Feb. 5—As Yakima city officials volunteer the local airport as a potential solution to relieve crowding at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, infrastructure and passenger air service needs have come into sharper focus.
Several upgrades have occurred in recent months, and another major improvement is planned within the next five years.
Air traffic control tower
Air traffic controllers have moved from a temporary, ground-level trailer into the former air traffic control structure atop the main passenger terminal, a move that happened in December, said Shelby Barrett, administrative assistant at Yakima Air Terminal.
"The move happened right before our first major snowstorm, which was good. The spot where the (air traffic control) trailer was is where they pile all the snow," Barrett said Friday.
The Yakima airport, also known as McAllister Field, was established in 1926, and its first runways were built in the 1930s. The current passenger terminal opened in the 1950s, with an air traffic control tower placed on its roof.
A newer and taller air traffic control tower, located adjacent to Washington Avenue, opened in 1974 but was closed down in May 2022 after it was damaged in a fatal car crash. It is awaiting Federal Aviation Administration approval on planned repairs, airport officials said recently.
As a temporary solution, Yakima Air Terminal's four full-time air traffic controllers moved last summer into a temporary FAA trailer, located at ground level just west of the airport's passenger terminal.
Being at ground level prevented controllers from seeing the entire length of the north-south runway, prompting heavier use of the east-west runway, controllers told the Yakima Herald-Republic in June. The lack of height in the trailer also limits radar and radio contact with aircraft coming over Ahtanum Ridge, since that contact requires aircraft to be within the control tower's line of sight.
Moving to the rooftop control tower has helped address that issue until the Washington Avenue tower can be repaired, Barrett said.
Horizon switches to jets
In January, Horizon Air — which operates Alaska Airlines flights between Yakima and Sea-Tac — completed its transition from older Q400 turboprop planes to a single fleet of modern E175 jets, said Ray Lane, a spokesperson with Alaska Airlines.
The new aircraft began serving Yakima's daily flights to and from Sea-Tac on Jan. 6, Barrett said, and Horizon's final flight using the Q400 in Washington state was Jan. 29 in Wenatchee.
"For Horizon, it's one of the most important things we can do to stabilize our future. It marks a significant milestone for the airline," Lane noted in a news release. "The E175 is well suited for small and developing markets in our network across the Pacific Northwest and beyond."
The E175 is a more fuel-efficient, quieter and faster aircraft, shaving a few minutes off the flight time between Yakima and Sea-Tac, Barrett said.
It also is a taller aircraft, requiring a new ramp for deplaning, new power sources and new pushback equipment for when an E175 reloads with passengers and is ready to return to Sea-Tac, she added.
During an October visit to Yakima, Walla Walla and Wenatchee, Horizon Air President Joe Sprague discussed several reasons why Horizon had to reduce flights between those airports and Sea-Tac. The Yakima airport currently offers only one daily outbound and inbound commercial flight after Horizon reduced its schedule in early September.
While Sprague said the schedule reductions were primarily due to a lack of pilots, the switch in aircraft also contributed, as newly hired pilots were being trained on the E175 jets since the older turboprop planes were being phased out.
At the time of his visit, Sprague said the earliest Horizon "could even consider" increasing the level of service is in the middle of 2023.
In an email to the Yakima Herald-Republic, Lane emphasized that although the switch in aircraft has been completed, "there have been no future service changes announced for YKM ( Yakima airport)."
Terminal replacement
Regardless of what happens with the state's regional airport site decision, city of Yakima officials already have secured funding to plan for replacment of the 1950s-era passenger terminal.
In October, City Manager Bob Harrison reported to the City Council that the Yakima airport passenger terminal is more than 70 years old and does not meet the current needs of the airport, much less provide for future growth.
"The city of Yakima is in the process of determining how best to replace the existing terminal building," Harrison wrote in a memo to council members. "The project is estimated to cost about $35 million."
Two $5 million congressionally directed spending allocations, secured by U.S. Rep. Dan Newhouse, R- Sunnyside, will be spent on preparatory work such as design and environmental review, said Randy Beehler, the city's communications and public affairs director.
The 2021 allocation already is being spent on preparatory work, and the 2022 CDS request, approved when Congress passed its omnibus spending bill in December, will continue that work, Beehler added.
Work on a replacement passenger terminal building is tentatively set to begin in 2027, he said.
In the city's Jan. 3, letter to the state Commercial Aviation Coordination Commission regarding Yakima's potential as an expanded regional airport, city officials pointed out the airport's existing 7,700-linear-foot runway already can handle large passenger aircraft, such as Boeing 737s. The purchase of nearby vacant land would allow the airport to increase that runway's length to 13,000 linear feet.
The letter notes that Yakima's airport "has a historic partnership with Sea-Tac Airport, including serving as the emergency backup site for aircraft unable to land at Sea-Tac."
Barrett, the airport's administrative assistant, said Yakima's use as an emergency site can happen frequently, especially when planes are forced to circle Sea-Tac during winter months due to inclement weather.
She said a large Delta Airlines plane was forced to land and refuel in late November at the Yakima Air Terminal before eventually landing at Sea-Tac.
"We are the No. 1 diversion airport (in Washington state) because we're so close to Sea-Tac," Barrett added.
Contact Joel Donofrio at [email protected].
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