Alaska Airlines accounts for about half the flights at SEA. (Photo courtesy of Alaska Airlines)
Like many industries in the past year, air travel has taken a huge hit and Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (SEA) was no exception, seeing an unprecedented decline in passengers. The airport closed out 2020 with 20,061,507 passengers passing through its halls, a 61.29% decline from the record high year of 2019. The last time passenger numbers were that low goes back decades to 1993. Even during the Great Recession, passenger growth was only modestly affected, manifesting as a two-year hiccup whereas growth boomed during the 2010s ranging from 1.04% to 12.91% per year.