EVERETT — Snohomish County Executive Dave Somers signed an executive order Tuesday, aimed at expanding the terminal and increasing air service at Paine Field Airport.
The order creates a much larger vision for an airport that currently offers as few as 10 departures a day to seven cities.
Somers’ order instructs county departments to begin the planning process for expanding roads, runways and other airport improvements in a long-range project estimated in 2024 to cost around $300 million.
Construction on the expanded terminal won’t begin immediately, Somers said at his annual economic address Tuesday at Boeing Future of Flight Aviation Center. But it’s important to start laying the groundwork of preparing for the potential of 4.3 million travelers in 2040.
“This is the time to start moving forward,” he told a crowd of several hundred gathered to hear his speech, which was sponsored by Economic Alliance Snohomish County.
But a key part of the plan — expanding the three-gate passenger terminal for more air service — is beyond his control. Propeller Airports is the owner-operator of the passenger terminal at the Snohomish County-owned airport. Propeller is owned by investment giant BlackRock.
In 2017, the county signed a 50-year lease to Propellerto build and operate the passenger terminal.
The public-private partnership allowed Paine Field to begin commercial air service in March 2019 without the county having to seek funding to build a new terminal. That means Propeller will have the final say if and when an expansion will be done.
Propeller CEO Brett Smith said Tuesday he remained optimistic that a terminal expansion will occur. But he said it can only be done if the airport starts showing vastly improving passenger numbers.
“We have to have the business to do it,” he said in an interview during Tuesday’s event.
Last year, the terminal saw 580,000 passengers depart or arrive on planes, according to Propeller statistics. That’s down from the more than 1 million passengers who used the terminal in its first year of operation in 2019.
The airport had offered as many as 24 departures a day, mostly on Alaska Airlines, in its first year. A second carrier, United Airlines, pulled out during in 2020 during the pandemic.
Smith said the airport was so successful before the pandemic that plans were already in the works for the terminal expansion.
He applauded Somers executive order, saying it creates a platform to go to Phase 2 and begin planning for an expanded terminal and eventual projections of more than 4 million passengers a day. The plan estimates traveler growth will be gradual, reaching 1.5 million passengers by 2030.
However, passenger forecasts made several years ago had projected Paine Field would see more than 900,000 passengers in 2024.
The forecasts, calculated by the Federal Aviation Administration, are included in a master plan approved by the county last year. It assumes that travelers in Snohomish County and Northern King County will ultimately find Paine Field more convenient and that SeaTac has limited growth potential.
Most airports across the U.S. have surpassed their pre-COVID-19 numbers, including SeaTac, but Paine Field has been an exception.
“You have to think about it this way,” Smith said. “SeaTac was designed 50 years ago to handle 30 million passengers, and it’s at 54 million today. It’s been out of design specs since 2010. It can’t grow, I don’t care what they say. This has room to grow.”
SeaTac officials insist that an expansion program will help them meet growing passenger demand at the airport which, unlike Paine Field, continues to see more travelers.
“We’re currently in the middle of the UpGrade SEA capital improvements program, which is $5 billion worth of improvements throughout the terminal, airport spokesperson Kassie McKnight-Xi said in an email.
A SeaTac master plan calls for a new terminal with 19 gates and an automated people mover with three stations to meet an estimated 56 million travelers by 2036.
The next test for Paine Field will come on June 2 when discount carrier Frontier Airlines begins three-times-a-week service to Denver, Phoenix and Las Vegas.
Alaska Airlines flies to Phoenix and Las Vegas, but there has been no service from Paine Field to Denver since United pulled out in 2020.
Smith said Alaska Airlines has chosen to concentrate its resources on SEA, its global hub, where many passenger make connections to other destinations.
An Alaska Airlines spokesperson did not respond to an email seeking comment.
Smith said he continues to talk to other airlines about offering service from Paine Field.
Randy Diamond: 425-339-3097; randy.diamond@heraldnet.com.
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