Just one day after the state’s Aviation Planning Council (APC) released its recommendations on how best to meet commercial and general aviation capacity in Washington, questions are being raised about the Council's work.

The Council's recommendations include using local airport capacity at Paine Field in Everett, Olympia Regional Airport, Boeing Field and Bremerton National airport, but Sen. Karen Keiser, D-Kent, who sponsored the bill that created the Council, thinks the APC has a lot more work to do.

“My bill creating the Council was clearly designed to obtain specific recommendations for future aviation capacity in our state,” Keiser said.  “All the report recommends is that we use current capacity to fullest extent possible. We knew that 4 years ago when I first proposed SB 5121 that created the Council.”

ESSB 5121, signed into law in 2005, called for a study of current airport capacities, a market study, and appointment of an Aviation Planning Council by Gov. Gregoire.  The legislation directs the Council to determine future aviation needs then make recommendations regarding the placement of future commercial and general aviation airport facilities to improve aviation planning in the region.

“We studied current capacity, but we failed to grapple with the tough choices for the future,” Keiser said. “WSDOT makes plans for future freeways twenty and thirty years in the future, we should do the same for aviation. I will be looking into legislation during this interim to introduce next session to produce more definitive results.”