Commercial air service coming to FHC/HFF/Boeing tour

[The Inspector]

Predicated on final aproval from the Snohomish County Council, the FAA has finally approved commercial air service to KPAE by ALLEGIANT AIR initially from LAS citing no material effect on noise or air quality after many years of legalistic gymnastics by opponents and a long, long delay in the promised answer from the FAA.

A local homeowners group pledges to continue to tear it's coats and howl 'OH! THE HUMANITY!'
So, hopefuly in the near future you could fly into KPAE see the FHC,MoF Restortation Center, do the Boeing factory tour (THE biggest tourist attraction in Snohomish County and Washington State), and the HFF and catch an outbound flight the next morning after sampling our local seafood restaurants.

[JohnB]

Why Vegas?
A less expensive way for a small airline to service the Seattle area?

[CAPFlyer]

Allegiant is based in Vegas and has always made its mark servicing the Vegas tourism industry by bringing people in from areas like that. They also service Fort Collins/Loveland instead of Denver International for the same reason, it's closer to their target "market".

[The Inspector]

Also, initially they are only approved for 4 flights a week. They use a very 'toe-in-the water' approach and did the same when they started operating from KBLI, once KBLI started making money, they gradually expanded service to their entire route structure and I believe they operate 757's from KBLI to Hawai'i in competetion with ALASKA.

Initially HORIZON wanted to operate from KPAE too, but backed away and they would have (and, still might) offer access from California gates like LGB to here and lots of dash 8's every day.

It's a victory for everyone in North Puget Sound country who dreads a two+ hour I-5 demo derby through Seattle to get to SEATAC.

[JohnB]

... it's closer to their target "market".

To get people from the Native American casinos off of I-5 north of Seattle to the casinos of Vegas?

[bdk]

The muckelshoots had a good buffet, why go to Vegas?

If I could make a day trip up there and back from LGB I certainly would.

[The Inspector]

The muckelshoots had a good buffet, why go to Vegas?

If I could make a day trip up there and back from LGB I certainly would.

Plus the outlet mall @ Quliceda is doubling in size to humogous and it's 6 miles North of Everett on I-5 and has a very nice 12 story hotel attached to the casino and several first class restaurants and open air concerts featuring big name acts all Summer.

[maxum96]

Allegiant is based in Vegas and has always made its mark servicing the Vegas tourism industry by bringing people in from areas like that. They also service Fort Collins/Loveland instead of Denver International for the same reason, it's closer to their target "market".

They ended service to Ft. Collins about a month ago. Nice cheap flights to Vegas without having to go down to Denver International.

[StudeDave]

I believe they operate 757's from KBLI to Hawai'i in competetion with ALASKA.

Indeed they do fly the 757s into BLI. Up until last week they were only going to Vegas and back,
but now they are going out to two different cities in Hawai'i on different days of the week.
I think Alaska is (now) flying their 737s to the same two cities.
This past Summer Frontier even gave BLI a go with their once a day flight from/to Denver.

It's an odd sight to see all those commercial jets at lil ol' BLI...

[The Inspector]

I believe they operate 757's from KBLI to Hawai'i in competetion with ALASKA.

Indeed they do fly the 757s into BLI. Up until last week they were only going to Vegas and back,
but now they are going out to two different cities in Hawai'i on different days of the week.
I think Alaska is (now) flying their 737s to the same two cities.
This past Summer Frontier even gave BLI a go with their once a day flight from/to Denver.

It's an odd sight to see all those commercial jets at lil ol' BLI...

They're ex British registered and are -204's

[The Inspector]

Snohomish County is starting a 6 month E.I.S. prior to beginning commercial flights to/from KPAE. The city of Mukilteo that has long opposed commercial flights promises to literally make a Federal Case out of it.
And now it appears that ALASKA/HORIZON may be back in the game as they said they would only consider ops @ KPAE if another carrier started operating there. HORIZON could offer up to 140 Dash 8 flights a week to/from their route system as well as connecting with other ALASKA flights at other gateways.

