Asset or Liability: Getting Real Numbers to Assess the Airport

Most people in Longmont don’t see what all the fuss is about. Having been told for years that the Longmont airport is an asset to the city, it seems fitting that the city should quantify those claims. The majority of things I’ve learned show that the airport is more of a liability than an asset. The airport is being run like it is too big to fail.

If you're not under the pattern, you're not going to get what the fuss is about. And, since the airport drains your tax dollars, you should know what’s going on. 

Given its proximity to bigger general aviation airports--Loveland, RMMA, Centennial--is the Longmont airport truly an economic driver for the city or simply a play thing that is subsidized by the greater community? Is the city receiving the true value of the airport to the community?

Longmont is not alone in this hand-wavy narrative. Sadly, this is the case for a lot of GA airports across the country.

Not only is Longmont’s airport not an economic driver, it's a subsidized plaything for a few, and we're also a patsy of greedy parties that do not reside in Longmont, let alone Boulder County. The Jefferson County flight school take-over of Longmont is a game-changer. Not only did they move their touch-and-go operations to LMO, they created their own training areas out of thin air that are mostly using Boulder County Open Space lands, without approval of the FAA, without taking it to the Boulder County Commissioners, or the Boulder County public. There are also unauthorized training areas in Larimer and Weld Counties. 

The flight schools use Longmont's airport, and Longmont's land, at no charge, without the citizens' approval, for their profit. And yet, the airport operates hand to mouth, with no plan for a sustainable future without government subsidies. What kind of sense does that make?

Glenwood Springs did an opportunity cost study with their airport that was quite eye-opening, and they don't have five other airports within spitting distance. The report notes the FAA and aviation driven economic driver estimates are based on the state's commercial airports, like DIA, which then use cost multipliers for every municipal airport. That's like someone saying, my local software business is worth $200MM because Google is worth $1 billion. It's time we called out the nonsense.

These economic impact report numbers are bloated, at best, and contribute to a narrative that isn’t true. County commissioners, city councils, airports and pilots treat the mystical and outlandish figures in these reports as gospel simply because the numbers come from CDOT (through a subcontractor, Kimley-Horn). As seen with the Town of Glenwood study, an accurate and local estimate is where real numbers exist. 

CDOT claims that lowly Nucla, CO, airport (AIB) adds $907,000 to the local economy. You could buy the entire town with that amount and have money left over.

CDOT’s report says that Longmont airport supposedly adds nearly $74MM to the local economy. Yet the airport has to live on grant money to survive. The airport manager is paid with transferred city money because the airport isn't self-sufficient. It's a good bet that $74MM is more than the top three industries in Longmont combined. 

Every single airport in Colorado, and especially the smaller ones, have ridiculous estimates based on assumptions (that aren’t locally based) and “multipliers.” Airport Managers can’t back these numbers up. 

Nucla has no employees at all--just a runway and a tank of fuel. But their study still maintains that there are 10 employees with a payroll of $287,000, which somehow equates to $546,000 “total value added,” coupled with the imaginary figure of $684,000 of “visitor spending.”  Perhaps five people a year actually fly into Nucla to “visit.”  

It's way easier to see the glaring discrepancy in the CDOT numbers when looking at rural airports. The larger airport's impact is equally flawed. Real unbiased studies are needed.

Perhaps we need a real economic impact study done by a third party that doesn’t have a conflict of interest. Or, we can continue making real life decisions on fantasy and spin.

Citations: 

Vance Brand’s Economic Impact Report
https://www.coloradoaviationsystem.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/LMO_Vance-Brand-Municipal-1.pdf

How the CDOT reports were made: 
https://www.codot.gov/programs/aeronautics/studies-plans-reports/2025ceis 
We don’t know what happens in Kimley-Horn (the consultancy that makes these reports)’‘s black box of assumptions and multipliers. It seems that the crafting of such reports is based on the premise to maximize fantasy numbers to the extent possible using gross assumptions that aren't locally based. LMO’s numbers were based on regional numbers -- since our region includes DIA, those numbers are quite larger than they appear in reality at the local level. 

Individual Airport’s Impact Reports
https://www.coloradoaviationsystem.com/2025-ceis-deliverables/

Nucla’s Impact Report: 
https://www.coloradoaviationsystem.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/AIB_Hopkins-Field-1.pdf 

Glenwood Springs Airport back on the radar with recent Colorado aeronautics study
https://www.postindependent.com/news/glenwood-springs-airport-back-on-the-radar-with-recent-colorado-aeronautics-study/