It’s the other airport.
The opposite of Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.
Bellingham International Airport is small, unhurried and parking is cheap.
In 2016, 417,940 passengers flew out of the Bellingham terminal. Compare that with Sea-Tac, which has an average of 125,000 passengers per day.
Sea-Tac had a record 45.7 million passengers in 2016, making it the ninth busiest U.S. airport. It has 28 airlines serving 77 nonstop domestic and 22 nonstop international cities.
At Bellingham, there are two major airlines, Alaska Airlines and Allegiant Air, making nonstop flights to 10 cities.
Alaska Airlines flies year-round to Seattle and Portland. Seasonal flights, starting in November, go to Kona and Maui in Hawaii. Kona flights end April 1 and Maui flights end April 2.
Allegiant Air flies to Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Oakland, Palm Springs, San Diego and Phoenix. It is a low-cost airline with a-la-carte charges for things such as seat selection and carry-on bags.
It is estimated that slightly more than half of passengers flying from Bellingham are Canadian, and the rest are mostly from Whatcom, Skagit and Snohomish counties.
The test
I put it to the test.
Which is better, Seattle-Tacoma International Airport or Bellingham International Airport?
Here’s the scoop and the score.
For my December direct flight to Maui, the price of tickets on Alaska Airlines averaged about $500 at both airports, with Bellingham a bit cheaper overall.
When I scouted out the Bellingham airport in August I liked the ease of a small airport and the scenic northern drive in the summer.
I chose Bellingham because I hadn’t tried it before and like new adventures. My husband, Max, doesn’t like to try new things, but he grudgingly agreed.
It is 37.5 miles to Sea-Tac from our home in Mukilteo and takes about 40 minutes during non-peak times. It is 75.4 miles to the Bellingham airport, about an 80-minute drive.
With a 10 a.m. Friday flight we could have left our house at 6:30 a.m. and made it to Bellingham with time to spare, but Max is a gotta-get-there-early freak. He would have had us hitting the road at 4 a.m. No lie.
So, we stayed overnight at Hotel Bellwether, a wonderful elegant-yet-casual inn on Bellingham Bay, and started our vacation a day early. Yah!
Good thing we did. A winter blast came through as Max snored like a bear in the plush Bellwether bed. He even let me sleep in until 7:30 before telling me “the bus” (him) was leaving in 30 minutes sharp with or without me.
It took a white-knuckle 15 minutes to go the 4 miles from the hotel to the airport. There are closer options. On March 1, a new Holiday Inn Hotel &Suites is opening next to the airport.
Staying overnight is an added expense.
Score 1 point for Sea-Tac.
8:30 a.m.: Parking is easy in Bellingham. The economy lot is a short walk to the terminal, and there’s even a shuttle bus. Parking is $9 a day or $7 with an online coupon. At Sea-Tac, parking is $28 to $34 a day ($130 a week) at the terminal. Off-site lots offer parking for less but it requires a drop-off and shuttle bus that can add 20 minutes to the trip.
Score 1 point for Bellingham.
8:35 a.m.: Our TSA precheck line was much shorter than the mainstream line but there was a catch: There was only one agent scanning tickets. So we were put in at random intervals in the one screening line that was open. The Bellingham TSA precheck also instructs you to remove liquids and put these in the bin.
Score1 point each for both airports. Bellingham lines are shorter, but Max prefers the separate TSA precheck service at Sea-Tac.
8:55 a.m.: The Bellingham airport is small. There’s no train to catch or escalator to bump along with suitcases.
The gate area is cozy with a sprawling bar and restaurant that feels less like an airport and more like a lounge. And there are lots of TVs.
It’s a relaxing place to wait. I could have waited longer.
Score 1 point for Bellingham.
10:30 a.m.: I did have to wait longer. Snow meant the plane had to de-iced. From the window I saw the fearless captain walking around the plane in a short-sleeve shirt in the cold.
And when it was finally time to board, we had to walk outside in the cold on the tarmac. Brrrr.
Score 1 point for Sea-Tac, which brings the door to you.
1:30 p.m.: We should have been halfway to Maui. Instead we were just leaving Sacramento.
Sacramento? Yep. We had to stop for gas due to the trade winds, or something like that. Even with my bad sense of geography, I know that this isn’t on the way to Maui.
Score1 point for Sea-Tac,though it is possible they divert planes here, too.
5:15 p.m.: In an ideal world we would have been sipping umbrella drinks in Maui, but instead we are somewhere over the Pacific in a plane. But the airlines offered everyone a free drink and gave us each a $100 flight voucher for the inconvenience of the delay.
Score1 point for Bellingham.
With $100 credit, I guess that means I’ll be flying Alaska again … from Bellingham or Sea-Tac?
It’s a toss up.
Total score: 4 points Bellingham, 4 points Sea-Tac.
Both have pros and cons.
I like the ease of parking in Bellingham, the short walk to the gate. No trains, no lugging suitcases up and down escalators.
In Bellingham, you are there. Bam.
But… the drive is twice as far. In the winter, an overnight stay might be a good idea for a morning flight. Bellingham gets more snow and ice than the Everett area.
Returning at 10 p.m. and making the dark drive, I would have preferred a better lit commute from Sea-Tac in half the time. And I like seeing the city lights and Space Needle when I come back from a trip.
Max the set-in-his ways curmudgeon gave Bellingham the nod for vacation trips, though he prefers Sea-Tac for shorter flights, such as routine work trips to California.
Of Bellingham, Max said: “Nice, friendly airport. It was an easy airport. The parking lot is right there.”
He added: “It will be best when we can take an Uber to Paine Field Airport.”
Andrea Brown: 425-339-3443; abrown@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @reporterbrown.
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