EVERETT — Soaring attendance at the Future of Flight this year is giving a lift to the aviation center and to Snohomish County’s Paine Field.
The Future of Flight has been drawing about 13 percent more visitors compared with 2010, despite the crummy economy. Those numbers put it on track to record more than 200,000 visits for the first year since opening in late 2005. The attendance boost also eases some concerns about the county airport’s finances, which help support the center.
“Early in the year, I thought, ‘Is this an anomaly?’ But it really kept building,” said Barry Smith, the flight center’s director.
Increased attendance isn’t the only potential sunny spot at the Future of Flight. A new building addition costing nearly $1 million should be ready by Thanksgiving and is expected to make the facility more appealing to rent out for catered events, especially jet-delivery ceremonies. That could increase a valuable revenue stream.
The uptick in ticket sales, in Smith’s opinion, owes to three recent changes: new Future of Flight signs on I-5, more online ticket sales and marketing efforts. In early July, attendance saw a temporary surge when 12,000 members of the Lions Club International gathered for their Seattle convention, with many making the trip up to Future of Flight.
The new ticketing system in place since April gives visitors a $2 discount from the full $20 price of admission for buying online, versus showing up in person. That allows the center to adjust staffing to handle large crowds. Admission includes the Boeing Tour.
The center’s marketing director, Sandy Ward, deserves credit for encouraging more bus tours, particularly those carrying European and Asian tourists, Smith said.
The nonprofit Future of Flight Foundation operates the exhibits and handles fundraising. The county owns the building, which requires annual debt payments of about $1.8 million. The airport in recent years has been responsible for $800,000 to $1 million of that, airport director Dave Waggoner said. Money to cover the debt also comes from Future of Flight operations, including tickets and sales at a gift shop, as well as sales tax collected through a public facilities district.
The recent attendance numbers have encouraged Waggoner.
“I think this year is going to be their best year yet,” he said.
That should help take some of the debt burden off the airport’s shoulders, though Waggoner said it’s hard to say how much at this point. The situation could improve even more, he said, through work to increase event rentals at the Future of Flight or sales at the center’s gift shop.
“I think the finances at the Future of Flight and the finances at the airport have both improved,” Waggoner said. “We still have to work very hard, we are controlling our costs every day.”
Councilman Brian Sullivan seconded those thoughts, saying he’s no longer worried about the Future of Flight being a drag on airport finances anytime soon.
Some of the credit for the improving financial picture owes to an operating agreement the county made with the Future of Flight Foundation in late 2009, Sullivan said. Another factor was refinancing bonds that include airport projects.
The county hopes to bolster its event rental business with coming upgrades. The Future of Flight building is one of the few such venues in the United States right on a runway. Even Boeing’s largest jets can pull close enough to give people inside the building a good look.
The county last week approved a $962,950 bid from Roosendaal-Honcoop Construction, of Bellingham, to add another 2,000-plus square feet. That space, among other features, will provide more convenient restrooms that patrons in the gallery can use without getting on an elevator to find one. There’s also a multipurpose room with an area for caterers to set up separately, at a respectable distance from diners.
“We’re trying to provide the best rental facility for the market,” Waggoner said.
The work comes on top of about $400,000 spent to install new glass doors in the gallery.
Only about one-third of Future of Flight visitors are from Washington state, said Ward, the marketing director. A quarter hail from other countries, the biggest share from Canada followed by Japan, China, Australia, Germany and the United Kingdom.
Through July, Future of Flight welcomed 109,251 visitors for the year. That puts it on pace to break last year’s total of 187,000.
The center also expects to mark a milestone Aug. 12 by welcoming its millionth visitor.
Noah Haglund: 425-339-3465; nhaglund@heraldnet.com.
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