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SEATTLE TACOMA INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT HOTEL MAP

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Holiday Inn Seattle International Airport
17338 International Boulevard,
Seatac, WA 98188 US

La Quinta Inn Seattle Sea-tac
2824 South 188th Street,
Seattle, WA 98188 US

Hilton Seattle Airport and Conference Center
17620 International Boulevard,
Seattle, WA 98188 US

...more hotels

ABOUT Seatac

Seattle-Tacoma Airport, informally known as SeaTac, serves international air traffic in Seattle, Tacoma, and western Washington. It is a primary hub for Alaska Airlines and includes headquarters for both the airline and its subsidiary Horizon Air on airport premises. Flights from SeaTac reach destinations in North America, Europe, the Middle East, and East Asia. The airport was rated as the 17th busiest airport in the United States in 2011 with a total of 32.8 million passengers. It additionally rates 25th for aircraft operations and 20th for cargo volume.

SeaTac Airport was built in 1944 as a civilian airport to replace Boeing Field that had been taken over by the military for World War II. The first airline flights began in 1947 and were operated by Northwest and Trans-Canada. In 1955, the number of international flights began to increase as the airport began hosting a direct service to Tokyo. In 1966, Scandinavian Airlines started operating at SeaTac to implement non-stop routes to mainland Europe.

In 1951, the airport had four runways set at 45-degre angles. The N-S runway, which today is the 34R runway, was extended in 1959 to handle jet flights, and again in 1961 to serve additional traffic brought about by the Century 21 World's Fair. Today, there are just three runways lying parallel to one another and running from north to south.

By April 1957, the airport was seeing 216 departures a week. In 2008, this number had risen to 946 operations per day and 89% of these were commercial flights. The remaining 11% were 10% air tax operations and 1% transient general aviation.

Between 1967 and 1973, the airport saw major renovations through an expansion plan that included the addition of another runway, a parking lot, and two satellite terminals among other features. The original structure was almost completely remade as the plans involved building around and over the previous construction.

In the early 1970s, residents living nearby complained about the noise, vibration and smoke caused by the developments and filed lawsuits against the airport. To solve these problems, and to avoid similar occurrences with future developments, the government of King County bought homes and school buildings in the area and soundproofed others. This was carried further in the 1980s when the airport took part in the 1979 Congress noise compatibility program by setting up airport noise contours and buying yet more properties in the area.