Jacksonville travelers heading to the West Coast will soon skip the layover entirely. United Airlines will launch nonstop flights between Jacksonville and San Francisco starting March 29, 2027, running twice weekly on Mondays and Fridays as part of a year-round schedule, according to the Jacksonville Aviation Authority.
The new route, announced by the authority, fills what officials describe as a major gap in the airport's network. As reported by St. Johns Citizen, Jacksonville Aviation Authority CEO Mark Vanloh said, “Prior to today's announcement the bay area was one of our largest unserved markets.” San Francisco will become the sixth United hub to offer nonstop service from Jacksonville International Airport, joining existing nonstop routes to Chicago O'Hare, Denver, Houston's George Bush Intercontinental Airport, Newark and Washington Dulles.
United has tickets already on sale for the Jacksonville-San Francisco route, with the airline planning to fly a Boeing 737-800 on the new service. Flights will depart Jacksonville International Airport at about 5:45 p.m. local time and depart San Francisco International Airport at about 8:15 a.m. local time, a schedule the airline says allows travelers to leave Friday evening and return Monday morning for a weekend in the Bay Area.
Why San Francisco Opens the Door to the Pacific
San Francisco is a United Airlines hub, and the airline has timed the Jacksonville flights to connect with its Pacific routes. Mark Weithofer, United's managing director of domestic network planning, said the new service will ease Northeast Florida travelers' access to the West Coast and United's Pacific network. With a single stop in San Francisco, Northeast Florida travelers can reach Sydney, Singapore, Manila, Hong Kong, Hawaii and other destinations, the Jacksonville Aviation Authority said.
The addition fits into a broader pattern of United expansion planned for next spring. According to Simple Flying, United will also launch nonstop service from San Francisco to Charleston, Hartford and Oklahoma City on March 28, 2027 — a day before the Jacksonville flight begins. Hartford and Oklahoma City will get daily rotations under that plan, while Charleston gains four weekly flights, and the outlet reports the additions bring United's network from Charleston International Airport to six destinations.
JAX Keeps Growing Its Route Map
The San Francisco announcement lands as Jacksonville International Airport continues to post record numbers. More than 709,000 passengers flew through JAX in July 2025, a record for that month and 3.1% above July 2024, according to The Florida Times-Union. The airport added two new airlines and 12 new nonstop destinations in the first half of 2025, the paper reported.
JAX has infrastructure projects underway to keep pace with that growth. A new six-gate concourse and an additional parking garage adding roughly 2,000 spaces were expected to open in late 2026, per the same report. Those upgrades, paired with the new transcontinental route, point to an airport positioning itself for a bigger role in national and international air travel out of Northeast Florida.
For now, the headline news for local flyers is simple: a direct line from the First Coast to the Bay Area, and from there, a gateway to much of the Pacific, is arriving in spring 2027.
