Published February 2005

Paine Field’s potential
Survey shows strong business community
support for air carrier service

By John Wolcott
SCBJ Editor

Despite the decline in Boeing’s work force in recent years, jobs at Boeing, Goodrich’s Aviation Services Division and many smaller aerospace businesses still account for 25 percent of Snohomish County’s employment and 40 percent of the county’s wages, said Deborah Knutson, president of the Snohomish County Economic Development Council.

In a joint presentation in January to the South Snohomish County Chamber of Commerce, Knutson and Snohomish County Airport Director Dave Waggoner said support for the aerospace industry must continue at the same time as the county pursues new opportunities in life sciences employment.

Part of maintaining — and growing — a strong aviation industry that helps to power the economy includes exploring the full potential of such well-established resources as Paine Field, already home to scores of businesses and hundreds of jobs, not counting the thousands at the Boeing plant north of the airfield.

A recent Snohomish County study of air travel demographics for county residents and a survey of county residents showed strong business community support for adding air carrier service at Paine Field. As part of the county’s goal of publicizing the survey results, Waggoner’s presentation was one of several he has planned.

“This airport is one of the few where Cessna 150s and 747s operate together,” Waggoner said, noting that the general aviation facility also provides a base for flights by Boeing’s 767 and 777 airliners, airliners arriving and departing from Goodrich’s giant repair and modification center, corporate jets and a variety of visiting aircraft. In a few years, Boeing’s 7E7 airliner will be joining the flying activity at the airport.

He said there are 1.1 million people living in the study’s “catchment area” who may prefer to use scheduled regional air carrier flights from Paine Field to other West Coast destinations rather than enduring I-5 traffic jams and boarding delays at Sea-Tac’s terminal. That figure is about 28 percent of the people in the Sea-Tac catchment area.

“We need to respect the (county’s) 1978 mediated agreement (with local communities) to limit development of air service at Paine Field,” Waggoner said. “But we also need to recognize that this is a land grant airport that needs to be protected for its role as an aviation facility.”

Referring to some local residents’ concerns about increased aircraft noise, Waggoner said the noise problems of 25 years ago have been greatly alleviated by quieter aircraft engines.

The noise “footprint” for aircraft taking off from the field has shrunk over those years from 50 square miles for a tri-jet 727 to 1.3 square miles for a much quieter twin-engine 737. In 1990, the pattern stretched from north Seattle to Mukilteo. Today’s 737 has a pattern small enough to keep high-level noise within the boundaries of the airport, he said.

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