Hard to Replace: Sea-Tac Airport Loses a Respected Leader
Lance Lyttle has left his job after nine years leading Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. His new job is at the airport in Orlando, Florida. He is leaving Sea-Tac at a critical juncture in its 75-year history: $5 billion in capital projects underway, a return to record passenger growth, and looming decisions about the airport’s last major expansion.
If the job keeping millions of Sea-Tac passengers happy was not enough, Lyttle had to deal with the crushing impacts of the COVID pandemic, fierce competition between Alaska and Delta airlines, skyrocketing construction costs, and restless airport communities unhappy with airplane noise and air emissions.
Oh, and protesters triggered by President Trump’s Muslim ban storming the terminal in 2017. Also, a ground crew worker’s brazen theft of a Horizon Airlines plane in 2018, which crashed fatally on Kentron Island. And a cyberattack last year that froze much of the airport’s computer systems.
Lyttle leaves Seattle for a bigger airport that delivers millions of visitors to Walt Disney World and other tourist destinations in central Florida. Orlando International Airport is run by a single-purpose airport authority in a community that embraces the airport and favors expansion, he said. “I think they have a fantastic community that works very well and supports the airport,’’ Lyttle said. “The community wants the airport to grow. That’s very attractive.”
https://www.postalley.org/2025/04/14/hard-to-replace-sea-tac-airport-loses-a-respected-leader/