3rd runway opens at Sea-Tac with takeoff
SEATAC, Wash. -- After 16 years of legal battles, site preparation and construction, the Port of Seattle opened the new third runway at Sea-Tac Airport on Thursday afternoon.
It makes room for more take-offs and landings at the airport and improves safety for planes landing in cloudy weather.
The runway is 8,500 feet long, 150 feet wide and 17 inches thick. To build it, the Port of Seattle had to overcome opposition from airport neighbors, fill in a large area and create wetlands near Auburn as environmental compensation.
Sea-Tac passengers will pay off construction bonds for the new runway with a $4.50 fee on each ticket.
The first plane to use the new Sea-Tac runway was an Alaska Airlines flight that departed for Denver at 4 p.m.
Sea-Tac is one of three major airports opening new runways Thursday, and Sea-Tac's is the most expensive, at more than $1 billion. A new runway at Chicago's O'Hare cost $450 million, and a new runway at Washington-Dulles cost $350 million.
Industrywide alarm over a projected 10 percent drop in domestic flights this winter from last - and data showing they already fell 6 percent in August - hasn't stopped airport officials in all three cities from heralding the new capacity as crucial to alleviating congestion and delays, especially in the long term.
Others call new runways a positive step but no cure-all for chronic delays.
"The greater challenge will be to do something about modernizing air space so that those improvements in efficiency on the ground is matched in the air," said David Castelveter, a spokesman for the Air Transport Association, which represents U.S. carriers.
The ATA backs a Federal Aviation Administration push for a new satellite-based network that would let planes fly using GPS, instead of radar, though funding and implementation issues have hampered the $30 billion project.
The FAA acknowledges new runways aren't the sole answer, noting in a 2007 report that just two major U.S. airports have opened in the past 40 years - Dallas-Fort Worth and Denver International - and that as many as four need to be built in the next two to three decades.
But with U.S. Transportation Secretary Mary Peters set to join revelers at all three locations Thursday, federal aviation officials are using the runway openings as a chance to celebrate in the face of an otherwise bleak picture for the air travel industry.
Runways typically take more than 10 years to plan, approve, then build; and despite current downturns, air travel is still expected to boom from the around 700 million air travelers in 2007 to more than 1 billion a year during the next decade.
While increased capacity was a factor in the push for a new runway at Sea-Tac, weather-induced disruptions were a prime motivator for building the new landing strip.
Detractors have criticized the Sea-Tac runway's billion-dollar price tag, which is five times initial estimates. But defenders say it will more than pay for itself in decades to come, including by reducing delays.
It makes room for more take-offs and landings at the airport and improves safety for planes landing in cloudy weather.
The runway is 8,500 feet long, 150 feet wide and 17 inches thick. To build it, the Port of Seattle had to overcome opposition from airport neighbors, fill in a large area and create wetlands near Auburn as environmental compensation.
Sea-Tac passengers will pay off construction bonds for the new runway with a $4.50 fee on each ticket.
The first plane to use the new Sea-Tac runway was an Alaska Airlines flight that departed for Denver at 4 p.m.
Sea-Tac is one of three major airports opening new runways Thursday, and Sea-Tac's is the most expensive, at more than $1 billion. A new runway at Chicago's O'Hare cost $450 million, and a new runway at Washington-Dulles cost $350 million.
Industrywide alarm over a projected 10 percent drop in domestic flights this winter from last - and data showing they already fell 6 percent in August - hasn't stopped airport officials in all three cities from heralding the new capacity as crucial to alleviating congestion and delays, especially in the long term.
Others call new runways a positive step but no cure-all for chronic delays.
"The greater challenge will be to do something about modernizing air space so that those improvements in efficiency on the ground is matched in the air," said David Castelveter, a spokesman for the Air Transport Association, which represents U.S. carriers.
The ATA backs a Federal Aviation Administration push for a new satellite-based network that would let planes fly using GPS, instead of radar, though funding and implementation issues have hampered the $30 billion project.
The FAA acknowledges new runways aren't the sole answer, noting in a 2007 report that just two major U.S. airports have opened in the past 40 years - Dallas-Fort Worth and Denver International - and that as many as four need to be built in the next two to three decades.
But with U.S. Transportation Secretary Mary Peters set to join revelers at all three locations Thursday, federal aviation officials are using the runway openings as a chance to celebrate in the face of an otherwise bleak picture for the air travel industry.
Runways typically take more than 10 years to plan, approve, then build; and despite current downturns, air travel is still expected to boom from the around 700 million air travelers in 2007 to more than 1 billion a year during the next decade.
While increased capacity was a factor in the push for a new runway at Sea-Tac, weather-induced disruptions were a prime motivator for building the new landing strip.
Detractors have criticized the Sea-Tac runway's billion-dollar price tag, which is five times initial estimates. But defenders say it will more than pay for itself in decades to come, including by reducing delays.