The results, released Tuesday, were contained in the latest energy utilities study produced by the American Consumer Satisfaction Index. The survey reported results for 27 U.S. utilities listed by name.

Oakland-based PG&E was ranked in a multi-way tie for 20th place out of 27 U.S. utilities in the 2024 survey.

“If PG&E cared about customer rankings, it would spend less money on public relations and slick television commercials, and more on live persons to answer the phone when customers call,” Mark Toney, executive director with The Utility Reform Network, or TURN, said in comments emailed to this news organization. “If PG&E wanted a better reputation, it would stop overspending on excessive tree removal, and more on connecting new electrical service to affordable housing developments, schools and hospitals that have been on a waiting list for months.”

While the ranking in 2024 was low, PG&E’s placement on the latest list topped its ranking as No. 27 in the 2023 survey.

“The American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) shows a 14% gain for PG&E, as well as improvements in service reliability and power restoration, where we exceed the industry,” PG&E stated in comments a company spokesperson emailed to this news organization.

The survey measured customer satisfaction using 10 benchmarks.

The categories include the ability to provide reliable electricity service, quality of the mobile app, the reliability of the mobile app, ease of understanding the monthly bill, website satisfaction, ability to restore electric service after an outage, courtesy and helpfulness of company staffers, information about energy saving ideas, efforts to support green programs and efforts to support the local community.

“We are committed to improving our customers’ service and have a variety of energy and money-saving tools in place to help them find the best rate plan for their household or business, utilize free and low-cost resources to help manage monthly bills, and offer expanded financial assistance programs to support income-eligible customers,” PG&E stated in its emailed comments.

PG&E ranked poorly, however, compared to some of the other major utility providers in California.

Sempra, owner of San Diego Gas & Electric, was ranked 12th; the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power was ranked 18th; PG&E was ranked 20th; Edison International, owner of Southern California Edison, was ranked No. 25.

PG&E has come under criticism in the wake of a decade of disasters that included a fatal gas explosion in 2010 that destroyed a San Bruno neighborhood, a string of fatal infernos that torched vast swaths of land in Northern California and intentional power outages to reduce the chances of wildfires.

More recently, PG&E’s skyrocketing electricity costs have shoved monthly utility bills higher, a financial jolt that has infuriated a growing number of the company’s customers.

Starting in early January, PG&E monthly bills averaged roughly $294.50 a month for the typical residential customer who receives combined electricity and gas services, according to estimates provided by the company to this news organization.

That combined bill was 22.3% higher than the average monthly charges that went into effect the year before, at the start of January 2023.

A recent decision by the state Public Utilities Commission, which oversees PG&E, also set the stage for PG&E to raise monthly bills yet again on an interim basis, a decision that will begin to have an impact on bills in April or May.

Those increases come as PG&E profits zoomed higher in 2023, buoyed by surging electricity and natural gas revenues.

In February, PG&E reported 2023 profits totaling $2.24 billion, an increase of 24.6% from 2022. PG&E further delighted its shareholders by predicting investors can anticipate even better earnings in 2024.

“If PG&E wanted to boost customer confidence, it would prioritize delivering the cleanest, safest and most reliable service at the most cost-efficient manner, instead of prioritizing shareholder profits,” Toney said.

Monthly bills are slated to rise by an average of $4.68 a month for customers who receive combined electricity and gas services from the utility.

The state Public Utilities Commission approved PG&E’s plans for higher monthly bills — known officially as an interim rate request — as part of a consent calendar packed with 54 items.

“The PUC rubber-stamped PG&E’s interim rate request,” said Mark Toney, executive director of The Utility Reform Network, or TURN.

The regulatory panel approved the consent calendar in a single vote Thursday that featured very little debate by the five members of the powerful — and unelected — commission.

As of early January 2024, PG&E’s average bills for combined services used by the typical residential customer were around $294.50 a month.

The utility, which has been blamed for a series of destructive and deadly wildfires in the Golden State, has said it needs to charge higher rates to cover improvements to its equipment to prevent future catastrophic wildfires.

“The Wildfire Gas and Safety Cost Interim Rate Relief decision authorizes a temporary rate change to start recouping a portion of the money that was spent for wildfire mitigation and delivering key safety, compliance and modernization investments for our energy system,” PG&E spokesperson Mike Gazda said in comments emailed to this news organization.

This year’s January bills were roughly $53.77 higher than the bills in January 2023, when combined monthly charges for residential customers receiving combined services were averaging $240.73.

