First Thoughts on First Flights: Flying out of Paine Field

When my brother asked me to drive him and his family to the airport I got a little sick to my stomach. That is until I realized they’d be flying out of the new Snohomish County Airport at Paine Field. Eight miles to the airport from downtown Everett instead of 44 miles to SeaTac?

I’ll take it!

Since they’d be flying out on one of the first passenger flights in Paine Field history, I decided to get their’s and other's thoughts on the experience.

Skotdal Real Estate president Craig Skotdal, who made it out on the very first flight, said, “Flying from Paine Field is so convenient, you can easily add half a day to your trip. The total travel time from my home to the airport gate was less than 25 minutes. Those extra hours add up in terms of memories and experiences,” Skotdal said.

“I was able to take a full weekend in San Francisco to connect with friends from Stanford I haven’t seen in a while. When SeaTac was the only option, a weekend getaway really didn’t seem practical. Now, it definitely is.”

Ryan Crowther (from Everett Music Initiative) flew out on day one. "I didn't think flying from Paine Field could be quite what we have all built it up to be. But it is. In fact, it's better. I could go on, but you just need to experience it for yourself," Crowther said.

Knowing Paine Field was designed with the business traveler in mind, I also wanted to get a more thorough recap from my brother and sister-in-law, Dallas and Sareh Hunt, who flew out with their two kiddos.

Despite their flight being delayed by two and a half hours (a new plane had to be flown from SeaTac to Paine Field because of mechanical issues), Dallas and Sareh had good things to say about their experience.

1. What were your first impressions flying out of Paine Field?

Sareh: The airport was clean, beautifully designed, easy to navigate.

Dallas: It’s so small! Lots of open parking. Not busy at all. Immediately felt less stressful and intimidating than SeaTac.

2. Did they meet the promise of being able to get from the curb to your gate in 10 minutes?

Dallas: Considering there were four of us and we’re not the most efficient through security, I would say hands down yes. I think I made it through in about three minutes when I ran out to get food from the Uber Eats driver.

3. What was your favorite thing about flying out of Paine Field?

Sareh: How convenient to get to the airport and how easy getting through the security check was.

4. Were your tickets more expensive to fly out of Everett?

Dallas: Surprisingly no. Not sure if that will always be the case but it would still be worth it to pay even a little more to not have to deal with SeaTac.

5. Any constructive criticism?

Sareh: It definitely feels like it was designed for business travelers and not families. The materials used in the interior design of the terminal are beautiful but I’m not sure how well they’ll lend themselves to hard and frequent use by passengers. When we flew back to Everett four days later, the bathroom soap dispensers weren’t working and there were nice soap bottles next to them. The carpet was unraveled in one spot.

Day two of Paine Field Airport’s opening // Sareh Hunt

There is currently a really lovely bar with a small selection of pre-packaged foods. A Beecher’s deli is planned, but we had to use Uber Eats to bring in a meal for our family when we had a two and 1/2 hour flight delay.

6. I've heard the airport caters to business travelers, was it still alright with kids?

Sareh: I got ahead of myself! In addition to what I said above, I would add that while it felt unnervingly nice with small children, the staff was kind and great with our children and the other children near us.

Dallas: It was fine. Not ideal for being stuck there for a two hour delay. I can say if the kids were a little younger we probably would have left and passed the time elsewhere. One crying child would literally disrupt the entire airport terminal. Toilet seats are not kid/small butt friendly (oddly large openings) haha.

7. How did it feel to be on one of the first flights out?

Sareh: It was exciting! The airport and airline staff had great energy. Everything was so clean and beautiful. We were given commemorative pins and Alaska attaché bags which were a thoughtful touch.

Dallas: It felt special. We were on the first historic delayed flight so that’s worth noting in the history books.

8. Anything else you want to add?

Sareh: I loved the water bottle fill up spot by the water fountain and that there were power and USB plugins between every seat at the gates.

So how about you?

Have you gotten a chance to fly out of Paine Field yet? What did you think? Feel free to share your thoughts below. For a more thorough story on the beautiful airport itself, make sure you check out Richard Porter’s piece here. Or you can get more details on on Paine Field’s website.

Happy jet-setting.