This article is about the seaplane base on Lake Union in Seattle. For the seaplane base on the northern end of Lake Washington in Kenmore (IATA: KEH, FAA LID: S60), see Kenmore Air Harbor.
Kenmore Air Harbor Seaplane Base is 3 acres (1.2 ha) at an elevation of 14 feet (4.3 m) above mean sea level. It has one 5,000-by-500-foot (1,520 by 150 m) seaplane landing area designated runway 16/34, which runs from Gas Works Park to the north to Lake Union Park in the south.[1][2] A different seaplane base on the same lake, Seattle Seaplanes SPB (FAALID: 0W0), is assigned runway 18/36 that instead goes diagonally through the lake.[3]
For the 12 months ending December 31, 2022, the airport had 43,500 aircraft operations, an average of 119 per day: 82% air taxi and 18% general aviation.[1]
The first seaplane flight from Lake Union was by William E. Boeing, on June 15, 1916. The lake has been served by commercial flights from Kenmore Air since 1946. In 2018, buoys and lights were installed in the lake to warn boaters of landing planes.[4] Despite the warnings, recreational watergoers have continued to use the public lake, leading to cancelled flights.[5]