Sea-Tac's "S-E-A" rebrand isn't landing well with some locals
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"SEA" branding can be seen around Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, sometimes alongside mascot Jett the SEA Otter. Photo courtesy of Port of Seattle
Seattle area residents flooded our inboxes with reactions to the airport's push to use "SEA" as its preferred shorthand instead of Sea-Tac, with many seeing the new nickname as a snub to Tacoma.
The big picture: Many locals see the airport's yearslong rebranding effort as dropping part of its identity — and they're not taking kindly to it.
What they're saying: Tacoma "has always been treated like an annoying relative that you have to include in family gatherings," reader Kathy Mills Rozzini told Axios.
- "To eliminate them after being in the name for over 75 years is really a public slap in the face," Rozzini said.
- In the 1940s, officials from Tacoma, the Port of Tacoma and Pierce County contributed $100,000 to help site the airport where it stands today, several readers noted.
- "Even small talk about removing the 'Tac' from 'Sea-Tac' seems like another item on the list of why the big city to the north looks down on the smaller, yet still big, city to the south," Tacoma resident Cort Daniel wrote.
Other critics focused on the awkwardness of pronouncing "S-E-A" as three syllables, which the airport recommends.
- It's "easier to say Sea-Tac," Eastside resident Bart Dellinger told Axios, adding, "No one I know says S-E-A either."
- Because the abbreviation forms an actual English word, that creates additional problems, a few readers noted.
The other side: Airport officials note that the airport's full name — Seattle-Tacoma International Airport — still includes Tacoma.
- "We agree that regionalisms are important and keeping the full name recognizes the support both Seattle and Tacoma provided to the Port to bring the airport to life in 1949," airport spokesperson Perry Cooper wrote in an email to Axios.
- The airport has leaned into the SEA nickname in the past six years to match its airport code, which is how the airport is increasingly known to global travelers, he said.
In that spirit, a couple of readers were OK with the rebranding.
- The code-based nickname puts Seattle's airport in the same category as other major West Coast airports, including PDX, LAX and SFO, reader Xavier Barrera told Axios.
- He predicted that although locals will resist, SEA will become common in conversation "as tourists and transplants alike quickly adopt it."
The bottom line: In the future, whether someone says Sea-Tac or "S-E-A" may signal whether they're local or a recent transplant — much like the California habit of adding "the" before freeway names.
- For most locals, though, it's still I-5 and Sea-Tac.