San Carlos Airport

In 1939, future mayor of San Jose, Ernie Renzel, helped negotiate an option to buy 483 acres of the Stockton Ranch from the Crocker family. This was to be the site of San Jose's airport. In 1945, test pilot James M. Nissen and two partners leased approximately 16 acres of this land to build a runway, hangar, and office building in order to start a flight school. When the city decided it was necessary to develop a municipal airport, Nissen sold his share of the aviation business and became San Jose's first airport manager. Renzel and Nissen were key in the development of San Jose Municipal Airport in the decades that followed, culminating with the 1965 opening of what became Terminal C. Beginning in 1948, San Jose began its first airline flights with Southwest Airways Douglas DC-3s on a multi-stop run between San Francisco and Los Angeles. More airlines began to operate out of the airport for the next two decasdes and in 1968, United Airlines began operating Boeing 727 non-stops from Denver, Chicago and LAX, and Douglas DC-8 non-stops from Baltimore and New York. KSJC was one of the first airports in the nation to participate in the noise regulation program enacted by the U.S. Congress in the 1980s. In 1988, American Airlines opened a hub at the facility, and two years later Terminal A was opened to help accommodate the American operation. The airport was renamed after Norman Y. Mineta in 2001, who was San Jose's former mayor and congressman, as well as both a former United States Secretary of Commerce and a United States Secretary of Transportation. At the same time that happened, the San Jose City Council approved an amended a three-phase, nine-year expansion plan that called for a single, consolidated "Central Terminal" with 40 gates, an international concourse, and expanded security areas. In 2005, the originally-approved master plan was scaled-back with a new two-phase plan that called for a simplified Terminal B, with a North Concourse to replace the older Terminal C. Terminal A would also be expanded to include more check-in counters, security checkpoints, and drop-off/pick-up curbside space.