Metropolitan King County Councilmembers Larry Phillips and Dwight Pelz said today’s rejection by County Executive Ron Sims of dual proposals from Southwest and Alaska Airlines to move operations from SeaTac Airport to King County International Airport (KCIA) is a victory for neighborhoods throughout King County that would have borne the impacts of the noise and traffic.

“The is a victory for the residents of Georgetown, Beacon Hill and the Rainier Valley,” said Councilmember Pelz, whose district includes KCIA—better known as Boeing Field—and the Beacon Hill and Georgetown neighborhoods. “We’re keeping our transportation investments at SeaTac, and keeping our neighborhoods quieter. This is a victory for the many Seattle residents who spoke up.”

“King County residents from Burien to Ballard will sleep a little easier tonight,” said Council Chair Phillips, whose district includes the neighborhoods of Ballard, Queen Anne and Magnolia. “With this decision, plans that have been a decade in the making to reduce the noise of existing private and commercial flights at Boeing Field now mean something. Those new flight paths would have become worthless if scheduled passenger service was allowed to overwhelm them.”

Pelz said a special October 12 evening meeting of the Council’s Transportation Committee to hear public testimony on the two proposals will still take place, “but the tone of the meeting will now be more of a victory celebration.”

Southwest Airlines in July announced its proposal to move its local commercial airline operations to KCIA. Alaska Airlines introduced a similar plan last month. Both proposals would have had the companies building new terminals and parking structures to accommodate new passenger service. The County Executive said he was compelled to reject both proposals due to their combined impacts of noise, traffic and the cost to taxpayers of the required environmental studies

“Common sense has prevailed,” said Pelz. “Expanding our cargo and light-plane airport into ‘SeaTac North’ was the wrong way to go. Seattle residents knew that, and King County listened. The thousands of letters, emails and phone calls that people took the time to make really made a difference.”

EDITORS: THE ANNOUNCED OCTOBER 12 SPECIAL MEETING OF THE COUNCIL’S TRANSPORTATION COMMITTEE WILL TAKE PLACE AS SCHEDULED.

The meeting will start at 6:15p.m. in the chambers of the King County Council on the 10th floor of the King County Courthouse. After 6:00 p.m., enter the Courthouse from the main entrance on Third Avenue.