Pitkin County Approves Airport Layout Plan, 30-Year Fixed-Base Operator Lease
It was a busy day for Pitkin County commissioners and Aspen-Pitkin County Airport staff on Wednesday, as the Airport Layout Plan, 30-year fixed-base operator lease, and 2025 rates and charges were approved.
Cheers were heard around the chambers — representative of the years of work that went into these approvals — after the agenda items were voted on.
Rates and charges
Pitkin County commissioners approved the airport’s 2025 rates and charges, which will bring the county $7.2 million in revenue, in a 4-1 vote.
Commissioner Kelly McNicholas Kury was the sole “no” vote, saying she finds it “outrageous” that the county will be allocating a nearly $10 million subsidy to landing fees in order to finance airport maintenance costs.
Kury believes the airport should charge the full landing fee to airlines and general (private) aviation, as the county will use its own reserve funds — totaling $8.7 million in the airport enterprise fund balance and $1.4 million in discretionary, nonairline revenues — for the maintenance.
“A $9.8 million subsidy from the airport fund to hold rates at this level — I don’t think this is what we saved this money for,” she said. “I think that this is an enterprise, that it’s pay as you go, and that it should be absorbed by the users of the airport.
“If you would ask me if our plans to engage in a multi-year public process relative to the airport planning that has resulted in consequence from the FAA withdrawing pavement funds would be costing us $9.8 million, plus the $2 million we invested into that public process, I would say that is outrageous, and I continue to think that this is outrageous,” she added.
The multi-million dollar price tag comes from “cracking, patching, and weathering” on the runway and lack of FAA funding. County commissioners decided to use reserve funds to repair the runway, assuming this will be the last temporary runway repair.
Pitkin County sets rates and charges through a “compensatory” methodology that focuses on the airfield and the terminal, meaning airport users pay for what they use — like occupying space and landing on the runway, according to previous reporting from The Aspen Times.
During a Nov. 6 meeting, county commissioners voted to keep 2025 landing fees the same as 2024. They also set the airline terminal local weight at $129.54 per square foot for interior space of the terminal and $43.18 per square foot for the exterior space.
The signatory landing fee will stay the same at $7.75 for commercial airlines and $9.18 per 1,000 pounds for general aviation. For general aviation, locally-based general aviation aircraft under 12,500 pounds do not pay the landing fee. Fuel flowage fee per gallon will remain the same at $0.14. For terminal exclusive and preferential rent space per foot will increase for all, including signatory, seasonal, outside covered, and outside seasonal.
Airport Layout Plan
The Airport Layout Plan (ALP), returned from the Federal Aviation Administration in October with no material changes, also received unanimous support from the Pitkin County Board of Commissioners.
It will now be sent to the secretary of the FAA. After the secretary signs the new ALP, it will officially be approved for the Aspen-Pitkin County Airport.
All commissioners expressed thanks to airport staff, the FAA, and community members who voted for ballot question 1C.
“I just want to thank staff and everyone involved in this process for getting this work done in an incredibly timely manner,” Commissioner Patti Clapper said.
In May 2024, county commissioners voted 4-1 to amend the ALP, shifting the runway 80 feet west instead of moving the taxiway 80 feet east, according to previous reporting from The Aspen Times.
Like every other draft ALP since 2012, the main contention within the community is that it includes widening the separation between the taxiway and runway centerlines to 400 feet. This meets the full FAA design standards for the airport’s size and allows planes with a 95- to 118-foot wingspan access to the airport once again.
The amended ALP includes shifting the runway, the potential to extend the west-side taxiway, eliminating a midfield crossing in the “high energy zone” of the runway, and extending access to the departure of the runway, previous reporting states.
Shifting the runway instead of the taxiway is an answer to the FAA mandate that moving the taxiway would prompt the reconstruction and relocation of the air traffic control tower, likely to the other side of Colorado Highway 82 over 100 feet tall, and paid for from the county’s Airport Enterprise Fund (revenue earned in the airport must only fund airport works and vice versa).
It is the greatest departure from the Common Ground Recommendations, which called for a taxiway shift, but a consultant said the reason to shift the taxiway is now moot and that the runway must be fully reconstructed, no matter its location.
“Thank you the BOCC members for submitting a ballot question, allowing the community to reaffirm your authority to do the necessary work to implement the ALP and completely modernize the airport, including the FBO,” said Airport Advisory Board member Barry Vaughn, on behalf of Meg Haynes, vice chair of the AAB, during a public comment period. “I sincerely hope, most importantly, that you, the BOCC, and the AAB team can begin immediately to do the direly needed work to create a world-class new terminal and environmentally state of the art airport.”
Fixed-base operator lease
Another unanimous vote approved the 30-year fixed-base operator lease with Atlantic Aviation at the Aspen-Pitkin County Airport, with commissioner Greg Poschman recusing himself on behalf of his wife representing Atlantic.
Per the terms of the 30-year lease, Atlantic Aviation has already given financial commitments of $136.5 million in one-time capital investments and contributions, as well as an estimated $879 million in total estimated payments of rents, fees, and charges over the course of the lease, according to previous reporting from The Aspen Times.
The lease includes four ongoing revenue sources. The first is a yearly ground rent that starts off at $3 million. It will be adjusted annually by 4% or the Denver-Aurora-Lakewood Consumer Price Index (CPI), whichever is greater. The ground rent will never be less than the year prior.
There is a supplemental operating fee of $2 million. This is adjusted under the same terms as the ground rent.
At year 10 of the lease, and every five years after, there can be a reappraisal of the lease at market value. This ensures that rent will not decrease and provides an opportunity for prices to remain current, which was not possible during the previous 30-year lease agreement.
The lease also requires Atlantic Aviation to pay 26% of gross receipts on all charges except for patio shelters. Patio shelters will be 85% after Atlantic builds these for the airport.
The base minimum annual guarantee (MAG) will begin at $14 million. MAG is meant to ensure a minimum revenue is coming into Pitkin County.
This amount will increase to $16 million following either the fourth year or after substantial completion of all the required improvements in the lease are completed. In addition to this, there is a 1.5% adjustment beginning on the first anniversary after the MAG adjustment date.
This puts the total commitments within this lease agreement at just over $1 billion over the 30 years of the lease. The percent of total revenues that are in ground lease use fee and minimum and annual guarantee make up just under 96% of those ongoing revenues.
“The two main points were relevant to the ALP … that it’s imperative that we do find a way to take in FAA grants, and that it is in the county’s best interest to execute the lease,” Pitkin County Manager Jon Peacock said. “We’ve worked hard with our partners at Atlantic Aviation. It was a robust, very productive negotiation that tried to balance multiple interests. We have a community that has a vision of what we need to do to protect the environment while maintaining our community character.”
By: Regan MertzI The Aspen Times I November 21, 2024