Monthly electric bills for a typical residential customer monthly bill are slated to increase by an average of $3.65. The gas bill for a typical residential customer is expected to rise by $1.03 a month, PG&E estimated.

Starting in April, the average monthly PG&E bill for combined services is slated to be around $299.18 a month — just shy of the ominous milestone of $300 a month.

One bright spot: It’s possible the interim higher bills could lead to a refund if further regulatory review determines customers were forced to overpay on an interim basis.

“These costs were not included in prior rate proceedings,” Gazda said in the emailed comments. “We have requested to recover these costs over multiple years to limit the impact on customers.”

That means PG&E monthly bills have soared higher at a pace that far outstrips the annual inflation rate, as measured by consumer prices, in the Bay Area. During 2023, consumer prices rose 2.6% in the Bay Area.

State regulators claim they hope to bring PG&E bill increases more in line with the annual inflation rate. At present, that goal appears to be beyond easy reach.

Gov. Gavin Newsom appointed all five of the current commissioners of the PUC. The five commissioners were all confirmed by the state Senate.

Toney, with TURN, was disappointed the state PUC approved the interim increase in rates, leading to yet another jump in monthly costs, through a mass endorsement by the commissioners of the consent agenda.

The PUC did not immediately respond to a request for comment regarding why the item was on the consent calendar.

“Ratepayers deserve an explanation from the five commissioners,” Toney said, “about why they approved this.”

The Oakland-based power company earned an eye-popping $2.24 billion in profits last year, an increase of 24.6% from 2022, PG&E reported on Thursday. The report also predicted the utility titan’s investors can anticipate even better earnings in 2024.

The news comes as customers have seen their monthly PG&E bills spike and as the company has asked state regulators to approve even higher rates that it says are necessary to pay for improvements to equipment to prevent the types of catastrophic wildfires it has caused in the past.

The Utility Reform Network, a consumer advocacy group that goes by TURN, blasted the latest profit figures.

“TURN believes it is unacceptable for PG&E shareholders to pocket billions in profits at the expense of its customers who have seen bills skyrocket by 33% last year alone,” said Mark Toney, the group’s executive director.

Critics of the way the company operates have directed much of their ire at the California Public Utilities Commission (PUC), whose five governor-appointed commissioners are charged with regulating utilities — including rate increases.

“PG&E’s profits are being created on the backs of working families and small businesses in California that pay some of the nation’s highest utility bills,” said Loretta Lynch, a former PUC commissioner who for numerous years has been an outspoken critic of both PG&E and the state regulator.

“The PUC is supposed to be a watchdog, but instead, the PUC is a lapdog,” Lynch said. “When PG&E asks for a rate increase, the PUC’s response is how high should it be.”

The state Public Utilities Commission responded that it is doing its job to supervise PG&E’s operations, including the utility’s requests for additional revenue from its customers.

“The state PUC’s job is to hold PG&E accountable, ensuring ratepayer dollars are used in the most cost-effective way possible, maintaining full transparency of their financial records, ensuring they invest in making the system safer,” Terrie Prosper, a spokesperson for the regulatory agency, said in comments she emailed to this news organization.

In a December 2023 decision regarding PG&E’s general rate case, the PUC authorized $2 billion less in revenue from ratepayers than PG&E had requested, Prosper noted.

However, as a result of the PUC’s actions, in January 2024, PG&E monthly bills zoomed higher and reached an average of $294.50 a month for the typical residential customer who receives combined electricity and gas services from the utility.

That combined bill was 22.3% higher than the average monthly charges that went into effect at the start of January 2023 when combined bills were $240.73 for the typical residential customer.

An interim rate increase requested by PG&E could shove average monthly bills past the $300 mark for the first time by May of this year. The current average bill is already at an all-time high.

PG&E Chief Executive Officer Patricia Poppe, in a statement, addressed the year-end financials, saying, “Our story of progress continued in 2023, including further reducing wildfire ignitions and burying more powerlines than any prior year,”

PG&E reported $17.42 billion in revenue from its electricity operations in 2023, a 15.7% increase from revenue of $15.06 billion in 2022. Natural gas revenue totaled slightly more than $7 billion in 2023, up 5.8% from gas revenue of $6.62 billion last year.

Both electricity and gas revenue in 2023 hopped at a pace that greatly exceeded the Bay Area inflation rate, as measured by the consumer price index, over the same 12 months. In 2023, Bay Area consumer prices rose 2.6%.

