Northwest Aerospace News October | November Issue No. 11 | Page 12

S
mith says Paine Field, which
only has three gates, offers conve-
nience that larger airports just can’t
match.
On arrival at one of the three gates,
“You can walk to baggage claim in
two minutes,” he said. “We guaran-
tee that our bags start coming out
in five minutes.” And on departure,
there are rarely more than a dozen
people standing in the security line,
an airport staffer said.
Given that, you might be tempted
to delay your departure to their
airport until the last minute — but
then you’d be missing out. On a
recent afternoon, some travelers sat
at the bar at the airport noshing on
a board of local artisan cheese and
prosciutto with a demi-baguette.
Others waited in a fast-moving line
to pick up hot meals that can include
macaroni and cheese from Beech-
er’s, the famed Seattle cheesemakers
that also run catering services at
Paine Field.
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NORTHWEST AEROSPACE NEWS
Two Alaska flights — both on
76-seat Embraer E175s — were
minutes away from boarding, but
the atmosphere is calm and relaxed
as passengers plug their power cords
into outlets to send last-minute texts
or emails. Even families traveling
with children seem less harried.
All of it is by design, Smith said.
Propeller Airports’ vision — his
vision — for the terminal was some-
thing that would “be unique, and not
airport-esque.”
It appears he’s succeeded. Monocle
magazine — which bills itself as a
“global affairs and lifestyle maga-
zine” — dubbed Paine Field the best
regional airport in the world in May.
Private-sector partnerships
Propeller Airport, by its very nature,
is unique in America. It’s the only
private company that has partnered
with a local government to build and
run a terminal at a publicly owned
airport.
The idea is not unprecedented,
according to The New York Times.
Several major European airports —
including London’s Heathrow and
Charles de Gaulle near Paris — are
privately owned and operated. In
addition, a handful of high-profile
U.S. airports have partnered with
private-sector partners to remodel
terminals or lounges.
“It all started with Margaret
Thatcher in the 1980s,”
Smith said. “She didn’t
want to spend tax money
on something the private
sector could do.”
Privately operated airports were the
norm in the early days of aviation,
historians told the paper, but the
New Deal and — especially — the
nation’s huge military build-up
during World War II led to publicly
built, owned and operated airports
being the norm in this country.