Seattle-Tacoma International - The Fastest Growing Airport on the US West Coast

Serving over 33.2 million passengers in 2012 - almost twice as many as Vancouver International Airport - Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (Sea-Tac) is the largest airport in the Pacific Northwest and an ideal gateway to North America, with convenient connections to approximately 100 destinations. As the home of widely-recognized companies like Microsoft, Starbucks, and Boeing, the region boasts a strong premium corporate travel market that is especially internationally-focused.

Seattle is the closest US mainland city to Asia, making it an ideal gateway to connect North American and international markets. The relatively short stage length between Seattle and many Asian hubs allows for optimal aircraft rotation and provides carriers with a great deal of aircraft flexibility.

In comparison with other West Coast gateways such as Los Angeles or San Francisco, Seattle offers significantly shorter flights to Europe, Asia, the Middle East, and the Indian subcontinent (see adjacent map). For passengers flying from elsewhere in the United States, Seattle usually offers a less circuitous connection than its competition, further reducing total travel time.

Sea-Tac is the fastest growing airport on the West Coast by a wide margin, with a 17 per cent increase in passengers from the peak year of 2000 through 2012. By comparison, Los Angeles International traffic declined by 5 per cent; Vancouver International increased by six per cent; San Francisco International increased by 10 per cent; and Portland International declined with -0.8 per cent.

Much of this growth is due to a rapid increase in intercontinental traffic; since 2007, eleven new intercontinental services have been added. In the past five years, Seattle has added more intercontinental flights to Asia, Europe, and the Middle East than any other West Coast city:

In 2012, Seattle-Tacoma International Airport welcomed two new carriers with immediate success, with Emirates Airline inaugurating nonstop service to Dubai International and All Nippon Airways (ANA) beginning flights to Tokyo Narita. Emirates chose Seattle as their sixth North American destination, ahead of cities like Chicago, Miami and Washington DC. ANA selected Seattle as its first North American destination to deploy Boeing 787 jet, and joined both Delta Air Lines and United Airlines in offering nonstop service between Seattle and Narita; nevertheless, the latter two carriers both increased their passenger volumes over the previous year.

In the first half of 2013, Delta Air Lines began new flights to Tokyo’s Haneda Airport and Shanghai Pu Dong. Delta has developed Seattle as their premier West Coast international gateway; it is their largest Asian gateway and fourth largest international gateway. Currently, Delta flies non-stop between Seattle and Tokyo Narita, Tokyo Haneda, Osaka, Beijing, Shanghai, Paris, and Amsterdam. Beginning in March 2014, Delta will inaugurate a new service to London-Heathrow as part of their new joint venture with Virgin Atlantic.

Additionally, Delta has also announced two new services from Seattle to Asia to inaugurate in 2014 – Seoul and Hong Kong. Delta and many other airlines are able to take advantage of the strong domestic feed provided by Seattle’s hometown carrier, Alaska Airlines, which alongside partner carrier Horizon Air accounts for around half of Seattle’s total traffic.

In addition to its advantageous geographic location, Seattle and the surrounding Puget Sound region offer carriers a strong local market with one of the lowest unemployment rate in the nation (under five per cent). The region is known as a leader in software development and biotechnology firms and is home to an affluent, well-travelled population employed by locally-based firms such as Amazon.com, Expedia, Nordstrom and the Gates Foundation.

The tables below highlight the top ten destinations and ten largest operators from Seattle-Tacoma International Airport by seat capacity this year and compare it with last year.