Summer is over, but Sea-Tac’s record-breaking traffic numbers have not slowed down a bit.
According to this News Tribune report, the airport continued to set passenger records through the third quarter, boosted by “route expansion by the airport’s two largest airlines and a healthy Puget Sound economy.”
At the end of September, Sea-Tac reported that its passenger numbers went up 13.3 percent over record numbers of 2014’s first three quarters. That pace is more than twice the average rate of growth for major American airports at 5.7 percent, according to Port of Seattle numbers reported by the Tribune.
As we reported at the end of the second quarter, Sea-Tac had a “record-breaking 4 million passengers in June, and the yearly totals continue to grow about 13 percent,” putting it on track to have more than 42 million passengers pass through in 2015. This latest set of numbers continue to support that estimate.
In addition to folks flocking to town for jobs, in large part due to Amazon’s massive growth rate, Alaska and Delta have added several new nonstop destinations and routes to the mix.
While the Tribune reports that Sea-Tac is to undergo a $1.9 billion overhaul and expansion in the next five years, that doesn’t do much for us now. Get that global entry card and get there earlier. With the busy holiday season coming up, things are bound to get more crowded.
