Seattle’s airport will hit its limit by 2032 — Seattle Port Commissioner shares his bold solution

The Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (SEA) is debuting its roughly $399 million expansion project on Concourse C Wednesday, just in time for an influx of travelers from around the world who want to experience the 2026 FIFA World Cup in Seattle.

But is SEA ready for approximately 750,000 fans?

“This airport is ready,” Seattle Port Commissioner Sam Cho said on “The Gee and Ursula Show.” “We’ve been getting ready for two years now.”

Concourse C essentially tripled in size, increasing from the previously existing 81,000-square-foot building to a 226,530-square-foot facility that includes a “wish list of amenities.”

“From a security standpoint, the Port of Seattle Police Department set up a unified command with all the surrounding police departments,” Cho said. “We’re going to be checking in every morning to make sure that not only the airport, but the region is safe for everybody during the World Cup. Two years of preparation for about a month of activity. We’re ready, man.”

SEA Airport reaching max capacity

But amidst all the festivities at SEA Airport, there has been very little momentum from a workgroup tasked with finding a solution for Washington’s future aviation needs after it replaced the Commercial Aviation Coordinating Commission (CACC) — the state-created group initially charged with researching and recommending a location for a new municipal airport. SEA Airport is predicted to reach capacity in 2032. According to the now-defunct commission’s Chair, Warren Hendrickson, that could lead to flight restrictions, higher airfare costs, and more limited package shipping capabilities, among other concerns.

“Do you ever foresee us getting a new airport, or are we going to just be stuck at SEA forever?” KIRO host Gee Scott asked.

“I’ll tell you what. For context, SEA was built for 30 million passengers,” Cho said. “Last year, we did 53.4 [million]. So at a certain point, SEA will break because we will not be able to come to everyone now. The problem with what the state was trying to do is that they were looking for a greenfield site; they were trying to build an airport from the ground up. What they hopefully are going to do now is look for an existing airport that they can build up, which may make it easier, and you might have a little less resistance from surrounding neighborhoods.

“What’s for sure is you and I will be long retired before we see a second regional airport,” Cho added. “That’s a fact.”

The furthest CACC got in finding a new airport location was narrowing options down to three in 2022: Pierce County Central, Pierce County East, and Thurston County near Olympia.

But the pushback against a new airport in Pierce County has been consistent among residents, with a group called the Coalition Against Graham and Eatonville-Roy Airports leading a protest of more than 200 residents in 2022 against the construction of a new airport in the county.

Where would the Port of Seattle commissioner place a new airport

“Sam, tell us right now, you can only pick it by the way, you can’t get out of this game. You can only pick one area for the airport to go to. Where would the Commissioner of the Port of Seattle place it?” Gee asked.

“Are you ready for this? I’m a big ideas guy,” Cho said. “I want to build it in Moses Lake. I know that sounds really far, which it is, but if you go to every major city in the world, whether it’s London, Hong Kong, South Seoul, South Korea, they have their airports an hour or two away, three hours even, from the city center, and they have a high-speed bullet train that goes between the main city center and the airport. What we need is an airport in the middle of the state, right around Moses Lake, and a high-speed rail that goes from Seattle to Spokane and hits that airport in the middle.”

Cho argued that it would not only help alleviate congestion for travelers, but also enable farmers in Eastern Washington to export their goods to the world in a much more cost-effective and efficient manner than at SEA.

“Let’s build it in Moses Lake,” Cho said. “Let’s build a high-speed rail that goes across the state from Seattle to Spokane, so that we can connect the two sides of the state.”

“I got to tell you, you’re the first to say that,” Gee responded. “Nobody has had that idea.”

Watch the full discussion in the video above

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