January 26, 2023
Last week, at the Museum of Flight, the Port and our partners celebrated the accomplishments of 2022 in the State of the Port annual community report. The first in-person gathering in two years highlighted the hard work of the Port, local communities, and partners in delivering for people and the planet.
At the event, I emphasized the importance of our connections to the community and thanked our many partners. The Port is not a standalone organization; it is a partnership of tenants, vendors, contractors, concessionaires, and neighbors. Our success is our partners’ success and vice versa. I deeply value our connection and how together we deliver to the region.
Celebrate 2022
Here are just a few highlights of the many things the Port and our partners accomplished in 2022:
Substantially recovered operations at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport
- Opened the new International Arrivals Facility (IAF) in May
- Welcomed four new international services to SEA Airport: Air Tahiti Nui to Papeete, Tahiti; Air Canada to Montreal, Canada; Turkish Air to Istanbul, Turkey; and Finnair to Helsinki, Finland
- In 2023 SEA Airport has more international services than before the pandemic
Hosted a record-setting cruise season
- Brought more cruise travelers supporting the economies of Washington and Alaska than ever before
- Launched a new study to explore creating the world’s first cruise-led Green Corridor from here to Alaska with cruise ships using low or zero-carbon fuels
Finished the most significant habitat restoration project in a generation
- The opening of the Duwamish River People’s Park and Shoreline Habitat was celebrated and is the largest restoration project on the Duwamish River
Modernized commercial shipping operations at Terminal 5
- Phase one of this project with the Northwest Seaport Alliance (NWSA), expanded gateway cargo capacity and enables us to serve the largest vessels in the Transpacific trade
Reduced greenhouse gas emissions
- By heating the terminal of SEA Airport with renewable natural gas, we reached emissions reductions goals 10 years early
- We accomplished a major milestone of reducing maritime scope 1 and 2 emissions by almost half while working on long-term solutions and building electrification on the waterfront
We did all of that, together, while confronting national and global turmoil. The uncertainty we faced with inflation, employee vacancies, surges in passenger demand, the war in Ukraine, economic inequity at home, the lingering pandemic, and climate change impacts made our achievements all the more remarkable.
Looking ahead
Yet, these challenges also make it clear that the community needs us to deliver at a new level; that is our plan for 2023.
This year we will be:
Improving for the future
- In 2023, the Port will begin the largest set of capital improvements projects in our history
- Seattle-Tacoma International Airport’s five-year $4.6 billion capital improvement plan will make the airport safer, more efficient, and more sustainable. The construction projects happening now will improve your experience and meet the travel demand we have today. However, we are also planning for the future
- Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (SEA) is launching Upgrade SEA with information and updates that will help you plan ahead, fly by the construction, and make your journey easier from curb to gate
Making your trip easier on you and the environment
- Compared to other airports, SEA has a significantly smaller footprint, but we’re still committed to being efficient and sustainable
- The Sustainable Airport Master Plan (SAMP) is an environmental review and planning process to meet future travel demand with more than 30 projects to improve capacity, efficiency, safety, and access at the airport
- We look forward to continuing to work with the community and the FAA to release the draft environmental assessment in 2024
Building a robust and sustainable maritime industry
- On the waterfront, building projects of more than $522 million over five years will improve safety and sustainability, support good-paying construction and maritime industrial jobs, and anchor our region as a maritime leader
- Projects underway in 2023 include:
- Replacing vessel berths and developing the uplands at Terminal 91
- Building out cruise ship shore power at Pier 66
- Finishing construction of the Maritime Innovation Center at Fishermen’s Terminal. The project will convert one of the oldest buildings on Port property to a home for maritime sustainable innovation and one of the greenest buildings ever built in our region
- Supporting the NWSA on the second phase of Terminal 5 for critical infrastructure upgrades
Investing in the community
- Investments in the community will continue and increase in 2023. We will spend an additional $2.5 million on community-focused programs for environmental initiatives and economic equity, for a total of $19.1 million in 2023
- These investments support workforce development, the South King County Community Impact Fund, Diversity in Contracting programs, major initiatives from our Office of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion, and tourism marketing support for Washington state’s destinations
Prioritizing people and programs
- It takes a strong team to accomplish this amount of work and we have a great one at the Port of Seattle
- This year we will make a larger investment in people and programs than ever before
- The success of our Port and region depends on our people being safe, trained, resourced, and ready for the work ahead
- Last year we onboarded more than 560 employees for new positions and backfill, twice as many as we hired in 2021. Our work is not yet done with more positions available and people to hire
Focus on the future
Like many of you, for the past three years our work has been heavily defined by our response to the pandemic. We helped lead our region’s recovery by focusing on the health and safety of employees, travelers, and the community and by keeping our gateways operating, advancing our capital projects, and investing in our community.
Today we are finally at a place where we can spend less time responding to the pandemic crisis and instead spend more time focused on the future. It feels good to be here.
- Review State of the Port materials and the annual report
- Read Commissioner perspectives on what’s ahead:
