diego International Airport (SAN)
Tel: (619) 686 8065 or 231 2100, 24-hour recording.
Website: www.portofsandiego.org/sandiego_airport/index.html

San Diego International Airport is located at Lindberg Field, less than ten kilometres (six miles) from downtown San Diego. While it is not the largest airport in California (Los Angeles International and San Francisco International are more than twice its size), it handles many of the connecting flights to Mexico and South America, as well as Europe, Canada and domestic locations. An average 11.5 million passengers use its facilities per year.

Major airlines: Along with American Airlines (tel: (800) 433 7300; website: www.aa.com), San Diego International handles 16 major airlines, including Air Canada, Alaska Airlines, America West, British Airways, Delta, Continental and US Airlines. British Airways operates daily flights from London (Gatwick) to San Diego.

Approximate flight times to San Diego: From London is 18 hours 25 minutes; from New York is 6 hours; from Los Angeles is 50 minutes; from Toronto is 6 hours 30 minutes and from Sydney is 15 hours.

Airport facilities: Facilities include ATMs, money exchange kiosks, a small selection of restaurants and lounges and several gift and newspaper stores. There are also Internet kiosks throughout the three terminals. All of the major car hire operators maintain offices at the airport, including Avis, Budget, Hertz and National.

Business facilities: American Airlines, Delta, TWA and US Airlines all provide VIP lounges for their business customers. The lounges are equipped with standard services, such as fax and photocopy facilities, computer access and telephones.

Arrival/departure tax: Included in the price of the ticket.

Transport to the city: San Diego Metropolitan Transit System (tel: (619) 233 3004 or 685 4900) operates a regular bus service that connects the airport terminals with the downtown quarter and provides easy connection to bus, train and trolley services within the city. Bus 992 leave for downtown approximately every ten minutes, daily between 0500 and 0100 – connecting bus, trolley and Coaster train services to outlying areas of the county run every 15-30 minutes. Bus fares are US$2.25 to downtown (journey time – approximately 20 minutes). Additionally, most of the major hotels in San Diego’s Hotel Circle and surrounding areas offer an airport shuttle service, either for free or a nominal cost. Express Shuttle of San Diego (tel: (800) 900 7433; website: www.xpressshuttle.com) offers a shared shuttle service.