Paine Field may be studied for commercial flights

Published 7:37 am Friday, February 29, 2008

A Mill Creek legislator wants the state to pay $100,000 to study the feasibility of commercial air service at Snohomish County’s Paine Field airport.

Snohomish County Executive Aaron Reardon opposes the proposed legislation, saying it would amount to an underfunded mandate from Olympia.

“We don’t need the state to tell us what to do,” said Reardon, a Democrat.

But Snohomish County Council Chairman Gary Nelson, a Republican, says the study is worthwhile.

“We have an interest in knowing ourselves what are the possibilities of Paine Field’s attractiveness,” Nelson said.

On Friday, Jan. 23, state Sen. Dave Schmidt, a Republican who represents the 44th Legislative District in south Snohomish County, introduced Senate Bill 6563, which would allocate $100,000 in state funds to a feasibility study for a proposed $20 million passenger terminal that would allow scheduled air service at Paine Field.

Having air service at Paine Field would make “a world of difference for those of us who live north of Seattle. The worst part of my trip is getting to the airport,” Schmidt said of Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.

Regularly scheduled air service would provide an economic boon to Snohomish County, he said. Air service would draw restaurants, hotels, support services and new entertainment facilities to the Paine Field area.

It also would draw tourists north from Seattle, Schmidt said. “When you look at the big picture, you can’t help but get excited.”

Reardon, however, is not so thrilled about Schmidt’s proposal. A broader study of the economic development potential of Paine Field is already in the works, he said.

It is being sponsored by the airport and the Snohomish County Economic Development Council – a public-private consortium – and is taking a more coordinated approach to studying the future of Paine Field and whether there’s enough market demand to attract an airline.

Secondly, Reardon said, $100,000 “is simply not enough money” to cover the study.

There’s also the touchy issue of aircraft noise affecting people who live around the airport, particularly in Mukilteo.

Operations at Paine Field now are regulated by an agreement reached in 1979. Adding scheduled air service would go beyond that agreement, Reardon said, but Schmidt’s proposal doesn’t incorporate any public process to address that.

Airplanes are far quieter than they were then, so maybe air service wouldn’t be as disruptive, Reardon said.

But “the community should have a stake,” he said. “With adequate data and public meetings, the community may change its mind.”

Before anything happens at Paine Field, Nelson said, he wants to see strong indications that the county would benefit from the money it would cost to build an airline terminal.

“I’m not about, as a council member, to invest $20 million in an airport terminal for passengers and then see only a few people use it,” he said.

If the state wants to invest money in a second airport study, Nelson said he would take it. “You bet,” he said. “Sure.”

The Economic Development Council’s chief executive, Deborah Knutson, said the group’s joint study with the airport has not yet started. “It would be helpful to have some additional funds,” she said.

Schmidt said that under his plan, the county would get to decide what kind of airline service it wants. But he believes Paine Field would be ideal for a regional commuter airline, perhaps one that provides jet service to all of the West Coast.

Paine Field represents “a perfect setup,” Schmidt said. It would give airlines access to a market of more than 1 million people who now must fight through traffic to catch a plane at Sea-Tac.

“This is going to be the wave of the future,” he said. “The future of airline traffic is in the smaller planes that are going point-to-point.”

Bryan Corliss is a reporter with The Herald in Everett.