One of our Paine Field Chapter members came to our last board meeting to tell us about a car parking problem on Paine Field’s East Ramp just south of the Crown Aviation/Regal Air maintenance hangar. It seems that when he arrived to go fly his airplane there was no place to park there because all of the available space was being utilized by Lyft and Uber drivers waiting to get a fare from the new commercial air terminal. This is the only place that aircraft owners can park that allows access to their aircraft tied down on the Paine Field east ramp.
As the board meeting was on Friday evening in July I was not able to contact the Paine Field Airport staff on this issue until Monday. Ryan Zulauf (Deputy Director-Business, Engineering, and Maintenance) took action immediately in the form of a barricade on the east ramp that reserved parking spaces for east ramp tenants. Ryan also advised that the Lyft/Uber parking problem was caused by lack of a suitable waiting area for them near the new commercial air terminal. This issue is being addressed by constructing a parking area specifically for the Lyft/Uber drivers near the new air terminal. I have always found that the airport staff is willing to help us solve problems that impede our use of “The Airport of Choice” in the Puget Sound area.
Commercial air service implementation has taken a lot of Paine Field airport staff resources during the past year. During the next couple of years I think we will see a renewed effort continue making Paine Field a great place for pilots and aircraft owners who operate out of Paine Field.
