Eastbay1K

Very disappointing news. It means we have no less than 4 more years of a severely (and ever-increasingly so) overcrowded SEA BR, and travel N/D/N, unless they take over the old RCC as a stopgap measure.

Construction to Improve Your Experience at the North Satellite Starts in 2016

Rooftop Alaska Airlines Board Room that looks out over the Puget Sound
More restaurants and shops for the Pacific Northwest Traveler
Increased reliability and speed of baggage transfers
Natural lighting in boarding areas
Intuitively arranged passenger waiting areas
Robust free Wi-Fi service
More electrical plugs at the gates
More boarding gates
Additional rest rooms

MonThruThurs

AS is really pulling out all the stops! Given the scope of this construction I wouldn't expect anything to be completed for several years.

beckoa

Wirelessly posted (beckoa's BB: Mozilla/5.0 (BlackBerry; U; BlackBerry 9810; en-US) AppleWebKit/534.11+ (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/7.1.0.694 Mobile Safari/534.11+)

And based on previous developments, it seems the old UA N RCC may be an office for the project, or at least a large meeting room. Anytime a government agency is involved, expect delays as well...

baliktad

Starts in 2016 What a horrible message. No customer cares when construction starts. We care when it ends.

I'm glad they're improving things, but there's no excuse for not using the old UA club until they can get their act together upstairs.

beckoa

Wirelessly posted (beckoa's BB: Mozilla/5.0 (BlackBerry; U; BlackBerry 9810; en-US) AppleWebKit/534.11+ (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/7.1.0.694 Mobile Safari/534.11+)

I read that wrong.

STARTS IN 2016!!!

jumpdogjump

Aww, don't you think the long and narrow look is streamlined? And the proximity of restrooms to food offerings means less wasted steps.

baliktad

The more I think about this, the more I suspect that perhaps AS is intentionally pushing this out... either to save money to help remain viable while they fend off DL's hostile advances, or because they actually expect to lose the battle and be acquired by that point.

When DL bought NW, they whipped things into shape in the S concourse. I don't recall exactly how long it took, but they at least continued operating the Northwest club in the meantime.

jsguyrus

Wow, starting in 2016....really? Haven't we been hearing about this for a couple of years already? This really is a shame and I guess I would have expected Alaska to try harder to get their MAIN HUB upgraded. It's a total pain to use the BR in Seattle on connecting flights anymore. Land at N, take the train and long walk to the BR in D, then reverse back to N for the next flight. If you dont have at least 45 min. it probably isn't worth the trouble.

The walkways in C will be nice but this whole N Terminal thing is just crazy.

kwl747

I'm in the same boat. I hope AS makes it to 2016!

WestSideBilly

I was under the impression this was already in progress and was supposed to be done by 2016...

eponymous_coward

Really? They have 1.3 billion in cash against 900 million in debt, and that's with paying a dividend, with all kinds of positive statistics.

Tell you what, if they suspend the dividend to conserve cash flow, THEN maybe you can say the sky is falling...

Anywhoo...

http://www.portseattle.org/Business/...orth-STAR.aspx

Huh, how about that, public documents. Looks like the designs aren't even ready yet.

http://www.portseattle.org/About/Com...24_7c_supp.pdf

There's some work in progress, but not for the N Concourse public areas.

98103

dammit! don't they know the world revolves around us??

(chetoungeek)

eponymous_coward

Pretty much. This is $350ish million of money, of which $40ish million of it is Alaska's, and $310ish million of it is mine (as a taxpayer in the POS, plus any money I've chipped in in facilities fees over the years). I'd like them to be good stewards of my money, thankyouverymuch. Measure twice, cut once works better than measure once, cut twice (since it's especially hard to cut a board longer).

baliktad

I think maybe you misunderstood me. I'm not saying AS is on the brink of failure/bankruptcy. I'm saying they're de-prioritizing immediate capital improvements for a few years, possibly because their future is not as certain as it once was. DL was their closest partner, and is swiftly turning into a stiff competitor. US acquiring AA may mean a change in partner dynamics as well. Their bread and butter markets on the west coast, Alaska, and Hawaii are all now experiencing or preparing for stiff competition.

The N terminal makeover is an 8-figure investment for AS. They may figure that money could be better put towards another aircraft or elsewhere as a better investment in the immediate term. Whatever the reason, AS clearly doesn't see passenger improvements in the N terminal needing improvements anytime soon. With current construction projections running well into 2018, it might be 2020 or later before this thing is done.

ANC

I would surely hope the feds would still crush any such acquisition attempt, not just because I like AS but mainly for the sake of competition in the US airline business. I would hope that the feds would crush and deny any acqusition attempt going forward especially by AA, DL and UA of any US airline of over a fleet of 10 a/c or more than 10 destinations Within the last 5 years we have lost 3 large legacy airlines which greatly degraded the competition already. At first the feds denied AA/US but it seems they wrote a huge check to some political lobby group would be my cynical guess rather than "you have to give up a certain amount of gates rubbish" The big 3 have already sucked up 50% of the major legacy sector in 5 years. Enough is enough. But If the government was doing their job in the first place then AA/US would not have ever been approved so the idea that they will protect the consumer going forward isnt a very optimistic thought to me