SEATTLE NEWS ARCHIVES & FEATURES
More flights at this Everett airport is great despite complaints
Jan 25, 2018, 12:17 PM
I love a small airport. If I’m going to the Bay Area, I’ll choose the Oakland Airport over the big one in San Francisco any day. Same thing for Los Angeles. Flying into John Wayne Airport over LAX is a dream.
So I’ve got to say that I’m pretty pumped that a third major airline has signed on to fly in-and-out of Everett. It was announced Thursday that Southwest has jumped in beside Alaska and United to offer flights out of Paine Field.
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As things ramp up, we will now have a choice when flying to Vegas or Phoenix or LA. That’s exciting news for travelers.
Of course, not everyone is thrilled with this expansion. There are folks pushing back who are worried about the noise of that many large jets landing and taking off every day. The argument from the opposition goes back decades.
This is from a 2005 Seattle Times article: “City officials added that expanding flight operations at Paine Field would be detrimental to schools, safety, property values and other quality-of-life aspects in Mukilteo.”
I know it seems like the little guy always gets screwed in situations like this, but I’ll offer this logic. Paine Field was built in the 1930s. Even though it has remained relatively contained over the years, it just makes sense that the chances of more and more planes using the runway would increase over time.
Maybe that’s easy for me to say since I don’t live directly under the flight path near an airport. But I did live very close to some train tracks back in the day. I knew they were there when I bought the place. And yes, sometimes the sounds of the train were particularly annoying. But the tracks were there first, and I assumed they would be used frequently when I moved in.
This may sound harsh, but when you live next to an airport, expect for planes to be overhead.
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