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Opinion: Commercial Flights Should Commence at Paine Field

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Paine Field already sees aircraft from Southwest, Alaska Airlines and Allegiant coming in for maintenance work. Why not for passengers?

Paine Field already sees aircraft from Southwest, Alaska Airlines and Allegiant coming in for maintenance work. Why not for passengers?

The fight for Seattle to get a second airport up north has been dragging on longer than many have expected. For those of you who do not live in the Seattle area, Allegiant and Horizon Airlines started to look into the possibility of flying out of Paine Field, which is located in Everett, WA. Talking to Horizon, Allegiant, Boeing and the airport recently, they all say there are currently no updates for the addition of commercial flights.

There are a lot of positives about adding commerical flights to Paine Field, but there are a lot of people who are fighting hard to “save our community”. Wait, what?

Since 1992 a group, called Save Our Community, has come together and tried to stop commerical aviation at Paine Field. Their main goal is to preserve, “the quality of life in this primarily residential area of Puget Sound.”

Now, I feel they do have a few good points. If the traffic at Paine Field is increased, this could cause issues for Boeing and possibly make them look to move their main factory to other parts of the country. Of course, no one would want that to happen.

However, I don’t think allowing commercial flights would cause Boeing to leave and there is surely a happy medium that could be reached. Adding commercial flights at Paine Field would create many new jobs in the Everett area with the need for additional hotels, increase in tourism and the hiring of airline workers.

Personally, I think the arguement that the quality of life for everyone around the airport would deteriate is just hogwash. During public forums in the Everett, WA area back in January 2010, many people felt that the Paine Field area would become dirty, filled with porn and crime, forcing people to leave. Many complained that they bought homes around an airport and are upset about the idea of increased flights. For me, many people seemed to be quite selfish about the matter.

I live in the flight path of Paine Field and bought my house fully well knowing that. Sure, I am a bit different since I actually enjoy aircraft flying over my house, but people shouldn’t assume to buy a house around a very large airport and not expect planes to fly over. People have complained that adding MD-80 and Q400 flights would be a huge nuisance, which is odd, since we already have Boeing 747’s and even the Dreamlifter, which are much bigger and louder, flying overhead. Not to mention the Boeing 737s that fly in all the time to get maintenance work done. Would adding a few smaller planes really make our lives that much worse? I feel the possibility of commercial flights coming out of Paine Field should be driven by market demand and not private citizens fearful for the value of their homes.

The Save Our Community website states that people who run Paine Field, “are going all out to declare war against the community by working to bring in air service to Paine Field.” Really? War? If people in the community come together and create a demand for air travel in and out of Paine Field, why shouldn’t airlines meet that demand? No airline is going to start flights to a new destination without expecting to make profit. It is not like airport and airline officials are getting together just to make your life worse. In fact, starting commercial traffic to Paine Field will make more people’s lives better.

Competition is a beautiful thing. If airlines are able to fly out of Paine Field, it will cause competition for Seattle-Tacoma International Airport  down south and for Bellingham International Airport up north. This means that not only will the airlines be competing for your business, but so will the airports.

Yes, some people will have to make some sacrifices, but we have to look at the greater good for our community. Could my house value drop if there is an increase of flights. Sure. Am I willing for that to happen for the greater good of the community — of course. What do you think? Would adding commercial flights at an airport that normally doesn’t have them, but could handle them be a good or bad thing?

 

UPDATED: Boeing 747-8 Intercontinental Blew Tire During Flight Testing

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Boeing 747-8 Intercontinental has tire blow today. Photo by Jeremy Dwyer-Lindgren. Click for larger.

Boeing 747-8 Intercontinental has tire blow today. Photo by Jeremy Dwyer-Lindgren. Click for larger.

Jeremy Dwyer-Lindgren with NYC Aviation was at Boeing Field on Saturday April 2nd, when the first Boeing 747-8 Intercontinental landed and blew one of its tires.

Emergency vehicles surrounded the Boeing 747-8I after the incident, but no other damage seemed evident to Dwyer-Lindgren. Check out NYC Aviation for a larger version of the photo in this blog and a very close up shot of the tires.

Aircraft have blown tires quite often and with the Boeing 747-8I having 18 wheels, there are quite a few back ups.

An update from Boeing:

“The blown tire caused no other damage and there were no injuries.” Doug Alder from Boeing Communications explained. “The airplane was able to taxi under its own power to the stall. We’re replacing the tire and returning the airplane to flight test.”

One Photo to Define Why Seattle Rocks for Aviation

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Check out all the Boeing airplanes behind the Boeing 747-8I at Boeing Field.

Check out all the Boeing airplanes behind the Boeing 747-8I at Boeing Field. Click for larger.

I love living in Seattle and covering the airline business. There is so many aviation related things to do in the Seattle area and there always seems to be something going on. Sometimes I will get a photo that really encapsulates that feeling of Seattle being someplace special and I think this one does just that.

The photo was taken after the Boeing 747-8 Intercontinental landed for the first time at Boeing Field. Although the Boeing 787, 747-8I and 747-8F are built up north in Everett, WA, most are being stored at Boeing Field during flight testing (there is one in San Antonio, TX as well).

During this event, there was sure a lot of eye candy to be seen. Of course, there is the first Boeing 747-8I (hard to miss in her orange livery) and a 747-8F. There are also five Boeing 787 Dreamliners and I see 12 brand spanking new 737s, which will be delivered all around the world.

I know I wouldn’t want to live in any other city.

 

Video: Don’t mess with Texas, If you litter a B-17 will get ya!

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Texas is known for going big or going home. Well, back in 1991, they went big with an anti-littering campaign using low flying, old military aircraft and I think they make their point. This one shows a B-17 sneaking up onto a truck after they litter — a big no no.

Although the commercial is pretty impressive, be sure to check out the behind the scenes footage of the many low approaches it took to get the commercial done. How would you like to have been on that road during filming? Yes please! Talk about some amazing flying.

Thanks to Jeremy for hunting down this one.

Airline Livery of the Week: Air Asia’s Junior Jet Club Livery (Guest Blog)

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Air Asia Airbus A320 with Junior Jet Club livery

Air Asia Airbus A320 with Junior Jet Club livery

Guest post by Yvette Scott:

I’d like to thank David for inviting me back to his blog; I think you will agree with me that David’s coverage of the Boeing 747-800 First Flight has been exceptional, so for someone who is 4850 miles away, the coverage has made me feel like I am there. Credit for finding this livery has to go to Phil (aka @PlansAirports, aka MR @AirlinesAngel), who spotted it during his tour of Indonesia.

This Air Asia A320 is themed for their Air Asia Junior Jet Club, which is aimed at their young frequent flyers and features members of the Jet Crew. Air Asia, to date, has carried over 82 million passengers, and the fleet has grown from 2 to 85 aircraft and I hear that the staff’s favourite aircraft is the Junior Jet Club plane, so if you are travelling around Asia you might be lucky to be onboard this colourful aircraft.