[Sasquatch]

I'll simply offer another point of view...

http://socnw.org/

--Tom

[StudeDave]

You'd think the least they could do is find a picture that is ACTUALLY of Lindbergh Field...


I must not 'get it'.
How do they think a few extra flights are gonna push Boeing out?

[The Inspector]

You'd think the least they could do is find a picture that is ACTUALLY of Lindbergh Field...


I must not 'get it'.
How do they think a few extra flights are gonna push Boeing out?

It's their dreamt up 'reason', Boeing has already said publicly on numerous occasions that commercial operations @ KPAE wouldn't bother or upset them in any way since they don't have a set, to the minute schedule for departing deliveries or B-1's (company test flights).
This guy Hauth has been pulling his hair and tearing his clothes, and threatening to bite people for 15 years over this, and I suspect that 'Squatch must be a family friend or relative since he lists his location as Seattle and not Mukilteo. Until I retired, I lived within 5 minutes or three traffic lights from PAINE Field for 26 years including, for a while, directly under 31 L/R and less than 2 miles from the threshold.
Basically it's 'Save Our Communities' attempt to jump out of the hedge wearing a sheet and trying to scare the kids again, Hallowe'en was almost two months ago.

[Sasquatch]

You'd think the least they could do is find a picture that is ACTUALLY of Lindbergh Field...

How do they think a few extra flights are gonna push Boeing out?

and I suspect that 'Squatch must be a family friend or relative since he lists his location as Seattle and not Mukilteo.

Despite the Inspector's vivid imagination, I'm not related to anyone in SOC, in any way.

Basically, my interest is in the county and FAA following the letter of the law. The FAA declared "no impacts", so no EIS required. You're all grown adults; you tell me...do airliners have an effect on noise, pollution, parking, surrounding roads and infrastructure (water, sewer increases due to increased human presence due to airline terminals), etc.? If you think "yes", then you'd have to agree the airlines bear a responsibility to mitigate those impacts. The FAA, by ruling "no impacts", is saying that airline presence has absolutely no impact, so all costs born by mitigation must be borne by local governments and local taxpayers. Maybe I'm just stupid, but I believe this is just another abdication of fiscal responsibility by the federal government and big business, but that's just me. I'm not anti-business nor anti-airline; I just believe a business--airline or otherwise--that wishes to start up in any area should bear the costs of doing so without further taxing the local taxpayers, that's all. And the reason Boeing takes a "no opinion" stance on this issue is that it involves its customers, so they always take that opinion to avoid the perception of favoritism, etc. But a good example of how airline activity might negatively impact Boeing can be seen all over the field. As of my last count during the summer, Boeing had in excess of 65 airplanes tied-down in every nook and cranny of the airport--mostly 787s awaiting change incorporation activities. Most of the surrounding taxiways and apron areas were--and to a large degree, still are--full of Boeing commercial aircraft awaiting rework before they can fly away. Had there been robust airline activity at the airport, this space would not have been available to Boeing, so they would have been forced to fly the birds to other areas for storage, incurring increased costs to Boeing--who have already been publicizing the fact that they believe Washington is costing them too much to do business here, and have been floating ideas of moving the business elsewhere. While Allegiant Air intends to start with only a few flights, as the Inspector has mentioned above in regards to to their activities at Bellingham Airport, this is only their "foot in the door", and their intent is to grow the buisiness...with the subsequent costs also borne by the local governments. When their business--and the other airlines that are sure to follow do the same--it definitely WILL have an impact on Boeing's operations and push the airport farther from a high tech and warbird and general aviation base towards a commercial airline airport; something nobody in this area wants except the developers who profit from the airlines. Naturally--like the Inspector--they do not live here, yet have plenty of opinions on how things should happen here. For more info, try these links and see for yourself:

http://www.bizjournals.com/seattle/morn ... not-a.html

http://www.painefield.com/ea/Appendix/A ... tter_W.pdf

http://www.heraldnet.com/article/201205 ... /705299947

http://kpbj.com/business_daily/2012-12- ... ne_flights

http://www.bizjournals.com/seattle/news ... rcial.html