What’s next for Sea-Tac Airport after current round of construction
May 1, 2025, 5:56 AM | Updated: 6:00 am
An Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 9 taxis at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport on March 25, 2024 in Seattle, Washington. Alaska Airlines is partnering with Philippines Air and also heading to Europe. (Photo: Stephen Brashear, Getty Images)
(Photo: Stephen Brashear, Getty Images)
Getting through the construction at the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (Sea-Tac) hasn’t been easy the last few years, but the long-range plan is expected to be full of dust as well.
I told you a few weeks ago that the new TSA Checkpoint 1 on the lower level of the terminal should open in early June, and the old, but renamed, Checkpoint 6 at Alaska Airlines should open before Thanksgiving.
The construction on that north end should be done in time for the World Cup next year. Construction on the new four-story high-rise on Concourse C is going well.
What’s after that? It’s not like the airport isn’t going to see growth in passenger travel after that.
Sea-Tac running out of room
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Perry Cooper, the media relations manager for the Port of Seattle, said this work will just about max out the space they have.
“We’re really getting to the point where we don’t have any more place to go with this footprint, this campus spot,” Cooper said.
The airport is only on 2,500 acres. To put that in perspective, Denver International Airport is on 34,000 acres. The plan over the next seven years is to build a new terminal to the north.
“Really, our next opportunity is that sustainable airport master plan where we’ll have a second campus, a second terminal to the north end, that will end up relieving some of the congestion we have here in the main terminal,” Cooper said. “That’s really our next space.”
The new terminal, parking, and access from the expressway will go where the current Doug Fox Parking lot is, just north of the cell phone lot, next to the cemetery. There would be a walkway over the expressway to the new terminal.
“We would have a check-in. We’d have new parking there as well too,” Cooper said. “We’d have a people mover connection that would connect it to this terminal as well too. And then we would have 19 new gates that would be built just on that side of it.”
The buildings to the west of the expressway, like the fire department and United Cargo, would be relocated to make room. Plans are still in the development phase. How passengers move between the new terminal hasn’t been decided.
Chris Sullivan is a traffic reporter for KIRO Newsradio. Read more of his stories here. Follow KIRO Newsradio traffic on X.
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