BLI needs creative improvements to compete. Where is the strategic plan?

Editor’s note: This is part two in a guest commentary by experienced transportation official Wes Frysztacki about possible solutions to Bellingham’s airport woes. See part one here.

Bellingham International Airport needs creative solutions to compete for its share of the regional travel business. One doesn’t have to travel far to see possible elements.

Last week’s commentary focused on jetways at a comparable-sized airport in Billings, Montana. Other examples, at airports in the same market, are closer to home: Everett’s Paine Field also has the newest concept in jetway design — glass walls along the jetway. Paine Field is working to increase its market share and get airlines to redeploy flights from SeaTac to Paine Field.

The Paine Field Master Plan 2040 was completed just a few months ago. It is motivated by the statement, “Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (SEA) will likely not be able to supply adequate capacity to meet passenger demand sometime in the next 20 years.”[1]

Paine Field (PAE) is positioning itself to serve unmet demand. The PAE plan concludes, “SEA may not be able to accommodate air travel demand as early as 2027.” [2]

The PAE plan is designed to develop a 200,000-square-foot terminal that has seven gates with jetways. The cost will be $297 million. Federal funding programs will pay for about 90% of that cost, just as they would at Bellingham’s airport (BLI).

PAE has one big problem that BLI doesn’t — PAE lacks the land needed for their plan. BLI needs no additional land. However, BLI’s plan does not adequately address the types of market capture strategies rigorously investigated in PAE’s plan.

BLI’s plan needs to be updated. The first of BLI’s three plan phases ended in 2023. The next two phases go from 2024 to 2037. These phases will cost $38.6 million — but include no jetways nor any terminal improvements.[3]

The current phase includes a much-needed update of the BLI plan. This should be underway now. Unfortunately, it’s not. In fact, the Port’s website refers to the current plan as the “NEW AIRPORT MASTER PLAN.”

Bellingham’s airport has a lot to offer. Airlines will be begging for gates when those gates have jetways. The problem is that if BLI waits for airlines to come to us with a proposition, nothing will happen. BLI needs to take the initiative.

BLI’s competitors: More customer-focused

I have flown into and out of Bellingham more than 100 times. Other airports serving cities comparable to ours are better. Often, much better! They are more customer-focused. We must recover the enormous investment local taxpayers have made in the attributes that exist at BLI.

We need a new Bellingham International Airport Master Plan Update developed with a high level of policy-based, technically sound, and actively involved oversight.

The number of flights from SeaTac will likely change. Those changes will occur soon. Alaska Airlines is acquiring Hawaiian Airlines. What does that mean for Bellingham? Nothing; or, a lot! If the right people are doing the right things, this acquisition could be of enormous benefit to BLI.

PAE is much better prepared to capture SeaTac’s redeployed routes such as those to Hawaii. Alaska Airlines flights to Hawaii can now be inter-lined at the Honolulu airport with Hawaiian Airlines flights to Japan, Australia, New Zealand and South Korea. Our airport could become a far more viable gateway to those international destinations.

Hawaii: Open for business

Today, SeaTac has 19 daily nonstop flights to Hawaii. All passengers on those flights use jetways. What airline would do otherwise? In the past, Alaska and Allegiant did at BLI. They will not do so again if they remember passenger complaints from past operations.

Flights between Bellingham and Hawaii operating from 2011 to 2019 were full. Flights left Bellingham during the day, arrived in Hawaii in the evening, departed Hawaii later that night, and arrived at Bellingham early the next morning. During winter months, planes arrived from a tropical climate to Bellingham’s dark, wet and cold climate just after 5 a.m.

You could feel the blast of cold air and hear the audible gasps from those who expected a warm and dry jetway. Down the slippery sloped ramp we would go — dodging puddles, ice and snow. Passengers in sandals and flip-flops tiptoed around our winter conditions in a state of disbelief.

Passengers from Hawaii on those six-hour red-eye flights naturally assume they will be delivered to a warm and welcoming jetway, not onto a ramp to a pavement exposed to harsh weather conditions. Surely, a customer-friendly airline wouldn’t do such a thing. Portland, Seattle and Vancouver all greet Hawaii’s incoming passengers with inviting jetways into a nicely designed dry and warm terminal.

Airlines won’t come to us; BLI must go get them

BLI needs to put forth a proffer. BLI has embraced the Hawaii routes before. We need to do it again. We should not wait for the airlines to come to us. We need to go to them. We should offer airlines incentives. We will provide better support and amenities.

We will build jetways so passengers do not suffer climate shock when disembarking. We will package parking deals so passengers do not suffer sticker shock when retrieving their car. We should offer deals with our hotels for discounts if flying to or from Hawaii. We should package discounts with local restaurants and attractions.

Whatcom County real estate owners are now faced with subsidizing an airport that has lost out to better-managed airports. BLI airport investments have been made based on faulty user fee projections. Whatcom County property owners will now likely have to underwrite the difference.

This problem can be fixed. BLI could turn this prospect around if the right actions are taken. Alaska Airlines’ inevitable repositioning could benefit us, but only if somebody in Whatcom County knows what to do.

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[1] Paine Field Master Plan 2040, Snohomish County, May 2024, Chapter 3, Aviation Forecasts, page 1.

[2] ibid, page 54.

[3] Bellingham International Airport Master Plan Update, Port of Bellingham, October 2019, Tables 9-2 and 9-3.

Civil engineer Wes Frysztacki, a 3.5-million-mile air traveler, is former transportation director for the city and county of Honolulu; former director of transportation for the Puget Sound Council of Governments; and former president and current consultant for Weslin Consulting Services, Inc., which has provided transportation and infrastructure expertise to clients in 35 states. He lives in Bellingham.