Commercial Aviation Coordinating Commission

Find information on the Commercial Aviation Coordinating Commission, a group created by the Legislature to develop recommendations to meet Washington state critical aviation system capacity needs.

Information

Important Updates (11/22/22)

  • Some members of the Commercial Aviation Coordinating Commission sat down with TVW Washington's Public Affairs Network for an interview to talk about the CACC’s work and the state’s aviation capacity, opportunities and challenges. View the interview here: Inside Olympia - Is a New Airport in Washington's Future? - TVW

  • The CACC appreciates the emails from the public and the planning staff is reading them and providing them to the commission members. Because of the high volume of emails, you may or may not receive an immediate response. We appreciate your comments and patience. The CACC is logging comments and answering questions to this email only: CACC@wsdot.wa.gov
     
  • At the Sept. 23 meeting, the Commission narrowed the vote to two options for Phase 2 of their work. A recording of the meeting, including the vote and the planning group recommendation, can be found here: https://tvw.org/video/commercial-aviation-coordinating-commission-2022091207/?eventID=2022091207

Commission Recommendations (Phase 2)

The current Commission’s recommendations are as follows:

  •  Add capacity to Paine Field according to its Airport Master Plan (with potential for additional capacity), assume SEA executes its SAMP, assist other airports interested in pursuing regional commercial service (distributed air service supported by emerging technology)
  • Continue to develop a greenfield site option with a two (2) runway configuration. Pierce County Central, Pierce County East and Thurston County Central are the three greenfield sites remaining under consideration for a new airport, out of the 10 that were analyzed by the state's consultant.

Background

The CACC began in October 2019 and is required to meet three deadlines:

  • Phase 1: Provide an initial list of six possible locations to the Legislature by January 1, 2021 [Completed]
  • Phase 2: Provide a list of the top two locations (options) by October 15, 2022 [Completed]
  • Phase 3: Provide a single preferred location recommendation by June 15, 2023

As part of the recommendation approved by the Commission September 2022, the number of greenfield options provided by the consultant working on the aviation system plan was narrowed to three based on the technical data available. The commission will now focus on community engagement and additional technical analysis in order to narrow the options down further in the Spring of 2023.

The opportunity for community feedback is now more focused on the greenfield sites. Prior to this, it was focused on existing airport communities as that list of options was narrowed.

The consultant for the Washington Aviation System Plan (WASP) has been conducting technical analysis that also serves the needs of the Commission. The two activities are separate endeavors but have similar interests.  The reason the CACC decided to continue to consider the three greenfield sites is because all the analysis has not yet been completed; the CACC had a legislative deadline to report a reduced list of locations to the legislature.  Since there are still three sites being analyzed, the CACC chose to continue to examine these three sites as one of the options.  The analysis that is remaining includes:

  • Airspace review – with assistance from the FAA
  • Air cargo analysis
  • Additional environmental factor analysis
  • Transportation/access analysis
  • Infrastructure analysis
  • Rough Order of Magnitude (ROM) cost estimates

Once this analysis is complete, the consultant planning team will provide the data to the Commission. We anticipate the first round of information in the February 2023 time frame and will schedule a commission meeting once the information is available.

The public is invited to future meetings and there will be an opportunity for public comments, and you will also see concentrated efforts for community input in and around the greenfield areas.  

The Commercial Aviation Coordinating Commission was created by the Legislature and tasked WSDOT Aviation to provide staff support for coordinating and administering the commission and technical assistance as requested by commission members.

The CACC aims to recommend a single preferred location for a new commercial service airport by June 15, 2023. In addition to recommending a new primary commercial aviation facility, the commission will recommend additional ways to accommodate capacity needs at other facilities.

We are responsible, according to the Legislature (PDF 76 KB), for the administration of the commission’s work while providing technical support to the commission members.

