Seattle-Tacoma International Airport wants to get this message heard… it no longer wants passengers calling it ‘Sea-Tac,’ the much-loved and decades-old moniker that locals and visitors commonly refer to the airport, despite a $300,000 rebrand in early 2020 that dropped the nickname.
While the airport is still officially known as Seattle-Tacoma, the Port of Seattle brought in consultants from Turnstyle Studio and Stoke more than six years ago to try to rationalize the various names that the airport was known by.
Turnstyle Studio said the airport was going through a “brand identity crisis”. Operationally, the airport was often referred to as the ‘Port of Seattle,’ nationally it was more commonly known by its official airport code ‘SEA,’ while locals preferred to call it ‘Sea-Tac.’
The consultants decided that the best way to resolve this brand identity confusion was to drop two of the airport’s used names:
- The airport would be given its own branding for the first time, dropping the ‘Port of Seattle’ from its identity.
- Nicknames were also to be banished, so ‘Sea-Tac’ was eliminated from the branding.
Instead, the primary name for the airport would be its unique three-letter airport code: SEA. Elsewhere, the airport would also be referenced by its full name: Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.
The use of the airport code as the primary name of Seattle-Tacoma came about because it’s something that travelers are already incredibly familiar with. The airport code not only appears on luggage tags, booking reservations, and flight search engines, but it’s also used by many other airports as their primary brand name.
How are airport codes assigned?
Airports around the world are assigned both a three letter code and a four letter code.
- The three letter code is managed by the International Air Transportation Association (IATA).
- The four letter code is assigned by managed by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO).
Like many IATA airport codes, Seattle-Tacoma’s identifier is derived from the first three letter of the city name, whereas the ICAO code is KSEA (The letter K appears at the front of all ICAO codes in the contiguous United States).
Following the rebrand, Seattle-Tacoma accepted that many people in the local area had an “affection” for the Sea-Tac nickname but insisted that it had to be dropped so as not to confuse passengers from further afield.
Since early 2020, Seattle-Tacoma has primarily used its ‘SEA’ logo in all branding and communications, while being careful never to refer to itself as Sea-Tac.
The problem, though, is that locals, journalists and even visitors from further afield are refusing to drop the Sea-Tac nickname. Now, the airport is creating a fierce debate on social media by trying to educate people about what it would like everyone to call it.
“The only debate appears to be your marketing team vs literally everyone else,” wrote one person in response to one of the airport’s post on X about the brand name.
“Nice try but the name is not changing,” wrote another commentator, while a third added: “Debate requires participation on both sides of an issue. The SEA crowd seems a little quiet.”
How do you say SEA?
It’s common to refer to many airports by their IATA airport code with each letter indiviually said aloud.
For example, Los Angeles International Airport is commonly referred to as ‘L-A-X’, Atlanta Hartsfield is called ‘A-T-L’ and London Heathrow is often just called ‘L-H’R.’
But what about airport codes that look like normal words? Take Helsinki-Vantaa Airport which has the IATA code ‘HEL’ and is often pronounced ‘hell’ or Buenos Aires Ezeiza International Airport which uses the code ‘EZE’ which is commonly pronounced ‘easy.’
Well, Seattle-Tacoma says it doesn’t want its code pronounced like the body of water but instead each letter individually pronounced: S-E-A.
As rebranding exercises go, $300,000 sounds like a pretty good price tag. Which is probably a good thing, as it sounds like many travelers have decided they are going to reject the elimination of Sea-Tac for the foreseeable future.
So stupid! It’s “SeaTac!” Always will be!
And yet, what is their official site for checking flight status and other airport information?
Portseattle
Exactly right about the pronounciation vs LAX – people see SEA and think ‘say it like sea’ – but I’m flying into sea…well who wants to fly into the sea?
And a lot of work to remember S-E-A
SeaTac is really elegant…people want to call airports by the locals lingo to feel they’re ‘in the know.’ And the Tac adds the local flavor. Embrace it SeaTac.