Written by Tom Deehan on Mar 3, 2016. Posted in General Interest / Incentive News

Film SF and Delta Airlines announce discounts for productions on both domestic and international flights to San Francisco

Film SF Executive Director, Susannah Greason Robbins has secured a deal with the help of Delta Airlines that will provide discounts for both international and domestic flights for productions coming to San Francisco to film on location. Productions simply need to contact Film SF who will put them in contact with Delta, who in turn will work with each individual production to give a competitive offering subject to passenger numbers.

Their airlines include Delta, Air France, KLM, Alitalia and Virgin Atlantic.

This new offer is a further incentive for productions thinking of filming in San Francisco and is part of the producer vendor discount programme. The Film SF Vendor Discount Programme provides an opportunity for production companies and their crew members to receive discounts while using the services of participating businesses and local merchants.

More than 100 local businesses are currently participating in the programme, including 28 hotels, 13 restaurants, as well as a number of car rental agencies, entertainment venues and gift shops.

At the financial level, productions filming in San Francisco have access to two incentive schemes. The San Francisco rebate programme can offer tax refunds of up to USD600,000 if a production with a budget under USD3 million films 55% of the project on location, increasing to 65% for those with budgets over USD3 million.

Alongside this programme, the state of California offers up to 20% in tax credits for productions that meet a number of minimum requirements, bumping to 25% in the case of independent films and relocating television shows.

With these lucrative incentives available, San Francisco has attracted a number of high profile productions including the Oscar nominated biopic Steve Jobs, and the Netflix original science fiction series Sense8.