Sea-Tac To Open Expanded Free Cell Phone Waiting Lot

- Drivers can wait for a call from arriving passengers instead of circling airport drives -

The Port of Seattle opens a new and expanded Cell Phone Lot at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport tomorrow morning. The lot is intended to be used by drivers picking up arriving passengers, as an alternative to circling the airport drives.

Drivers can wait in the lot, for free, until arriving passengers have deplaned, collected luggage, and called their family member or friend to arrange to be picked up outside of Baggage Claim.

The new lot is located on Air Cargo Road in front of the Delta Air Lines cargo building. It is directly across the street from the Air Cargo Road exit from the airport roadway.

"This lot will give us at least 43 spaces instead of the previous 15," said Michael Ehl, director of operations at Sea-Tac. "We hope this will help to relieve traffic congestion on the Baggage Claim drive."

The original cell phone lot was an experiment, begun during the holiday season in 2004.

"That experiment has been more than successful. We recognized the need for a larger, permanent lot some months ago and have worked hard to make the necessary lease arrangements in time for this year's holiday season," said Ehl.

Drivers wishing to access the lot will simply take the Air Cargo Road exit from the roadway leading to the airport, make a right turn at the bottom of the exit, and then an immediate left turn into the lot. Signage is being installed to provide easy directions.

The new lot is just a two minute drive to the baggage claim curbside. Officials hope the lot will help reduce traffic circling the airport drives.

"We know that more than 40% of cars on the baggage claim curbside have been through at least twice, and often more," said Airport Operations Manager Michael Civitelli. "If we can divert some of those vehicles to the cell phone lot we can really reduce congestion and help people meet their family and friends much faster."