Departure
95%
vs 95%
MY FS FLIGHTS
MY FS FLIGHTS
Seattle Paine Field International Airport (KPAE) lies in unincorporated Snohomish County between Mukilteo and Everett, about 25 miles north of Seattle, sharing its site with the vast Boeing Everett assembly plant. A dual-runway field with a long ILS-equipped main runway and a shorter general-aviation strip, it combines scheduled airline service with a busy training and business-aviation scene, making it a distinctive and useful destination for VFR pilots exploring the Puget Sound area.
Seattle Paine Field International Airport, commonly known simply as Paine Field, is a commercial and general aviation airport serving the Seattle metropolitan area from its site in unincorporated Snohomish County, Washington, between Mukilteo and Everett. It sits immediately adjacent to the Boeing Everett Factory, the world's largest building by volume, which has long dominated the airport's character and traffic mix. For a visiting VFR pilot, Paine Field offers the appeal of flying alongside airline and heavy Boeing manufacturing traffic while also being home to several flight schools and flying clubs, giving it a lively general-aviation atmosphere despite its commercial designation.
Paine Field sits within Class D airspace and partially underlies the Seattle Class B airspace, requiring pilots to be alert to the proximity of the wider Seattle terminal environment. The airport is located approximately 25 miles north of Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (SEA) and just east of Puget Sound, in unincorporated Snohomish County between the cities of Mukilteo and Everett.
Paine Field has two physical runways. The main runway, 16R/34L, is a hard-surfaced, lit runway of between roughly 8,996 and 9,395 feet depending on threshold, suitable for the majority of aircraft including heavy types, and equipped with an ILS serving runway 16R. The secondary runway, 16L/34R, is a shorter hard-surfaced, lit runway of 3,002 feet, suited to smaller general aviation aircraft. The two runways run parallel with staggered thresholds and full-length parallel taxiways.
Paine Field is served by ATIS on 128.65, clearance delivery on 126.75, and a Seattle Center frequency of 128.5. Ground control operates on 121.8, with an operations frequency on 34.1. Tower operations are split by runway: aircraft arriving east of the runway centerline for runways 16L/34R use the tower frequency 120.2, while aircraft arriving west of the centreline for runways 16R/34L use 132.95, which also serves as the field's CTAF. A Seattle radio frequency of 132.96 and Unicom on 122.95 are also available. The airport hosts the Paine VOR/DME, unusually mounted atop a Boeing hangar on the field, and runway 16R is served by an instrument landing system.
The FAA-operated control tower at Paine Field keeps limited hours, operating between 7 AM and 9 PM local time. During these hours both runways, 16R/34L and 16L/34R, are active for arrivals and departures, with traffic split according to which side of the runway centreline an aircraft is approaching from, as reflected in the dual tower frequencies. Outside tower hours, only runway 16R/34L remains open for use.
The most prominent landmark for visual navigation into Paine Field is the immense Boeing Everett Factory, sited directly adjacent to the airport and unmistakable from the air. The airport's surrounding natural reserve and salmon-safe pond area is bounded by the Mukilteo Speedway to the west, State Route 526 (the Boeing Freeway) to the north, Airport Road to the east, and Beverly Park Road to the south, providing useful ground reference features when orienting toward the field.
Paine Field was constructed in 1936 as a Works Progress Administration project, intended to be one of the country's ten new civilian super airports, and began commercial service in 1939. It was named for Topliff Olin Paine in 1941, shortly before the Army Air Corps took over the field for military use. The airport briefly returned to civilian operation between 1946 and 1950, with service provided by West Coast Airlines, before being converted into an air force base during the Korean War. In 1966 the Boeing Company selected Paine Field as the site for its Everett assembly plant as part of the 747 program, and by the 1970s the airport had grown into a hub for light aviation and manufacturing, though it lacked scheduled commercial service. County government attempts to introduce commercial flights from the 1980s onward were repeatedly halted by opposition from neighbouring cities, until commercial service finally resumed in March 2019 with the opening of a newly constructed terminal. Runway 11-29 was decommissioned on 10 September 2020, with Boeing subsequently leasing part of the former runway space to park partially completed aircraft. The airport was renamed Seattle Paine Field International Airport in July 2023 to emphasise its proximity to Seattle.
Paine Field remains a mixed-use field, combining scheduled airline service with a substantial general aviation and manufacturing presence. It is home to four flight schools, Chinook Flight Simulations, Regal Air, Northway Aviation and Everett Helicopters, along with a number of flying clubs, making it a popular training destination. The airport also hosts Aviation Technical Services, one of the largest aviation maintenance facilities in the country, occupying a 950,000-square-foot complex used for heavy maintenance checks on airline and cargo aircraft. General aviation parking is extensive, with 456 hangars on the field, though demand is high and wait times for hangar space can range from six months to five years. The control tower operates only between 7 AM and 9 PM local time, with reduced runway availability outside those hours.