Passenger service at Paine?

There's a lot of interest in what happens at Paine Field, & RCAA tries to follow developments there. People affected by noise related to Sea-Tac Airport have often considered that there might be significant relief if some flights were shifted up to Paine Field. Some have argued that it would be wise, good planning, to have passenger facilities in place at Paine as a back-up against the time when some disaster or another will close Sea-Tac. Some want service out of Paine as a good-in-itself, without regard to Sea-Tac -- there being quite a number of air travellers living & working in places north of downtown Seattle, places closer in distance & travel time to Paine than to Sea-Tac. People close to Paine Field fear that once any commercial service is established the floodgates will open, & all sorts of undesireable (noisy) aircraft will be flying over them 24 hours a day.

So the reader will understand why RCAA has been trying to understand the current proposals for bringing commercial passenger service to Paine.

While a bulky environmental document has been issued, the authorities in Snohomish County have been unable to lay their hands on the actual proposals under consideration (we began asking back in very early January). So we asked the regional office of the FAA for what documentation they might have. This afternoon, they disgorged 848 pages of documentation.

We are just dipping into this four-inch pile of paper, but already we are seeing interesting undercurrents in the whole decision-making process at Paine. Who else would like to peruse 848 pages of documentation.

(We have also received various documents from Snohomish County, in dribs & drabs, as the result of asking & asking & asking. Perhaps that's a subject for another post at another time. Anyone else want to look through the Snohomish County paperwork? Give a call or e-mail.)

II-113-PAE