4 ms·

the Port of Seattle claimed that the shortfall of available gates could cause damages “in the tens or hundreds of millions of dollars over the expected life of

the Port of Seattle claimed that the shortfall of available gates could cause damages “in the tens or hundreds of millions of dollars over the expected life of this project.” That’s a pretty big range of damages, spending $78M (which probably means $100M by the time it’s done) to fix something that could only cost $50M in lost damages over the 30 (?) year lifespan of the project doesn’t seem like a good return on investment. It’s not like the gates are completely unusable, they just need to be used by smaller planes. How much would it cost to make those 4 gates completely unusable over what is sure to be a multi year construction project?

seanmcdirmid 4y ago
It’s an international terminal, so the plane jet bridges exit out to immigration, customs. I’m not sure if they can edit out into the airport, though I suppose it is probably possible since that’s how they are loaded. If used for international flights, there are simply not many narrow body planes to consider…Canada would be the only place close by, but they mostly do US immigration/customs in Canada via special arrangement.
- topkai22 4y ago
  737 max can do 4000+ miles in on paper. That puts all of Mexico, most of Central America, and a good chunk of the Caribbean in range I believe.
  - seanmcdirmid 4y ago
    Ya, but Seattle is still a mid sized city, I don’t think most of those routes could work profitably in narrow bodies. Alaska has only four Mexican destinations, all the other airlines probably find transfers more profitable.
    - jwestbury 4y ago
      There are more than 25 international destinations served by nonstop routes from SeaTac[0]. In my experience (more than a dozen international trips from SeaTac), the majority of international routes from SeaTac are either non-stop or transfer internationally rather than domestically -- most flights to Europe and Africa, for instance, feature a transfer at Amsterdam or Frankfurt. But, of course, those routes are generally not less than 4000 miles. SEA->LHR is one of the shorter routes to Europe, and even that is >4700 miles. 0. https://www.portseattle.org/page/non-stop-international-routes https://www.portseattle.org/page/non-stop-international-rout...
      - seanmcdirmid 4y ago
        A lot of routes to Asia, which are still pretty far (10-12 hours to Tokyo). Nothing to Russia far east, which would be a bit closer. I’ve been in plenty of international trips where I transferred in SF or even Chicago or New York. It is a bit weird flying down to SF just to go back up to asia.

seanmcdirmid 4y ago

It’s an international terminal, so the plane jet bridges exit out to immigration, customs. I’m not sure if they can edit out into the airport, though I suppose it is probably possible since that’s how they are loaded. If used for international flights, there are simply not many narrow body planes to consider…Canada would be the only place close by, but they mostly do US immigration/customs in Canada via special arrangement.

topkai22 4y ago
737 max can do 4000+ miles in on paper. That puts all of Mexico, most of Central America, and a good chunk of the Caribbean in range I believe.
- seanmcdirmid 4y ago
  Ya, but Seattle is still a mid sized city, I don’t think most of those routes could work profitably in narrow bodies. Alaska has only four Mexican destinations, all the other airlines probably find transfers more profitable.
  - jwestbury 4y ago
    There are more than 25 international destinations served by nonstop routes from SeaTac[0]. In my experience (more than a dozen international trips from SeaTac), the majority of international routes from SeaTac are either non-stop or transfer internationally rather than domestically -- most flights to Europe and Africa, for instance, feature a transfer at Amsterdam or Frankfurt. But, of course, those routes are generally not less than 4000 miles. SEA->LHR is one of the shorter routes to Europe, and even that is >4700 miles. 0. https://www.portseattle.org/page/non-stop-international-routes https://www.portseattle.org/page/non-stop-international-rout...
    - seanmcdirmid 4y ago
      A lot of routes to Asia, which are still pretty far (10-12 hours to Tokyo). Nothing to Russia far east, which would be a bit closer. I’ve been in plenty of international trips where I transferred in SF or even Chicago or New York. It is a bit weird flying down to SF just to go back up to asia.