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Marce Edwards is the business editor. She has been at The News Tribune for seven years and has written about technology and big businesses in the South Sound including Weyerhaeuser and Russell. Before moving to Tacoma, she worked at The Idaho Statesman in Boise. She is a Northwest native who likes to garden and refuses to use an umbrella. She lives in Tacoma with her husband and two kids.

C.R. Roberts is a Tacoma native. Before joining The News Tribune, he worked as a freelance writer and part-time cowhand on a cattle ranch in Northern Idaho. He writes about small business, personal finance and other business issues.

John Gillie writes about the aerospace and airline industries, commercial development and consumer issues. During his 30-year-tenure at The News Tribune he has covered issues as diverse as the Native American fishing rights disputes, crime and the courts, the wood products industry and energy. He lived in Tacoma with his family for 25 years, but now lives in Kent because his wife heads a five-state non-profit foundation headquartered in Ballard, and it only seemed a sensible compromise to make considering their workplaces are 40 miles apart.

Kelly Kearsley has been a business reporter at The News Tribune since 2005. She covers the Port of Tacoma and international trade. Being born and raised in Spokane she’s used to living in cities with inferiority complexes and, in fact, prefers it. Prior to working at The News Tribune, she spent three years as a reporter for The Bulletin in Bend, Oregon and another year working stints for The Associated Press and Seattle Times. She graduated from Pacific Lutheran University. She lives in Tacoma with her husband and miniature schnauzer.

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Get the most up-to-date news, insights and analysis of Tacoma, Pierce County and South Puget Sound business.
Monday, June 16th, 2008
Posted by John Gillie @ 07:32:55 am

A small, Portland-based airline has announced plans to do what giant, Dallas-based Southwest Airlines could not three years ago: set up air service between Seattle and another major city from Boeing Field.

SeaPort Airlines has announced a new service from Boeing Field near downtown Seattle to Portland beginning June 30.

The carrier will fly eight weekday roundtrips between the two airports using a single-engine turboprop Pilatus PC-12. The airline has scheduled four Saturday and Sunday roundtrips between the two airports.

It expects to attract travelers who want to avoid the security hassles at Sea-Tac Airport and at Portland International Airport. SeaPort will use a private terminal at Portland.

SeaPort's total passenger capacity in the 9-passenger planes is less than Horizon Air offers in one flight of its 74-passenger Q400 planes that fly frequently between SEA and PDX.

Tickets will cost from $149 to $224.

The airline's announcement is unlikely to generate the kind of massive opposition that Southwest did when it announced plans to move all of its 40-some daily flights from Sea-Tac to Boeing Field. Southwest planned to increase its flights to some 90 a day and build a new terminal at its expense.

The plan elicited opposition from other airlines at Sea-Tac, and rival Alaska Airlines said it would move some flights to Boeing Field to counter Southwest' move. Boeing Field neighbors also opposed the addition of regular jet commercial flights from the airport which is busy with private and corporate aviation and test and delivery flights by The Boeing Co.

Southwest's plan eventually failed when King County Executive Ron Sims withdrew his support for the plan.