NO TO COMMERCIAL AIR TRAFFIC
AT PAINE FIELD

Summary: Commercial air traffic at Paine Field violates promises made to residents, will reduce property values, and will cost the county a lot of money in reduced property taxes. It is not necessary because once light rail is completed to Paine Field and Everett, it will be easy to get to SeaTac.

Once commercial flights begin Paine Field will have no freedom to prohibit additional airlines from using Paine Field. If this idea of having commercial air service at Paine Field is not nipped in the but right now, we are going to end up in 20 years with a Paine Field that has more flights than SeaTac.

Seattle Times supports a mega airport at Paine Field.

See my letter to the Times.

Paine Field not a logical choice for expansion

Originally published September 21, 2015 at 5:26 pm

By Letters editor

Promises were made that Paine Field wouldn’t expand, so miles of high-value homes were built under the its flight path [“To accommodate region’s growth, Paine Field should be part of the flight plan”, Opinion, Sept. 20]. A big passenger airport would lower property values and property-tax revenues. It would tie up land that would be better used for aircraft-related industries and high-paying jobs. Instead, we would have hotels, parking lots, strip joints and low-paying jobs.

Joint Base Lewis-McChord would be a much better choice. It has almost unlimited room for expansion. It has no built-up urban areas around it. It could serve the population to the north via Link light rail, which could be extended south from Tacoma. There are already many joint-use military-civilian airports.

To those who want an airport in Everett just so they would not have to drive through Seattle traffic to get to Sea-Tac, my advice is this: Take a freeway bus from the nearest transit center to Seattle and transfer to Link Light Rail for a quick ride to SeaTac.

James Robert Deal, Lynnwood

Paine Field Flight Path – Click to Enlarge

Link Light Rail should be extended all the way to Paine Field and to Everett.

If Link is extended to Paine Field and on to Everett, there is no reason for Paine Field to take on commercial passenger service. That is because once a person gets on Link, he or she is almost at SeaTac. There is no need to drive to SeaTac and pay for parking.

Until Link is finished, just get someone to drive you to a Transit Center or take a flex van to a Transit Center. Then take the freeway buses to downtown Seattle and make an easy transfer in the Subway to Link Light Rail. And leave the car at home.

Much of the (bad) reasoning which favors commercial air service at Paine Field is that people hate driving through Seattle traffic to get to SeaTac. This is irrational reasoning. Take a freeway bus to Seattle, and transfer easily to Link Light Rail. If we had a flex van system, such a trip would be even easier.

Seatac is running out of room to expand. It is built on a relatively small footprint and cannot add more terminals and runways. Is Paine Field going to be the replacement?

Joint Base Lewis-McCord would be a much better choice than Paine Field. It has numerous runways already. It has almost limitless room for expansion. It has no built up urban areas around it. It could serve the population to the north via Link Light Rail, which could be extended another nine south from Tacoma.There are many joint-use military-civilian airports.