“Between its rank greed and rampant property destruction from wildfires, it’s difficult to identify another company that has inflicted more harm to the residents of the state than PG&E,” said Ken Cook, president of the Environmental Working Group, a consumer advocacy organization.

PG&E has been ordered to pay billions of dollars in penalties for its role in causing a deadly gas explosion in 2010 in San Bruno and a series of devastating wildfires in Northern California, including the deadly Camp Fire in 2018 that claimed more than 80 lives and decimated the town of Paradise.

Lawmakers, including congressional candidate and former San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo, are alarmed at the costs being passed along to customers.

“Nobody should be surprised by these numbers or that rate hikes will continue,” Liccardo said. “That’s why I’ve proposed a federally backed program to liberate ratepayers from rising bills by enabling investments in electricity storage and generation within apartment buildings and houses.”

PG&E’s jump in profits is being disclosed just weeks after a big increase in monthly utility bills for residential customers went into effect on Jan. 1 — and only weeks before yet another bill increase is slated to begin.

It’s unclear if any relief for consumers is on the horizon. Wall Street and investors in PG&E — whose largest shareholders include Vanguard Group, FMR, Blackrock, JPMorgan Chase and State Street, according to the Yahoo Finance website — can at this point anticipate a bright 2024 when it comes to the company’s profits.

By comparison, PG&E earned $1.05 a share during 2023.

In the October-through-December fourth quarter of 2023, PG&E earned $919 million, a robust jump of 79.1% compared with profits of $513 million in the fourth quarter of 2022.

Excluding certain one-time or unusual items, PG&E earned $1.01 billion in the 2023 fourth quarter, up 79.6% from the similarly calculated profits for the final three months of 2022.

This month, bills for the typical residential customer climbed to $294.50. That’s already the highest average monthly bill ever for PG&E customers.

Oakland-based PG&E’s combined gas and electric bills are rising about eight times faster than the annualized increase in Bay Area consumer prices.

PG&E believes higher charges are necessary because of an array of upgrades and improvements to its electricity and gas systems aimed at reducing the chances of the company’s equipment unleashing disastrous fires or catastrophic explosions. The utility has been slapped with billions of dollars in penalties in connection with disasters PG&E has caused, including a fatal gas explosion in San Bruno in 2010 and fatal infernos.

Now another round of bill increases is expected to confront PG&E customers, likely starting in March 2024.

This time around, effective in March, monthly PG&E bills are likely to increase another $13.65 a month. This would take the average bill to $308.15 a month for the typical residential customer who receives combined electricity and gas services.

PG&E filed a request on Dec. 1 with the state Public Utilities Commission (PUC), which oversees PG&E, for the interim rate changes.

If the PUC approves the request, PG&E would be authorized to recover a portion of the costs arising from wildfire mitigation, catastrophic events such as wildfires and storms, and other activities related to safety. These costs do not include instances where PG&E equipment was found to have caused a fire.

An insert that accompanies this month’s bill details the potential impacts on customer bills that are expected in March.

The new potential monthly average would be 4.6% higher than the current monthly combined bill.

The March increase would consist solely of changes in the electricity bills. But future years are likely to bring increases in the natural gas component of the bill. Gas bills are slated to increase $3 a month in March 2025.

“Interim rate relief will help lower costs for customers in the long term,” PG&E spokesperson Mike Gazda said.

Effective Jan. 1, monthly electricity bills for the typical PG&E electricity customer reached an average of roughly $222 a month. That’s 28.4% higher than the monthly electricity bill of $172.84 in January 2023.

Gas bills now average $72 a month. That’s 6.1% higher than the average monthly gas bill of $67.89 in January 2023.

The current combined bill is 22.3% higher than the average monthly charges that went into effect about a year ago. At the start of January 2023, combined PG&E bills were $240.73 for the typical residential customer.

The utility titan says its goal is to bring annual increases in combined electricity and gas bills close to the yearly inflation rate.

The 22.3% increase in monthly bills, however, greatly exceeds the 2.8% rise in the Bay Area inflation rate as measured by consumer prices during the 12-month period that ended in October.

The state PUC should act to rein in soaring PG&E bills, in the view of Mark Toney, executive director of the consumer group, The Utility Reform Network (TURN).

“The current system that sets no limits on rate increases needs to be replaced by a cap on annual bills, set at the cost-of-living adjustment provided by Social Security,” according to a web post by TURN.

