Traffic leading up to Sea-Tac Airport snarled due to a ‘security incident’

Outbound and inbound fliers and their families ran into a mess of traffic outside Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (Sea-Tac Airport) for the second consecutive morning Wednesday.

Port of Seattle officials blamed the mid-week gridlock on Airport Expressway on a “security incident.”

“We did have, this morning, between about 10:30 and 11:00, a security situation on the upper drive where we had a mental health crisis that was going on,” Perry Cooper, spokesperson for Port of Seattle, said to KIRO Newsradio.

Staff closed both the Arrivals and Departures lanes for about 20 minutes, but the backup grew as the late-morning travel surge met roadblocks.

Travel advice: Hacks to get through Sea-Tac Airport during the holiday weekend

Commuters react to the traffic around the airport

Travelers getting to the airport complained about the traffic.

“It’s terrible,” one mother said to KIRO Newsradio while leading her children inside the terminal. “(It) took us about 50 minutes to get in from Bellevue.”

Ali Hassan drove his family to the airport and watched them as they passed through security.

“Usually, it’s not that far,” Hassan said of his drive from Kent. “But traffic — Oh my God. And then we get over here to the airport and we couldn’t find any parking.”

Cooper said the crisis was “resolved,” but he did warn drivers to expect heavy congestion throughout the holiday weekend.

“We have more people that come here on a single day during the summer, but the drives are not as congested as they are during the Thanksgiving and the Christmas holidays,” he said. “Everybody wants to see Grandma and Grandpa right at the door, make sure that they get them there, or get other family and pick them up.”

Because the airport sees more single drivers coming to pick up passengers — estimated by Cooper to be about 70% of the total amount of drivers through the terminal — port officials urged everyone to use whichever route (Arrivals and Departures) is least congested.

More details: After hack, Sea-Tac Airport website back up in time for Thanksgiving travel

Wednesday was expected to be one of the busiest days of the Thanksgiving weekend, tied with Sunday when SeaTac expects to see about 177,000 fliers pass through the airport in a single day.

The record was highest number of inbound, outbound and connecting passengers was set in July 2023 at 198,000.

Sam Campbell is a reporter, editor and anchor at KIRO Newsradio. You can read more of Sam’s stories here. Follow Sam on X, or email him here.

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