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BUSINESS JOURNAL.
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Published March 2003
County’s
‘crown jewel’
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| Photo courtesy
of Snohomish County Airport “We like to call Paine Field not only ‘the airport of choice’ but also ‘the economic crown jewel for north Puget Sound’ because that’s what we are,” said Dave Waggoner, director of the airport, which is located just south of Boeing’s Everett production facility. |
Home to more than 50 companies, county’s airport operates like a successful business itself
By
John Wolcott
SCBJ Editor
There are more than 500 private and corporate aircraft at Paine Field — officially known as the Snohomish County Airport — but it’s not just a general aviation facility.
Boeing builds its 747, 767 and 777 airliners just north of the field and maintains paint hangars and a flight line for ready-to-flight-test-and-deliver aircraft at the north end of the airfield, but the airport isn’t just a facility dedicated to Boeing.
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Paine
Field’s Everett is well known as a “Navy town,” home to Naval Station Everett, homeport for the giant aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln and a half-dozen frigates and destroyers in its battle group. Far fewer people today know that Everett has historically been an “Air Force” town, when Paine Field was home to the Army Air Corps from 1941 to 1946, home base for fighter planes protecting the Navy’s Bremerton Shipyard and Seattle’s Boeing plant, where B-17 and B-29 bombers were being built for World War II needs. By 1946, Paine Field — aka the Snohomish County Airport — was back under county supervision, but only for a short time. As the Korean War developed and the Cold War with Russia intensified in the early 1950s, Paine Field became the headquarters of the 57th Fighter Group, equipped with F-102 delta-winged fighters. As part of the USAF’s Air Defense Command, Paine Field continued an air defense role until 1966, a pivotal year in which the last of the military personnel left and the first stages of the development of Boeing’s new 747 airliner assembly plant north of Paine Field began. |
There are more than 50 businesses at Paine Field — Boeing, Goodrich Corp.’s Aerospace Services Division and numerous smaller flying, commercial and service enterprises — but that doesn’t mean Paine Field is simply a business and industrial park. There’s a new $8 million, 192-foot-tall Federal Aviation Administration control tower due to open later this year, providing vastly improved visibility over the shorter tower that has been in use for years, but Paine Field is much more than just an FAA facility.
Everett Community College operates its Aviation Maintenance Technical School at Paine Field to train future aviation technicians, and Seattle’s Museum of Flight operates a historic aircraft restoration center at the field, but Paine Field is much more than just an educational and historical center.
In fact, Paine Field fills all of those roles and many others, making it one of the county’s most important power centers, both for sustaining and developing a strong economy.
“We like to call Paine Field not only ‘the airport of choice’ but also ‘the economic crown jewel for north Puget Sound’ because that’s what we are,” said a smiling Dave Waggoner, the airport’s director for the past 11 years. Assisted by deputy directors Bill Dolan and Bill Lewallen and the rest of the 50 people on the staff, Waggoner has polished that jewel into a gleaming gem that continues to attract pilots, tenants and awards.
The South Snohomish County Chamber of Commerce, for instance, recently gave its 2002 Business Excellence award to the Snohomish County Airport crew for its superior performance in operating and developing the airfield as a multi-faceted business enterprise, not simply an aviation hub.
Perhaps an unusual honor for a government agency, the airport qualifies easily because it is run like a business, using a stand-alone “enterprise fund” that’s separate from other county funds. Waggoner takes pride in telling people that “as an enterprise fund, the airport does not receive any county or state taxes.”
“The airport is run like a business and must fund operations and capital projects from airport revenues and grants,” he said. “Bonds for airport projects are repaid from airport operational revenue. The airport does generate about $500,000 in leasehold excise taxes from tenants, tax dollars that go to general funds of the state and county.”
The 20-year airport master plan adopted in 1995 was updated in December by the Snohomish County Council to extend it into 2021. The new plan envisions approximately $250 million in capital improvements to the airfield in coming years and the possibility of inaugurating scheduled “commuter” airline service, using turboprop or regional jet aircraft carrying up to 70 passengers (see related story).
One of the airfield’s expansion projects is already under way, the building of 70 new hangars, multi-bay shelters designed for small and midsize general aviation aircraft, providing more flexibility in leasing for different sized aircraft and better facilities for the airport’s customers.
Perhaps the most innovative program of all currently under way is preparing to build a National Flight Interpretive Center (NFIC) at Paine Field, operated by Seattle’s Museum of Flight. When it opens in 2004 it will also lease space to the new Boeing Tour Center that shows off the Everett Boeing plant to more than 100,000 visitors each year (see related story), providing a boost for area tourism, too.
“We have also maintained the military housing that was used when the Air Force was at Paine Field in the ’50s and ’60s. It’s 90 percent occupied now, operated by the Snohomish County Housing Authority,” Waggoner said.
One recent arrival at the airport is AT&T Wireless, which operates its corporate planes from the same hangar once used by GTE Northwest. Waggoner said the AT&T staff and pilots “are so happy to be here compared to operating out of Boeing Field and the congestion in Seattle.”
“That’s another reason we’re the airport of choice. The other major airports are at full capacity and have no capacity for additional services or facilities,” Waggoner said.
All of Paine Field’s operations, growth plans and new ventures are subject to the same business standards. If they can’t cover expenses with revenues, they don’t happen, Waggoner said.
The airport staff’s innovative thinking has also helped the entire county budget through such ideas as providing airport land for new offices for the Snohomish County Medical Examiner and airport land for the Airport Road Transfer Station, now under construction for the county’s waste management department. Siting each of those facilities off the airport site would have been much more expensive and time-consuming, he said.
Also, the airport generates about $500,000 a year through lease excise taxes that go directly into state and county coffers, Waggoner said.
As for Boeing’s plans to build the new 7E7 airliner (see related story), Waggoner said he believes Paine Field is an ideal choice.
“This airport is 120 percent ready for the next Boeing airplane,” Waggoner said. “The factory is here, the runways are here, the new tower is here. But to get it, we’re all going to have to work together in this state to solve problems that are troubling our residents and business community, such as traffic, infrastructure and tax issues that are needed to make Washington state more competitive for attracting business investment.”
For more information on Paine Field, contact Waggoner at 425-353-2110, Ext. 2224, or send e-mail to dave.waggoner@co.snohomish.wa.us.
Related: Tourists expected to flock to flight center
© The Daily Herald Co., Everett, WA