Adjustments for the cost of living are typically tied to a benchmark for inflation.

Monthly bills for PG&E customers who receive both electricity and gas services from the company are expected to rise by an estimated $32.62 a month on average starting Jan. 1, 2024. That’s an eye-popping jump of 12.8% slated to take effect right after the holiday shopping season. The estimate was posted on the state Public Utilities Commission (PUC) website.

The agency’s five governor-appointed commissioners approved on a unanimous vote a revenue plan for PG&E that is poised to dramatically ratchet up the financial burden for customers in the Bay Area and other parts of California.

The bill hike — while not unexpected — was a bitter pill for customers and advocates to swallow.

“You should be sending PG&E back to the drawing board,” Jessica Tovar, an energy advocate, told the PUC before its vote. “They have incinerated communities, devastated people and raised rates over and over.”

The Oakland-based company has been linked to a string of disasters, including a lethal gas explosion that destroyed a San Bruno neighborhood and a string of destructive — and in some cases deadly — wildfires across Northern California. In 2020, the utility pleaded guilty to 84 separate counts of involuntary manslaughter and admitted that the company’s equipment started the 2018 Camp Fire that torched the town of Paradise.

“PG&E rate hikes are outrageous,” said Cheryl Maynard, a survivor of the catastrophic Camp Fire in Butte County. “Fire victims still have not been made whole.”

The company says it is attempting to improve the safety of its electricity and gas systems. The PUC decision enables PG&E to undertake a hybrid program of upgrades — including burying 1,230 miles of power lines and the covering of hundreds of miles of overhead lines with insulation.

“Undergrounding is the best tool in the highest fire-risk areas to protect our customers and hometowns and improve reliability year-round at the lowest cost to our customers,” PG&E Chief Executive Officer Patricia Poppe said in a statement.

Still, customers blasted the decision that ultimately means higher monthly bills.

“California energy consumers cannot support endless rate increases,” said Kevin Lee, a PG&E customer who spoke before the PUC’s vote.

“We are supporting PG&E’s criminal negligence,” Lee added. “Reject the PG&E giveaway. Enough is enough.”

“We know we are facing an affordability crisis,” PUC Commissioner John Reynolds said before approving the general rate case to boost PG&E revenue and raise customer costs.

Reynolds at one point was an advisor to former PUC commissioner Carla Peterman, now a PG&E executive.

“Small businesses, workers, renters and many other Californians are struggling under the weight of PG&E bills that have skyrocketed at three times the rate of inflation since 2020,” Sam Liccardo, San Jose’s former mayor and one of the principal leaders of advocacy group FAIR California, said in an interview with this news organization last month. FAIR California is a coalition of groups that have banded together to oppose the continued increases in PG&E bills.

Electricity bills will soar by $22.20 a month on average, while gas bills will jump by $10.43 a month, the PUC estimate stated.

By comparison, the Bay Area inflation rate rose 2.8% over the one-year period that ended in October — which means that as of early 2024, PG&E bills will be rising more than four times faster than the current pace of increases in consumer prices.

“Californians face challenging times right now, and Democratic policymakers and their bureaucratic buddies should focus on solutions that reduce the cost of living, not let companies like PG&E continue to bankrupt their ratepayers,” said state Sen. Brian Dahle, a Republican whose district includes Lassen County and the vice chair of the Senate Standing Committee on Energy, Utilities & Communications.

Tech companies have revealed plans to eliminate nearly 25,000 jobs during 2022 and so far in 2023, according to this news organization’s analysis of numerous WARN notices that employers have filed with the state Employment Development Department.

Meta Platforms, whose apps include Facebook and Instagram, has reported to state labor officials that it has decided to chop 1,125 jobs in the Bay Area.

These are the details of the most recent layoffs by Meta Platforms and the number of employees affected by the staffing reductions in each city.

• Menlo Park, 528 job cuts
• San Francisco, 311 layoffs
• Sunnyvale, 169 staff reductions
• Fremont, 117 job cuts

The layoffs by Meta Platforms are slated to take effect on or around July 28 of this year, the WARN notices show.

These layoffs appear to be part of a second round of worldwide staffing reductions that Meta Platforms had foreshadowed in a blog post earlier this year by the company’s co-founder and top boss Mark Zuckerburg.

The two major layoff announcements by Meta Platforms have resulted in three publicly disclosed rounds of employment reductions in the Bay Area. All three rounds of layoffs were slated to occur this year. Some have taken place while others are scheduled to transpire.

