AIRPORT REPORT: SEATTLE-TACOMA
Sound plan Managing director for aviation, Lance Lyttle, talks to Joe Bates about the multi-billion dollar development of Seattle-Tacoma International Airport and the gateway’s ambition to be the greenest airport in North America.
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eattle-Tacoma International Airport (SEA) will open its new International Arrivals Facility (IAF), one of the key projects of its ongoing $3.9 billion Capital Improvement Plan, in early 2022. Described as the most complex capital development project in the 71 year history of the airport, the new facility is expected to significantly enhance the arrivals experience for the rising number of international passengers arriving at the Washington State gateway. The complexity of the project is because it has involved the construction of a 450,000-square-foot Grand Hall for baggage claim and customs processing; a 780ft long aerial walkway 85ft above the taxiway connecting the IAF directly to the South Satellite; and the addition of a new international corridor connecting arriving international passengers on Concourse A. “The International Arrivals Facility is going to significantly change things for international passengers,” enthuses the Port of Seattle’s managing director for aviation, Lance Lyttle. “The Arrivals facility it is replacing was built back in the 1970s, and it actually looks and feels like it was built then as not much has been done to it over the years. Credit to the people who designed and built it as it still works and has done a fantastic job, but it is operationally limiting and not what you should expect from the eighth busiest airports in the United States. “The look and the feel of the new building and the space that it offers will be like night and day. It is a really beautiful facility. It’s not a Taj Mahal, but it’s really elegant and will get us to the levels of service we want to provide at the airport.” Further explaining the difference the new IAF will make to SEA, Lyttle notes that it will be five times the size of the existing facility and capable of processing up to 2,600 passengers per hour as opposed to 1,200 today. The improved capacity is expected to play a significant
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AIRPORT WORLD/ISSUE 6, 2021
role in helping SEA achieve its goal of establishing a minimum connecting time of 75 minutes for passengers transferring between international and domestic flights.
New North Satellite The much anticipated addition of the International Arrivals Facility will be the second major new piece of infrastructure unveiled at SEA in the last year following the summer 2021 opening of an expanded North Satellite building. Lyttle says the $700 million revamp of the North Satellite has not ony made the facility bigger and better than before, but greener and more customer friendly. In short, the new-look complex – opened by the Port of Seattle and home carrier Alaska Airlines in July 2021 – has allowed for the addition of eight more gates, more dining and retail options and more amenities than ever before for both passengers and staff. Sustainability, most notably in the shape of energy efficiency and water conservation, was also high on the agenda of the airport when revamping the North Satellite building, which it now believes is equipped to serve SEA until at least 2070. The use of LED lighting throughout the facility, for example, is expected to save nearly 1.7 million kilowatts of energy per annum, which Lyttle reveals is the equivalent of providing power to 170 homes. SEA is also thought to be the first airport in North America to use renewable natural gas for heating the North Satellite and all other buildings on the airport site, an innovation Lyttle proudly notes means that they aren’t causing any carbon emissions. While two underground 215,000-gallon tanks are used to collect rainwater from the roof of the North Satellite so that it can be reused to flush the facility’s toilets, saving around 2.8 million gallons of potable water yearly.
