The airport is essential to the region’s companies, tourist industry, logistics and ability to capitalize on our Pacific Rim location. Abundant flights to and from Silicon Valley and San Francisco are important to the tech sector.
http://www.seattletimes.com/business...ed-up-seatac-prepares-for-takeoff/
Sea - Tac can thank Delta for making a hub in Seattle.
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RE: Revved-up Sea-Tac Prepares For Takeoff
If SEA doesn't get it in gear they will be a victim of their own success.
RE: Revved-up Sea-Tac Prepares For Takeoff
Good article...glad it mentioned that AS should not subsidize the expansion of DL.
RE: Revved-up Sea-Tac Prepares For Takeoff
This airport can't even keep the escalators, elevators or bathrooms working. Third world barely describes it at times. Oh, did mention slow TSA lines and overcrowding? They have a long ways to go compared to the competition,
RE: Revved-up Sea-Tac Prepares For Takeoff
Rememeber MKE? Remember the rush to add flights and bursting at the seams?
How's MKE doing today?
Now SEA, is no MKE. It is a bigger city with a good location to connect to Asia. But the cautionary tail with MKE is that the growth of DL and AS is not sustainable long term. The growth will level out. The leveling out will occur when they both decide to peacefully coexist or when one chases away the other. Either way, sooner rather than later, the growth will level out and SEA will settle nicely into a medium-sized city airport with a medium-sized hub (possibly two smaller hubs) around 40-45 million pax per year with normal YOY growth.
Airport planners love to spend your money. They love growth projections that show an airport bursting at the seams to justify a $1 Billion capital plan.
Airport planners are notoriously bad at the reality that I described above.
How's MKE doing today?
Now SEA, is no MKE. It is a bigger city with a good location to connect to Asia. But the cautionary tail with MKE is that the growth of DL and AS is not sustainable long term. The growth will level out. The leveling out will occur when they both decide to peacefully coexist or when one chases away the other. Either way, sooner rather than later, the growth will level out and SEA will settle nicely into a medium-sized city airport with a medium-sized hub (possibly two smaller hubs) around 40-45 million pax per year with normal YOY growth.
Airport planners love to spend your money. They love growth projections that show an airport bursting at the seams to justify a $1 Billion capital plan.
Airport planners are notoriously bad at the reality that I described above.
RE: Revved-up Sea-Tac Prepares For Takeoff
I think SEA will need to expand its number of gates away. Remember, the Seattle-Tacoma area is a major goods transfer point and has the presence of very high-profile corporations like Amazon.com, Boeing, Microsoft, Nordstrom, and Starbucks.
RE: Revved-up Sea-Tac Prepares For Takeoff
| Quoting jfklganyc (Reply 4): Airport planners love to spend your money. They love growth projections that show an airport bursting at the seams to justify a $1 Billion capital plan |
$10 Billion
| Quoting hiflyeras (Reply 2): Good article...glad it mentioned that AS should not subsidize the expansion of DL. |
That has been mentioned before but yet to be presented that way in anything official.
There was not anything mentioned in that article as far as the airport is concerned that I have not experienced at Sea-Tac.
The signage is bad no matter what language you speak. I made a multitude of trips through Sea-Tac. The second one through I just stopped for a few minutes and got the lay of the land so to speak so I was not reliant on non existing/ambiguous signage.
| Quoting BravoOne (Reply 3): This airport can't even keep the escalators, elevators or bathrooms working. Third world barely describes it at times. Oh, did mention slow TSA lines and overcrowding? They have a long ways to go compared to the competition |
Sea-Tac may have problems getting this through with the multitudes of massive failures and cost over runs relating to the Big Bertha tunnel project.
Okie
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RE: Revved-up Sea-Tac Prepares For Takeoff
| Quoting RayChuang (Reply 5): I think SEA will need to expand its number of gates away. Remember, the Seattle-Tacoma area is a major goods transfer point and has the presence of very high-profile corporations like Amazon.com, Boeing, Microsoft, Nordstrom, and Starbucks. |
Absolutely. They need to add gates to keep up with the current level of traffic. Even if passenger numbers don't rise at all over the next decade. I have landed at the airport a number of times over the the last year the the welcome of "we will need to wait for our gate".
Also, while Alaska is right that they shouldn't be unfairly saddled with undue burden for expanding the international gates, they also benefit immensely from their international partners and the connection traffic they get from those. Those partners will also provide their FF base with viable alternatives to Delta once the two part ways.
RE: Revved-up Sea-Tac Prepares For Takeoff
| Quoting RayChuang (Reply 5): Sea-Tac may have problems getting this through with the multitudes of massive failures and cost over runs relating to the Big Bertha tunnel project. |
Not sure what the relationship is between these two other than sucking in millions, if not billions of dollars from the public coffers. It simply amazes me how poorly the airport is maintained.
The South terminal (DL & other Intl airlines) is woefully inadequate at this time. I just have took around at the passengers getting off a flight from just about any Asian, ME or European airport and wondering what their 1st impression must be?
Forget the How Green We Are BS and get back to the business of running a real international airport.
