‘I’m tired of being frustrated at SEA’: SEA Airport prepares for record Labor Day crowds with new tech, upgrades

As the busiest summer for travel in Seattle-Tacoma International Airport’s (SEA) history is coming to a close with fall approaching, Perry Cooper, the senior manager of media relations for the Port of Seattle, discussed how the airport is mitigating some of the major headaches travelers suffer ahead of the last big summer travel surge — the Labor Day holiday.

The record for the busiest day ever at SEA has already been set three times this summer, the airport confirmed. Additionally, eight of the top 10 largest passenger volume days in history at SEA have been recorded this summer.

eGates at SEA

TSA has partnered with CLEAR to launch eGate for CLEAR+ members. For those enrolled in CLEAR+, the traveler’s identity is verified using a biometric scanner, allowing CLEAR+ members to proceed directly to security screening and bypass the TSA podium for document verification.

“It’s kind of a face identification system. It’s a small, little gate,” Cooper said on “The Gee and Ursula Show.” “You just look at a screen and it confirms that your face is the same face that you have on your regular ID, and then that lets you through that way, instead of having to go to an actual person that’s checking your boarding pass and looking at your picture on your ID versus your face in front of them.”

“Cooper, is there light at the end of the tunnel?” KIRO host Gee Scott asked. “I’m tired of being frustrated at SEA.”

“I say yes, and you know that’s my Rick Rizzs answer,” Cooper replied.

Year to date, 99% of passengers have made it through TSA Security Checkpoints in under 30 minutes, with 93% completing the process in under 20 minutes — a 5% and 13% improvement compared to last year, respectively.

Improving baggage claim

“I just want to say, going to the airport and leaving up out of there, it ain’t that bad,” Gee said. “I’ll tell you where my stress comes from and where I pull my hair out, and I have very little hair. It’s when I land back here, and I go to baggage claim. It feels like the projects, man.”

“I hear you,” Cooper replied. “They’re upgrading the carousels there on the far north end. It’s all part of the upgrade that’s going on upstairs as well. Ceiling pieces are up, looking really nice, and that’s coming. I know it’s a pain in the tail, but it’s just a small space to begin with, unfortunately, but it’s going to be completed by the spring here.”

Making the distance between the terminal and Light Rail more feasible

SEA is in the middle of a 90-day pilot period using what we call a driverless vehicle to transport people from the Light Rail station to the terminal.

“The idea is to see if this would help. Will this make it easier? Can we avoid congestion problems? Will it be more efficient?” Cooper said. “We’re going to study that. We’re getting feedback. We’re looking at all the different metrics that we’re keeping track of and, at the end of the 90 days, we’ll make a decision. Is this the best way to go? Is there another way to adjust it? What other ways could we look at improving that walk?”

“What have you gotten frustrated about in the last year or two at SEA?” Gee asked Cooper.

“We’re just like the rest of folks. I mean, we’re here every day, and we realize there’s construction fatigue,” Cooper said. “We’ve been through it here for two years as well, too. Part of it is that we’ve been trying to get these things done as fast as we can instead of extending these [projects] out for multiple years.”

Listen to the full conversation here.

Listen to Gee and Ursula on “The Gee and Ursula Show” weekday mornings from 9 am to 12 pm on KIRO Newsradio.