Snohomish County’s Paine Field has the greatest economic impact of any airport in the state, according to the Washington State Department of Transportation. In 2019, Paine Field had a yearly economic impact of nearly $60 billion and accounted for over 150,000 jobs. That year, the airport also started regularly scheduled commercial service through the privately owned passenger terminal. A well-run and growing Paine Field is key for economic development. Our aerospace cluster is the crown jewel of our region’s economy.
As global demand for air travel reaches all-time highs, I am excited to look to Paine Field’s future of innovation and expanded commercial service.
Seattle-Tacoma International Airport had a record of nearly 53 million passengers in 2024. If you’ve visited the airport recently, you likely noticed the long lines and stress that come with capacity challenges. While growth in air travel is encouraging for our region’s aerospace industry, it also highlights the difficulty we face in meeting future demand and reducing aviation-related carbon emissions. Today, aviation is responsible for nearly 3% of all global emissions, but by 2050 it could account for almost 23% if unmitigated.
Fortunately, these challenges lead to opportunity at Paine Field (also known by its code, PAE). It’s an opportunity that will benefit our entire region and state if we can seize the moment.
Paine Field’s first year of passenger service saw nearly a million travelers. The pandemic severely disrupted that growth trajectory, but with the recent announcement that Frontier Airlines will join Alaska in operating flights out of Paine Field, we expect to soon return to that level of service. Our Airport Master Plan, adopted last year, projects demand of up to 3 million passengers by 2035 and over 4 million by 2040. This helps absorb some regional demand while keeping our growth modest.
But we need to act. The time is now for us to begin seriously preparing for that growth.
On May 20, I issued an order to analyze, plan and prepare for infrastructure and community needs associated with commercial terminal expansion beyond the existing three gates at PAE. Today, only 3% of runway capacity is being utilized at Paine Field. Done thoughtfully with community input, careful planning and strong financial accountability, we can expand to support commerce, create jobs and meet passenger travel demands to help our county, state, and the Pacific Northwest grow and thrive.
At the same time, there is an urgent need for clean, sustainable aviation fuels to become widely available. In the next 20 years, more than 24,000 new aircraft will be needed to meet demand. By 2050, 200 billion gallons of fuel will be needed for commercial aviation, while SAF accounts for less than one-half of 1% of jet fuel production today.
I believe Snohomish County and Washington will be the world leader in SAF research, development and innovation.
We have been working toward the planning and design of a first-of-its-kind SAF research and development center. With support from the state of Washington, Washington State University, Boeing, Alaska Airlines and others, Snohomish County plans to build an SAF testing and qualifying facility on 8 acres of land at Paine Field. Building on 50 years of local aerospace manufacturing and innovation, this center will allow for large-scale testing that is unavailable and cost-prohibitive today and will help companies bring new sustainable fuels to market.
We believe SAF will be the sustainable solution for aviation for the next 70-plus years. It will benefit rural areas with significant woody debris that can be a source for locally produced fuels. This industry will yield billions of dollars of economic impact. If we can move quickly to secure our global position as a leader for SAF, it can be as transformative to our region as it was when Boeing opened its Everett factory in 1967.
Also on May 20, Gov. Bob Ferguson signed a state budget that includes $10 million for our SAF center, also securing a separate $10 million matching donation from a private family foundation.
It has been a tremendous month for news around Paine Field Airport. I think we are poised for a very vibrant and clean future.
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