RE: Revved-up Sea-Tac Prepares For Takeoff
| Quoting BravoOne (Reply 8): The South terminal (DL & other Intl airlines) is woefully inadequate at this time. I just have took around at the passengers getting off a flight from just about any Asian, ME or European airport and wondering what their 1st impression must be? Forget the How Green We Are BS and get back to the business of running a real international airport. |
I was just through there last weekend, and it seemed perfectly clean and well-appointed. I arrived into the A gates on Friday, collected my bag, and then took Link into town. On Monday, I arrived by Link and walked back through the garage to the departures level to check my bag and then went through security and took the train to the South Satellite. Nothing I encountered was anything less than perfectly adequate. Although I knew the layout, I had never navigated anything other than the South Satellite before (as a connecting passenger), and I had no trouble finding my way around the airport both arriving and departing.
RE: Revved-up Sea-Tac Prepares For Takeoff
| Quoting BravoOne (Reply 8): Not sure what the relationship is between these two other than sucking in millions, if not billions of dollars from the public coffers. It simply amazes me how poorly the airport is maintained |
I guess I had better clarify.
Sea-Tac seems to seriously fail maintaining what they have now which brings into question how well they will manage the airport project.
Considering the airport project is falling in the shadow of the mismanaged tunnel project it seems to be raising some skepticism.
Okie
[Edited 2016-02-28 09:46:11]
RE: Revved-up Sea-Tac Prepares For Takeoff
| Quoting BravoOne (Reply 3): Oh, did mention slow TSA lines and overcrowding? |
Those are the worst. Thankfully I usually get into the premium line, but on occasion I'm stuck in lines 30 minutes or longer with those airport employees holding those obnoxious "end of the line" signs. Don't put a person there with a sign to tell me about the problem, FIX the problem.... There should be some SLA for the TSA that can be used to hold their feet to the fire.
| Quoting jfklganyc (Reply 4): But the cautionary tail with MKE is that the growth of DL and AS is not sustainable long term. The growth will level out. |
Most of the growth is demand-based, Seattle's population is getting bigger and richer, ergo more flying.
| Quoting Okie (Reply 10): Sea-Tac seems to seriously fail maintaining what they have now which brings into question how well they will manage the airport project. |
They've gotten better since they installed those smiley face "how are the bathroom" thingies. That said, there have been some seriously boneheaded infrastructure projects in this town.
RE: Revved-up Sea-Tac Prepares For Takeoff
Living in this area and someone who has had to travel fairly regularly I am in the camp who support development of a second airport. I have not heard too much lately about the approval for commercial flights out of Paine Field, but I think it would benefit the region a good bit having a north airport that could take off some of the strain.
Bellingham (BLI) has done okay and it's a pretty easy airport to get in and out of, but it's slightly too north to help.
When you look at the projected population growth in the Northwest it seems getting started on a secondary option sooner rather than later should be important for the region to continue to grow economically.
Getting in and out of SEA, combined with long security lines, lots of times takes as long as the flight itself. And that's just doing carry on. I see very long lines for folks who need to check bags at many of the counters.
Bellingham (BLI) has done okay and it's a pretty easy airport to get in and out of, but it's slightly too north to help.
When you look at the projected population growth in the Northwest it seems getting started on a secondary option sooner rather than later should be important for the region to continue to grow economically.
Getting in and out of SEA, combined with long security lines, lots of times takes as long as the flight itself. And that's just doing carry on. I see very long lines for folks who need to check bags at many of the counters.
RE: Revved-up Sea-Tac Prepares For Takeoff
While we might develop PAE into a second Seattle-area airport, here's the problem: the airfield already has a huge amount of landing/takeoff traffic from all the flights of planes from the Boeing assembly line at the airport and also the fact there's no space to put in terminal facilities there.
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RE: Revved-up Sea-Tac Prepares For Takeoff
| Quoting jbrusnak (Reply 12): When you look at the projected population growth in the Northwest it seems getting started on a secondary option sooner rather than later should be important for the region to continue to grow economically. |
Unfortunately it's already "later".
Not sure what they can do in even the mid-term to solve the issue as geographically we are so hemmed in by hills/development/water. There was the idea of building something in Elliott Bay but I can't see that happening. Too bad (joking only) we can't level Mercer Island and make it one gigantic airport. Aside from the maglev to Moses Lake idea, what more is there besides Paine at some distant time?
-Dave
RE: Revved-up Sea-Tac Prepares For Takeoff
Unless flying internationally, people in Eastern Washington should fly out of Spokane. But GEG needs way more non - stop flights out of Spokane though. (Chicago, Dallas, Houston etc)
RE: Revved-up Sea-Tac Prepares For Takeoff
| Quoting Travelmanager (Reply 7): Also, while Alaska is right that they shouldn't be unfairly saddled with undue burden for expanding the international gates, they also benefit immensely from their international partners and the connection traffic they get from those. |
Does AS not carry any int'l pax, from interlining with other interntational carriers or do they just handle domestic pax, therefore they do not get any benefit of the int'l gates?
RE: Revved-up Sea-Tac Prepares For Takeoff
Sea-Tac is our airport we use regularly, and overall the experience is usually pretty good. The problem is lack of space on the non--secure side of things. I'm wondering how the airport can create more space/reorganize things at the security checkpoints?
RE: Revved-up Sea-Tac Prepares For Takeoff
| Quoting RayChuang (Reply 13): While we might develop PAE into a second Seattle-area airport, here's the problem: the airfield already has a huge amount of landing/takeoff traffic from all the flights of planes from the Boeing assembly line at the airport and also the fact there's no space to put in terminal facilities there. |
I think they could fit a long, narrow terminal like SNA along the western side of the airport.
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