San Francisco · Private aviation
Private aviation and FBO transfers in San Francisco
San Carlos, Palo Alto and San Jose put you in the valley.
| Route | Off-peak | Allow in peak |
|---|---|---|
| San Carlos to Menlo Park (Sand Hill) | 12–18 min | 20–35 min |
| Palo Alto to Sand Hill Road | 10–15 min | 15–30 min |
| San Jose to Mountain View | 18–25 min | 30–45 min |
Every route is quoted for your exact addresses and confirmed in writing before you travel.
- Gratuity and airport fees included
- Rate agreed in writing, no surge pricing
- Free cancellation up to 2 hours before pickup
- Free waiting: 60 minutes at airports, 15 minutes elsewhere
The San Francisco fields
San Carlos, Palo Alto and San Jose put you in the valley. SFO and Oakland put you nearer the city. The gap between those is the whole decision. Bay Area private movement spreads across SFO, Oakland, San Jose, San Carlos and Palo Alto, with Hayward and Concord taking more. The peninsula fields are the distinctive ones here: San Carlos and Palo Alto put an arriving principal within minutes of Sand Hill Road, which no commercial airport does. We work from the tail number and coordinate with the FBO directly rather than a filed time.
San Carlos (SQL) and Palo Alto (PAO)
Both sit on the peninsula within a short run of Menlo Park, Palo Alto and Sand Hill Road, which makes them the sharpest tools available for valley business. They are small fields with real limits on aircraft size and operating hours, so whether they suit you is a question for your operator. When they do, the ground time is a fraction of anything else.
San Jose (SJC) private terminals
The workhorse for South Bay private movement, with proper FBO facilities well away from the commercial terminals and no meaningful constraint on aircraft type. For anything heading to Santa Clara, Mountain View or San Jose it is the obvious field, and it handles international arrivals too.
SFO and Oakland
SFO takes private traffic on a very busy field, where ground movement rather than our access is the variable. Oakland has good FBO facilities, less congestion and suits the East Bay and the city about equally once the bridge is counted. For a city destination we will usually suggest one of these two.
How we work with your operator in San Francisco
Ramp access and the peninsula fields
At the smaller peninsula fields the FBO is the whole facility and meeting at the aircraft is usually straightforward. At SFO and San Jose the FBO sits on a separate part of a large airport and the address is nothing like the terminal address. We dispatch to the FBO by name, which is the only thing that reliably works.
Crew and repositioning
Crew transport here is frequently tied to valley schedules — a late departure after an evening meeting, an early positioning run down the peninsula. Those recur, so we set them up as a standing arrangement with agreed pickup points rather than booking each one from scratch.
From the San Francisco private fields
Door to FBO, ordinary conditions. The peninsula field numbers are the entire argument for using them when your operator can.
| Route | Approx. distance | Off-peak | Allow in peak |
|---|---|---|---|
| San Carlos to Menlo Park (Sand Hill) | 7 miles | 12–18 min | 20–35 min |
| Palo Alto to Sand Hill Road | 4 miles | 10–15 min | 15–30 min |
| San Jose to Mountain View | 12 miles | 18–25 min | 30–45 min |
| SFO FBOs to the Financial District | 14 miles | 25–35 min | 45–70 min |
| Oakland FBOs to the Financial District | 12 miles | 25–30 min | 50–80 min |
| San Carlos to the Financial District | 25 miles | 35–45 min | 60–90 min |
How San Francisco private aviation transfers are priced
FBO transfers are quoted per route and confirmed in writing before you travel, with no surge pricing at any hour. Waiting time is measured against the actual movement rather than a filed time, so an early landing or a slipped departure does not become a billing conversation.
Tell us the field and the FBO when you book and we will confirm coverage before you travel. If the day is valley business, ask us about San Carlos and Palo Alto before you file — the ground time is not comparable.
Prefer to speak to someone? Dispatch is staffed 24 hours a day.
More in San Francisco
Airport transfers
SFO, Oakland and San Jose — and which one fits your day
Corporate & roadshows
Investor roadshows, Sand Hill Road and the valley campuses
Hotel transfers
Nob Hill, Union Square, SoMa and the peninsula
Events & venues
Moscone, Chase Center, Oracle Park and the valley venues
Universities & campuses
Stanford, Berkeley, UCSF and the peninsula campuses
All San Francisco services
Airports, districts and journey times across San Francisco