Alaska Airlines this week confirmed it has leased space in the same new SeaTac warehouse building where Amazon is a tenant.
The city earlier this spring issued Alaska a permit to build out just over 115,000 square feet for warehouse and office use. Illinois-based IAC Properties developed the 460,000 square-foot building on 26 acres of Port of Seattle-owned land on South 204th Street, about a mile south of Alaska's headquarters. Amazon will fill the remainder of the building.
An airline spokesperson said the lease was signed in November before the novel coronavirus wounded carriers worldwide. The lease is not related to Alaska's recent decision to test using its Boeing 737 Next Generation passenger jets to fly cargo-only flights as passenger traffic has largely been wiped out by stay-at-home orders.
"We are leasing that space and plan to house multiple functions there supporting our operation and training," the spokesperson said in an email. In addition to storage space, there will be a call center for questions about baggage.
Earlier this month Alaska permanently parked 12 older jets, and more than 5,000 employees had voluntarily taken short-term leave. The airline said those and other moves helped reduce its cash burn from $400 million per month in March to $260 million in April.
Alaska said it would reduce that to $200 million in June, when it expects more major flight cuts. The goal is to match cash burn to its expenses by the end of December.
Alaska earlier reached an agreement in principle with the U.S. Treasury Department to receive $992 million in financial support to cover its payroll costs for 23,000 employees through Sept. 30.
Seattle-Tacoma International Airport earlier this spring said passenger traffic measured at security screening checkpoints was down 86%.
The port has said the IAC project will house around 400 full-time jobs with an estimated payroll of more than $28 million annually.