Meta Platforms has now sketched out decisions to eliminate well over 5,000 jobs in the Bay Area in the wake of the three waves of WARN filings with the EDD, a review of the reports shows.

Still, the staffing reductions by the social network behemoth are far from the only recent revelations of layoffs by tech companies in the Bay Area.

Besides Meta Platforms, here are the details of other recent layoffs involving tech jobs in the Bay Area:

• Enrollease, a software company and unit of Employee Navigator, 25 staffing reductions in San Francisco
• Johnson Matthey Medical Device Components, 65 layoffs in San Jose
• Nuro, a software and robotics company, 252 job cuts in Mountain View
• Lyft, a provider of ride-hailing services, 383 staff cutbacks in San Francisco
• Dropbox, a file hosting service, 182 layoffs in San Francisco

During the first five months of 2023, tech companies have revealed decisions to chop slightly more than 14,500 jobs in the Bay Area. That’s far above the 10,400 jobs that tech companies eliminated in the Bay Area during all of 2022.

Here are the 10 tech companies that have laid off the greatest number of workers in the Bay Area during all of 2022 and so far in 2023, according to a review of the WARN notices filed during the two years.

• Meta Platforms, 5,195 layoffs
• Google, 1,608 job cuts
• Salesforce, 1,151 staffing cutbacks
• Twitter, 900 layoffs
• Cisco Systems, 673 job cuts
• Grocery Delivery E-Services USA (HelloFresh), 611 staffing cutbacks
• Lyft, 610 layoffs
• Intel, 547 job cuts
• Amazon, 524 staffing cutbacks
• Nuro, 521 layoffs

The relentless number of decisions by tech companies to lay off their workers in the Bay Area is having a dismal effect on the job market in the region.

During the first four months of 2023, tech companies have cut a net total of 16,500 jobs in the Bay Area. Tech companies eliminated positions on a net basis in each of those four months.

The gain of 11,200 jobs in the Bay Area in April provided an especially welcome counterpoint to an unsettling loss of 4,400 jobs in the nine-county region during March, according to a report released Friday by state labor officials.

The gains in the Bay Area were led primarily by an increase of 6,400 jobs in the East Bay, along with a gain of 300 jobs in the Santa Clara County region and an increase of 1,600 jobs in the San Francisco-San Mateo metro area. All of the numbers were adjusted for seasonal volatility.

California added 67,000 jobs in April, the state Employment Development Department reported. The Golden State has now added jobs over a stretch of four consecutive months. California’s last employment setback was a loss of 20,200 jobs in December 2022.

Despite the job gains last month in California, the statewide unemployment rate worsened to 4.5% in April, up from 4.4% in March. The job totals and the unemployment rates are derived from two different government surveys and can at times move in contrasting directions.

With its job gains in April, Santa Clara County has now gained jobs for 27 consecutive months. The last time the South Bay lost jobs was in January 2021. However, the gain of 300 positions was the smallest monthly gain during that stretch of more than two years.

The East Bay’s April employment upswing more than offset a loss of 4,900 jobs in March for the Alameda County-Contra Costa County metro region.

The San Francisco-San Mateo County area had suffered losses of 1,000 jobs in February and another 500 in March until achieving the job gains of April.

SAN JOSE — Google has moved into another big San Jose campus, greatly widening its foothold in the Bay Area’s largest city in a shift that shows how the search giant seeks ways to expand even as it reassesses its priorities.

The tech titan now operates in at least three of four buildings on West Tasman Drive near Champion Court in a new office hub that Google calls its Tasman Campus.

This expansion represents at least the second major campus in San Jose where Google has quietly moved employees and begun work operations.

In April, Google confirmed it had moved into two big office buildings on Brokaw Road between North First Street and Bering Drive in San Jose. The buildings are two of four buildings that total a combined 729,000 square feet that Google leased from Peery Arrillaga in 2019.

The leased buildings into which Google has moved have addresses of 122 East Brokaw Road and 1849 Bering Drive. As of late April, Google had yet to occupy the other four buildings in that cluster that it has leased.

In the company’s most recent expansion in San Jose, Google has moved into at least three of four buildings that the tech titan purchased in 2020 from Cisco Systems.

In 2020, Google paid $164.2 million for the quartet of buildings and an adjacent parking garage.

