Seattle’s second airport, located north of the city at Everett, wants you to know they are as Seattle as the city’s main airport, located south of the city at SeaTac. That’s behind its brand-new name: Seattle Paine Field International Airport.
The airport’s location means that many travelers living north of the city don’t have to make a long trip through the city to SeaTac, but so far the airport which opened to commercial traffic just before the pandemic, hasn’t been as busy as its operators, Snohomish County and Propeller Airports, have hoped, with Alaska Airlines the only mainline carrier using the field.
Originally, United also offered service to a number of western destinations from Paine Field, but closed the operation during the pandemic. Alaska now serves ten destinations from the field and plans more, perhaps including service to Canada that would justify the ‘International.’
Despite the limited scheduled service, the field is quite busy with another kind of activity: planes that leave but never return. Boeing’s Everett Delivery Center, where customers pick up their new wide-body airliners is across the field from the passenger terminal.
