United Airlines has announced that it, too, will fly scheduled service from Seattle’s Paine Field, set to be the city’s second commercial airport. Alaska Airlines previously announced plans to fly from Paine starting in Fall 2018, when a new terminal, now being built, opens.
Pending government approval, United will start flying six times a day, with flights split between its hubs in Denver and San Francisco. Alaska’s flights, to start around the same time, will include both regional and more distant destinations, with details to be announced later.
The field, officially Snohomish County Airport, is already a busy flight center even without commercial service. Aside from some general aviation users, the field is the home of Boeing’s huge Everett assembly plant, where it builds its twin-aisle planes and flies them off to its customers.
Paine Field is about 25 miles north of Seattle’s center, and 40+ miles north of SeaTac Airport, which has become the nation’s 6th busiest, and is not easy to reach from the growing areas north of the city. Alaska’s statement claims that at present, it takes longer to drive from Everett to SeaTac than to fly from SeaTac to Portland, OR.
Photo: Paine Field terminal as it will appear (Propeller Airports)
