Airport seeks public comments on Draft Minimum Standards
Two public meetings, one in person and one online, will be held for airport tenants and community members about key revisions made to the Draft Minimum Standards. The Draft Minimum Standards lists the minimum standards as well as basic rules and regulations for all providers of aeronautical services at King County International Airport-Boeing Field.
No decisions on the Draft Minimum Standards will be made at the public meetings.
The airport also seeks comments about these revisions.
In-person public meeting:
Wednesday, October 30
1 - 2 p.m. (Pacific Daylight Time)
KCIA Flight Service Station
6526 Ellis Ave S., Seattle
Online public meeting:
Wednesday, October 30
5 - 6 p.m. (Pacific Daylight Time)
via Zoom Webinar
Register for the online event.
Send comments separately by 5 p.m., November 22.
Comments on the Draft Minimum Standards will help King County in making an informed decision about the proposed project. Official comments on the Draft Minimum Standards must be submitted in writing.
Comments must be received by 5 p.m. (Pacific Standard Time) Friday, November 22, to be considered. Send written comments by one of three methods:
Via U.S. mail:
Matt Sykora, Airport Business Manager
King County Department of Executive Services
King County International Airport-Boeing Field
7277 Perimeter Road South,
Seattle WA 98108
Via the project website: https://publicinput.com/u4213
Via email: kciacommunityoutreach@kingcounty.gov
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Skyservice celebrates grand opening of Business Jet Center
Photo, left to right: John Parrott, director at KCIA; Geoff Carlyle, Skyservice, and Gilbert White, Real Property Agent in King County's Facilities Management Division.
Skyservice Business Aviation celebrated the grand opening of its new Seattle Business Jet Center on September 10 at King County International Airport – Boeing Field. Several KCIA leaders and staff attended the grand opening, enjoying the viewing deck, mingling with airport tenants and other guests, and checking out the passenger lounge and the new 50,000-square-foot hangar.
The event showcased Skyservice’s 71,000 square-foot fixed-base operations (FBO) and hangar complex. The two-story structure includes a passenger lounge with floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the airport ramp and a grand fireplace, a spacious pilot lounge, snooze rooms, refreshment stations and a 12-seat executive conference center with access to the 1,600-square-foot furnished terrace overlooking Mount Rainier. The hangar and 7-acre apron support all aircraft, including piston-powered planes and turbojets.
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 Above: Skyservice's new 50,000 square-foot hangar.
“Seattle is a thriving economic center for North America. Our business jet center brings a new level of ease, sophistication and luxury to the region’s business aviation FBO service offering,” commented Benjamin Murray, Skyservice President and Chief Executive Officer. “We are thrilled to welcome commuters, tenants and visitors to Seattle with outstanding service and personalization that has earned Skyservice its reputation for excellence in the industry.”
Skyservice is the newest full-service FBO to support general aviation at KCIA, one of the top 25 busiest airports in the U.S. and the principal business aviation airport in the greater Seattle area. To learn more, visit skyservice.com.
Roundtable roundup: new leadership
The Airport Roundtable has new leadership: Chair Erik Utter and Vice Chair Ali Lee.
Chair Erik Utter
Utter has been involved in the airport in one way or another for nearly 30 years.
“I learned to fly in my early 20s at Boeing Field,” Utter said. “I’ve been an airport hangar tenant for nearly 25 years.”
Utter has participated in the Roundtable periodically, and has been a member for about two years, since a position opened up to represent South King County, including the cities of Renton and Kent. He lives in Burien.
“I have a couple of overarching goals for my time in leadership on the Roundtable,” Utter said. “One is around better engagement from Roundtable members. The other overarching goal is to increase community engagement.”
Utter said that he aims to increase participation by Roundtable members by encouraging in-person attendance at Roundtable meetings at least once per quarter. Roundtable meetings have been held via Zoom since the pandemic, with a more recent option for in-person attendance in a conference room at the terminal.
“It’s easier to have a dialogue. It’s a bit more of a natural conversation, a little less formal,” Utter said. “It’s increased the productivity of the Roundtable.”
Utter said that boosting community engagement was a key driver of the addition of two new Roundtable positions, a move the County Council approved. The positions, representing Beacon Hill and South Park, are open to residents who live in those areas.
He said he hopes to offer community engagement training for Roundtable members, especially those who represent communities. He stressed the importance of the Roundtable following up with issues that arise in community meetings.
“We want to make sure we continue following the plan, following up with community engagement,” he said.
Look for a feature on Lee in an upcoming edition.
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Former intern to graduate, already lands a job
Dominique Thomas recently completed her internship at King County International Airport through the Year Up program. She will be graduating from South Seattle College on October 25 with a technical certificate in business operations and finance.
She’s already landed a job as a contracts coordinator at Active Construction, Inc., a private construction firm.
“It’s definitely bittersweet leaving the airport,” Thomas said in a presentation about her experience. “Being in this positive and knowledgeable environment has truly transformed my perspective and I am grateful for the opportunity to continue my journey in procurement.”
Thomas originally wanted a career in human resources. She hadn’t even heard of procurement. But as many people do, she “fell into procurement” through Year Up. And she loves it.
YearUp is a non-profit professional development program dedicated to providing equitable access to economic opportunities and education for young adults from diverse backgrounds. Participants take classes for six months and then are placed in six-month internships.
“It is an amazing experience,” added Thomas, who was a Finance & Contracting Services Intern. “It is something that has drastically changed my life. My future definitely lies in procurement.”
