It is no secret the Durango-La Plata County Airport is feeling growing pains.

The airport consistently sets records for passenger traffic, including the first two months of this year when passenger traffic was up 16% compared with the same time period in 2023. And the growth has been consistent year over year for several years.

The increased traffic has put a strain on airport facilities, including parking lots, ticketing counters, the security checkpoint, food and beverage amenities, bathrooms, and terminal seating areas.

The airport is doing what it can to keep up with demand. It is weeks away from completing the first phase of a terminal expansion, and other expansion plans are in the works.

DRO Aviation Director Tony Vicari fielded questions this week from residents wondering about future expansion plans, including whether the airport anticipates asking voters to help fund expansions, what is being done to improve the parking situation at the airport and whether the airport is ready for jet bridges.

He was the guest speaker Tuesday at an Engage Durango forum.

One resident pressed Vicari on whether the airport will seek a mill levy increase to fund future development at the airport.

Vicari said the airport has no intention of using city or county taxpayer dollars to pay for its terminal expansion.

While he can’t promise project costs won’t increase, he said any additional costs will be paid for using airport revenues or grant funding – the same sources being used to fund ongoing expansions.

DRO sought a mill levy increase in 2016 to fund a major terminal expansion, but voters shot it down 62% to 38%.

“The community was not in favor of that and the airport heard that loud and clear,” Vicari said Tuesday.

He said residents didn’t reject development of the airport outright, but they didn’t want to put airport development ahead of other infrastructure projects funded by tax dollars in Durango and La Plata County.

The failed ballot initiative led to the airport reconsidering its approach to building out its terminal. Now, it has adopted a development strategy of building in “bite-sized chunks.”

“Short answer is we have no intention of asking for city or county tax requests through any kind of ballot measure,” he said.

Durango business owner Jasper Welch asked about parking challenges at the airport.

Vicari said DRO is “aggressively moving on parking.” It recently awarded a construction project to pave the airport's overflow parking lot south of the airport terminal and has additional parking expansion plans.

The airport has about 1,000 parking spaces, with 600 of the spaces paved and 400 spaces unpaved, he said.

Construction on the recently awarded parking project will add about 280 parking spaces to the airport’s inventory. He said that project will begin in May and is expected to take two months to complete.

He said the airport has also earmarked funding to expand its main parking lot, which is scheduled to take place in 2025.

“Between those two projects we anticipate being able to add in the range of 300-ish spaces overall to the airport,” he said.

Answering another resident’s question, Vicari said the airport bought about 12 acres of land northeast of the airport terminal along County Road 309 for future parking needs.

He said the purchase was “a strategic pressure relief valve” for the airport complex. The 12 acres will be considered for long-term planning depending on how demand affects the airport’s growth over the next 15 to 20 years.

The airport currently leases commercial buildings on the property to businesses, he said.

Welch also asked Vicari about future plans to include jet bridges – the long tunnels linking gates to planes seen at most airports around the country.

Vicari said the airport has no plans to incorporate jet bridges into its terminal development project.

He cited two reasons to exclude jet bridges at this time, although he said jet bridges could be considered in the future as the airport continues to grow.

In initial planning phases and early community meetings about expanding the terminal, residents said on-ground boarding represents Durango well because the moment someone steps off the plane they are greeted by fresh air and scenic mountains, Vicari said.

“We heard pretty strongly from our design review committee, our initial public open houses, as well as (from) users of the airport that the ground boarding experience was … representative of our community,” he said.

And there isn’t a strong demand for jet bridges despite how common they are at many airports. He said even large aircraft such as Airbus A319’s and A320’s flown by United Airlines can accommodate on-ground boarding with the use of multiple boarding bridges.

There is also the issue of cost. Jet bridges are expensive, costing about $1.5 million per bridge, not including maintenance and operations costs, he said.

“We still like the charm of being able to board and plane and deplane on the ramps. It is fairly uncommon nationwide, but not uncommon necessarily in the west where we have more favorable weather conditions on an annualized basis. Lots of sunshine, less ice,” he said.

cburney@durangoherald.com