These purchased buildings have addresses of 175, 225, 255, and 285 West Tasman Drive in north San Jose. The new Google campus is near the light rail line’s Champion Station.

The buildings that Google bought from Cisco, which were constructed more than two decades ago in 1996, total a combined 553,000 square feet. That would be enough space to accommodate 2,200 to 2,800 Google workers.

Google opened its Tasman Campus at the end of 2022, the Google spokesperson said.

These two Google office hub expansions in north San Jose emerge at a time when uncertainties have emerged regarding when Google will launch the construction of a planned transit village next to the Diridon train station and SAP Center in downtown San Jose.

“While we’re assessing our real estate footprint, we’re still committed to San Jose for the long term and continuing to invest in the community and our long-term presence here,” a Google spokesperson said.

Mountain View-based Google says that it is “reassessing the timeline” for the mixed-use downtown San Jose neighborhood, known as Downtown West, that the company is planning it is planning.

The reassessment of the Downtown West timelines is a characterization Google has made several times to this news organization going back to February of this year. The most recent such update to reaffirm the ongoing assessment of the timeline was made by Google in late April.

But the tech titan also said recently that it remains fully committed to the downtown San Jose development.

Google’s Downtown West neighborhood would add millions of square feet of new offices, thousands of homes, and shops and restaurants to the western edges of the city’s downtown district.

The two huge new office hubs where Google is now operating serve as a reminder that the company’s growth continues even in the face of layoffs, a wide-ranging reassessment of the company’s office and space requirements and the uncertainty over the Downtown West timeline.

The moves by tech firms to head back into existing office sites appear to dovetail with detailed anecdotes regarding shifts in attitudes on the part of companies and workers

JLL, a commercial real estate firm, recently conducted a series of roundtable discussions with 50 companies in the Bay Area to gain some insights regarding changes in their approaches to workspace returns.

“Companies want to move from mandates to magnets,” said Bart Lammersen, an executive managing director with JLL. “They want to do more than mandate a return. They want the offices to be magnets so employees want to return.”

Efforts are underway by tech companies to make offices more appealing to workers.

“Companies want to support ways for their people to be invested in the office again,” said LV Hanson, a JLL senior vice president.

Lyft, Dropbox and Sangamo Therapeutics have revealed plans to chop a combined 622 jobs in the Bay Area.

Here are the details of the job cuts locations for the layoffs that the three companies have revealed in the new filings with the state Employment Development Department:

• Lyft, 383 job cuts in San Francisco
• Dropbox, 182 layoffs in San Francisco
• Sangamo, 57 staffing reductions in Richmond and Brisbane.

With the most recent layoffs, tech companies have revealed plans to chop more than 23,500 jobs in the Bay Area during 2022 and 2023, this news organization’s review of the EDD filings shows.

So far in 2023, tech companies have disclosed their intentions to slash at least 13,100 jobs in the Bay Area. The five-month total for this year already exceeds the 10,457 layoffs revealed by tech companies during all of 2022.

Several tech companies have disclosed plans for multiple rounds of job cuts in the Bay Area, and some have hinted that even more staffing reductions are in the works.

The airport handled slightly more than 912,900 passengers in March, the highest monthly level since November 2022, according to airport officials. That’s 9.9% higher than the number of passengers that passed through the facility during the same month in 2022, the airport reported.

“Travel over the spring break period was strong this year, building significantly from February to March,” said Craig Simon, the Port of Oakland’s acting aviation director.

Over the most recent one-year period that ended in March, Oakland handled 11.58 million passengers. That was a vast improvement over the total for the 2022 calendar year when 11.5 million passengers traveled through Oakland Airport.

Despite the improvement, Oakland Airport remains far below its pre-coronavirus levels. It’s not alone in that shortfall. Both San Jose International Airport and San Francisco International Airport also remain stuck at an altitude that’s well short of the heady heights they reached before the coronavirus outbreak in early 2020.

The air traveler totals at Oakland Airport for the most recent 12 months that ended in March were 13.4% below the passenger levels achieved in 2019 when the airport accommodated 13.38 million passengers. That was the final year before the onset of wide-ranging business shutdowns began in March 2020.

Oakland Airport’s all-time best year occurred in 2018 when the aviation hub handled 13.59 million passengers.

Officials said they are confident passenger totals will continue to improve in the coming months.

“We anticipate that strong demand will continue into the summer as new flights are offered to New York/Newark, Philadelphia, and Dallas/Fort Worth on Spirit Airlines,” Simon said.