Seattle’s second airport to close until August
The Seattle area’s second airport is taking a 10-week pause.
Paine Field Airport will suspend all passenger services from May 22 to July 31, due to the huge drop-off in travel demand.
However the airport will not stay completely idle.
It is using the lull in passenger traffic to conduct ramp maintenance and repairs.
"We are going to use this temporary disruption to the advantage of Paine Field and our airline partners by completing necessary infrastructure improvements faster than we would have been able to while the terminal was open," said Brett Smith, CEO of operator Propeller Airports.
"The travel industry has never faced an economic challenge of this magnitude."
The work was initially scheduled in phases from June through September.
The airport shutdown affects Alaska Airlines and United Airlines and both have been informed.
Alaska will re-accommodate passengers on flights out of its nearby Sea-Tac hub.
Alaska Airlines has reduced service at Paine Field to currently just one departure a day to Phoenix, AZ.
"Because much of the work is safety related and otherwise highly impactful to the operation, we can appreciate why they would want to do this now, at a time when traffic is down and that impact is greatly reduced," said Matthew Shelby, Alaska Air’s managing director of airport real estate.
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