San Diego airport terminal, 3225 N. Harbor Drive, on Google Maps
Talk about being close. San Diego International Airport – the busiest single-runway airport in the United States – is just 3 miles north of downtown and across the street from San Diego Bay. It takes less than 15 minutes to drive from the airport to downtown. Mission Beach is 6½ miles northwest of the airport, less than 20 minutes drive time; La Jolla is about 15 miles north, about 30 minutes drive time, and Coronado is about 9 miles south, or 25 minutes drive time. The international border at San Ysidro crossing into Tijuana is less than 20 miles south, or about a 30-minute drive.
San Diego airport has two terminals; Terminal 1 with two concourses (Gates 3-10 and 11-18) and Terminal 2, also with two concourses (Gates 20-32 and 33-51). Walkways connect the two terminals but only the concourses in Terminal 2 are connected post-security. Otherwise connecting passengers going between concourses must exit the TSA secure area and be re-screened.
Construction is underway on a new 1.2 million square-foot terminal being built to replace the existing 55-year-old Terminal 1. The parking lot and overhead walkway in front of Terminal 1 have been closed. Access to the ground Transportation Plaza at Terminal 1 is now by way of crosswalk.
In addition to expanding and modernizing the terminal, the $3.4 billion construction project includes new roadways and a parking garage. Construction is taking place in two stages to ensure a sufficient number of gates remain available during the build out. First phase construction includes building 19 new airline gates mainly east of the existing Terminal 1 and a new airport entrance road. When the first phase is complete and opened in mid-2025, demolition of the old terminal and construction will begin on the second phase that will add another 11 gates. The entire project is scheduled to be completed in late 2027. The airport has construction updates here.
Ground transportation options at the airport include app-based ride services, taxis and shuttles. Car rental customers take a shuttle for the 15-20 minute ride to the Consolidated Rental Car Center on the opposite side of the airfield. All of these services are available from ground Transportation Plazas across the roadway in front of the terminals.
San Diego’s Metropolitan Transit System (MTS) Route 992 buses depart from outside the airport’s baggage claim about every 15 minutes daily for the 10-15-minute ride to West Broadway and Kettner Boulevard, which is adjacent to America Plaza and across the street from Santa Fe Depot where passengers can connect to other bus routes, the Trolley light rail system, Coaster commuter rail and Amtrak’s Pacific Surfliner intercity train. Another option is the San Diego Flyer, a free electric shuttle service operating every 20-30 minutes to/from Old Town Transit Center where passengers can connect to the Trolley, Coaster, Amtrak and multiple MTS bus routes.
Passengers going to the Cross Border Xpress (CBX) can connect to the CBX Shuttle departing every two hours 9:15 a.m.-9:15 p.m. from the Consolidated Rental Car Center at SAN. (Another option is to take the MTS Route 992 bus downtown and board the CBX Shuttle 15 minutes later at the Santa Fe Depot.) The shuttle’s scheduled travel time is 55 minutes from the airport’s car rental center to the CBX terminal at Otay Mesa, where passengers flying from Tijuana’s General Abelardo L. Rodríguez International Airport can check-in for their flights on the U.S. side of the border and then use a 400-foot skybridge that leads directly into the terminal on the Mexico side. There are fees to use the shuttle and the CBX, which is only available to passengers booked on flights departing and arriving the Tijuana airport.
Southwest Airlines flights arrive and depart San Diego at gates 5-16 in Terminal 1. Be aware that gates 3-10 and gates 11-18 are on separate concourses so passengers connecting between the two must leave the TSA secure area and be re-screened.
San Diego likes to bill itself as America’s Finest City. The temperate climate has a lot to do with it, especially during the summer when they say “zonies,” Arizonans escaping the heat, outnumber locals.
Get up-to-date travel planning information from the San Diego Tourism Authority.
The plane flown by Charles Lindbergh in the first nonstop solo flight across the Atlantic Ocean in 1927 was built by the Ryan Airline Co. A flyable replica built by some of the original builders is on display at the San Diego Air & Space Museum. If the name Ryan sounds familiar to Tucsonans, there is good reason. The man behind Ryan Airline Co., T. Claude Ryan, also built the Ryan School of Aeronautics of Arizona in 1942. It is now known as Ryan Airfield.
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Southwest Airlines