Nashville to San Francisco nonstop flight announced

Nate Rau | USA TODAY NETWORK - Tennessee

In a move touted as a recruiting tool to lure Silicon Valley businesses to Nashville, United Airlines and the Metro Nashville Airport Authority announced on Tuesday a nonstop flight to San Francisco.

The daily flight will begin May 5 and tickets are already available.

Metro Nashville Airport Authority CEO Rob Wigington thanked the city’s Air Services Coalition — a committee of business, tourism and civic leaders who recruit new nonstop flights and advise the airport on the city’s airlift needs — for helping land the nonstop to San Francisco.

Courtney Ross, the chief economic development office for Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce, pointed to Silicon Valley businesses already setting up shop in Music City as evidence of Nashville’s growing technology sector. She said the flight would give the chamber the ability to help sell more San Francisco Bay Area companies on moving here.

“We will continue to make and we have made recruitment trips to the Bay Area to recruit businesses, meeting with the fastest growing companies in the United States,” Ross said. “We’ve had great success and we know we’ll have more success — some of those Google Fiber has expanded here, Eventbrite has already expanded here, Lyft has opened their corporate office outside of San Francisco, Day Nine, and I could go on and on.”

United announced the flight with some gusto — bringing out a trio of Victorian era carolers who sang “I Left My Heart in San Francisco” to open the press conference at Nashville International Airport. The announcement was applauded by a group of powerbrokers on hand, led by new Mayor Megan Barry.

“We are going to have a flight to San Francisco, and that is pretty cool,” Barry said. “It means we’re going to have stronger economic ties to San Francisco. It also means our entrepreneurs are going to have easy access to the West Coast, and that’s going to help our economy and our job climate. And vice versa, you know they get to fly here, too.”

Almost one year ago to the day, Southwest Airlines announced a nonstop flight to Oakland. The Air Services Coalition had identified the Bay Area as one of its top priorities. That list is headed by nonstop flights to London and Tokyo, which Nashville still hasn’t landed.

Bryan Huddleston, CEO of the Nashville Technology Council, said the additional flight will support entrepreneurship and Nashville's ability to lure talent and more tech companies.

"Companies that are looking to expand and find tech workers, like Eventbrite and Lyft, can do that in Nashville," Huddleston said. "It’s also great because we have easier access to venture capital for our startups in the city. It's just generally a faster way to go about connecting these two communities together."

Wigington said the San Francisco flight has been among top priorities for the Nashville airport. The nonstop flight will open doors to other international connections, including Australia, New Zealand and the Asia-Pacific region, he said.

The May 5 flight will offer flights leaving at 9:30 a.m. Pacific time from San Francisco, arriving in Nashville at 4 p.m. Central time. From Nashville, the flight will leave at 5 p.m. and arrive at 8 p.m. in California.

Tennessean reporter Jamie McGee contributed to this story. Reach Nate Rau at 615-259-8094 and on Twitter @tnnaterau.