Communication to the public and stakeholders will be crucial for CACC. The communication plan will provide the following:

  • A logical and factual framework for understanding the issues that must be addressed by the CACC and for understanding how the decisions will be made.
  • Meaningful ways for people who want to be included and involved in the deliberations of the CACC.
  • Assure that major stakeholders, such as local governments, the aviation industry, airports, and regional planning agencies have timely information to assure meaningful input

2022

2021

2020

 

Online open house

TBA

Upcoming events

Virtual drop-in sessions

In December, we’ll offer three virtual drop-in sessions. During these sessions, you can log in to Zoom and ask questions or share your thoughts with our planning team.

These sessions are meant to be informal. That means:

  • This is not a regular CACC meeting, however some Commission members (voting or non-voting) may attend, schedule permitting.
  • We won’t give a formal presentation.
  • You can drop in any time, and we’ll be there to hear what’s on your mind. We should note: if many people are interested, we may change the structure of the conversation or adjust meeting times to make room for everyone to take part.
  • These conversations are not meant to inform an upcoming vote. The planning team will summarize the conversations and share it with the Commission, but they are less formal than our surveys, open houses, and public meetings.

Click one of the links below to sign up for online office hours. Fill out the form and you will receive an email with a link to join the meeting on Zoom or join by phone:

We’ll send out links for each meeting time through this listserv and will make information available on the website. We know December is busy, so if there is interest we will schedule additional sessions in the new year.

Please help us plan by indicating on this poll which session, if any, you will join.

Past meetings and events

Sept. 23, 2022 9 a.m. - 12 p.m. - Virtual Public Meeting

CACC Online Open House Aug. 15 - Sept. 11, 2022

August 31, 2022 Virtual Open House 

August 23, 2022 Virtual Open House

June 23, 2022 1 p.m. - 3:30 p.m. - Virtual Public Meeting

April 20, 2022 10 a.m. - 11 a.m. - Virtual Public Webinar

Feb. 16, 2022, 10 a.m. - 11 a.m.- Virtual Public Webinar

Jan. 6, 2022, 9 a.m. - 11 a.m. - Virtual Public Meeting

CACC Online Open House Sept. 20 - Dec. 8, 2021

Dec. 7, 2021, 10 a.m. - 11:30 a.m. - Virtual Public Meeting

Nov. 10, 2021, 8:30 a.m. - 10 a.m. - Virtual Public Meeting and webinar

August 26, 2021, 9 a.m. - 1:30 p.m. Virtual Public Meeting

June 15, 2021, 10 a.m. - 11:30 a.m. Virtual Public Webinar

April 29, 2021, 8:30 a.m. - 12 p.m. Webinar and Virtual Public Meeting

Feb. 16, 2021, 9 a.m. - 10 a.m. Virtual Public Webinar

  • Webinar on federal and state funding
  • PowerPoint (Please email to obtain)

Dec. 9, 2020, 9 a.m. - 10 a.m. Virtual Public Webinar

  • Webinar on SeaTac Sustainability and UW ultrafine particulate studies
  • PowerPoint (Please email to obtain)

Oct. 21, 2020, 8 a.m. - 12 p.m. Virtual Public Meeting

July 22, 2020, 8 a.m. - 12 p.m. Virtual Public Meeting

April 2020 straw poll on a preferred strategy

Commissioners participated in a straw poll on a preferred strategy (no decision was made) for addressing Washington's aviation capacity and offered their preferences, along with comments on their reasons for doing so. The results of the poll are as follows:

1. Develop on large Sea-Tac-size airport: 0
2. Expand and/or improve one or more existing airports, to provide commercial and freight service: 7
3. Combine these strategies to meet near-term capacity needs from existing airports while conducting the processes necessary for a large new airport: 14
4. I don't know: 0
5. No answer: 4
Survey comments (PDF 202KB)

Jan. 9, 2020

Oct. 30, 2019

Commercial Aviation Coordinating Commission commonly asked questions

Commonly asked questions for the Commercial Aviation Coordinating Commission.

Contact information

Christina Crea
Communications
CACC@wsdot.wa.gov
360-810-0902

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