King County’s Finance and Business Operations Division (FBOD), in the Department of Executive Services, started using the Year Up program earlier this year. Ginny Justiniano, Thomas’ supervisor and mentor, heard about FBOD’s success with the program and wanted to try it out. Thomas’ internship was the airport’s first experience with the Year Up program.
“It was a successful internship experience and as capacity opens up we are open to having another one in the future,” said Justiniano, Contracts Specialist.
Photo: Left, Dominique Thomas, former Finance & Contracting Services Intern, with Ginny Justiniano, Contracts Specialist
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People on the move
Pam Kuehl
Congratulations to Pam Kuehl, Fiscal Specialist III, who retired from King County last month after 25 years.
Kuehl, shown here with airport director John Parrott, was recently honored at an airport All Staff meeting. Colleagues recognized her steadfast support of the airport, where she served her entire county career. She was lauded for taking care of anything that was needed. Others noted that she watched many of the long-time employees grow up at the airport.
“I love the airport,” Kuehl said. “I love the people I worked with.”
“Tony (Eayrs) was so good to me,” she added, referring to her supervisor.
In retirement, she is looking forward to traveling more, both domestically and internationally. She wants to see more of Washington State, including taking a drive on the North Cascades Highway and seeing the rainforest in Olympic National Park. She has family in California and North Dakota, and plans to visit.
“I’d love to go tropical,” she added. “I’ve thought about going to Jamaica.”
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Taylor Lee
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Welcome to Taylor Lee, new Contract Specialist II at the airport. Lee brings six years of experience working in procurement for King County, as well as one and a half years as a bus driver for King County Metro.
He will support airport contracts from planning through procurement and contract completion, including amendments and quality assurance reviews.
“I’m looking forward to seeing project administration,” Lee said. “In my previous role, I only worked on contract procurement.”
Lee has an Associate of Arts degree in business from Highline College.
He enjoys spending time with his wife and two dogs. He is also the director of a Special Olympics powerlifting team.
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Collin Campagne
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Campagne is the new Innovation GIS Intern at the King County International Airport.
Some of Collin’s roles and responsibilities include collaborating with sections airport-wide on data collection; field verifications; preparing data to be used in GIS; creating a variety of maps; learning AutoCAD and creating drawings; and understanding the business process and workflow between CAD and GIS data, drawings, and map environments.
He is a Bachelor of Technology in GIS candidate at the British Columbia Institute of Technology and aims to graduate next March. Campagne has a degree in environmental studies from the University of Vermont, where he was a collegiate-level competitive rock climber. He calls Vermont home, but these days outside of work and school, you can find him in the heart of the Cascades or riding his bike downtown with his friends.
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Ginny Justiniano: Procurement leader
Ginny Justiniano, Lead Contract Specialist, will speak at the Washington Procurement Connect, a conference for procurement professionals from public agencies including state agencies, cities, counties, schools and tribes, in Tacoma on October 8. She will also teach a class at the event.
“I’m representing King County and the Washington state chapter of NIGP which is all about public procurement members learning more about how to stay on top of the trends that are happening in the procurement world,” Justiniano said.
NIGP is The Institute for Public Procurement. Justiniano is president of the Washington NIGP chapter.
Her speaking engagement comes on the heels of her participation in back-to-back conferences in Charlotte, North Carolina. She started with the 2024 Airport Purchasing Group (APG) Annual Conference on August 23-24, where she was the sole Washington state delegate and the first attendee from King County International Airport’s procurement group.
Then, on August 25-28, she attended the NIGP 2024 Annual Forum and Product Expo, a national conference for more than 3,000 procurement professionals. She participated in leadership events and spoke at three different sessions. This included co-facilitating a networking session for large counties and serving as a panelist for “Fell into Procurement, Now What? Creating a Professional Development Action Plan.”
“The APG conference was super informative as it was just focused on airport business,” Justiniano said. “In my one and a half years at KCIA, I’ve discovered how we operate like a little city. The size of an airport can dictate how many services we are able to provide to our customers.”
“We are aiming to be best in class by 2030,” she added. “Taking procurement classes related to aviation will help me understand what it means to be best in class.”
She added that many people end up in the procurement field by accident.
“Nobody guided us to how we get to learn this thing,” she explained.
Conferences are a way to learn and to share information with peers from across the country.
“NIGP offers so much professional development, mentorship, leadership,” Justiniano said. “There was so much good information that I want to take back to my team.”
As part of her ongoing professional development, Justiniano recently obtained her NIGP-CPP certification. She joined 409 other procurement professionals on the NIGP stage for the traditional Walk of Fame to publicly affirm their achievements during the awards dinner at Forum.
As an added benefit of her attendance, most conference sessions are available online for 60 days after the conference, allowing the learning to continue.
Photo: Ginny Justiniano points out her name on a large poster at Forum celebrating those who obtained their NIGP-CPP certification.
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FAA approves aviation demand forecast
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) approved King County International Airport’s aviation demand forecast last month, a key milestone for the Vision 2045 Airport Plan and the Part 150 Study project team. The forecast looks at aviation demand at KCIA over the next twenty years in five, 10, and 20-year increments. With the forecast approved, work on the Vision 2045 Airport Plan Facility Requirements is underway as is the development of the Part 150 Noise Exposure Maps (NEMs).
Over the next few months, the project team will meet with the Project Advisory Committee (PAC) and community-based organizations to share information on the projects.
Learn more about the Vision 2045 Airport Plan and Part 150 Study. If you have questions about these projects, please contact KCIACommunityOutreach@kingcounty.gov.
Photo: Participants at a project open house last month look at a map and learn more about the projects.
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