The number of travelers boarding planes dipped a bit at the Durango-La Plata County Airport in 2016.
Traffic at the airport declined 1 percent from 189,326 in 2015 to 187,393 in 2016.
While traffic slowed slightly, the numbers were a win for the airport because traffic was down almost 3.5 percent in July, Interim Airport Director Tony Vicari said.
The improvement at the end of 2016 was driven mainly by United Airlines, which added more air service, he said.
“It pushed us back into a pretty stable position, I would expect that will stay the same,” he said.
Nationally, air traffic growth is expected to be conservative this year, he said.
A fairly steady increase of traffic at the airport over the past 15 years led to a property-tax question to fund a new terminal that was defeated in November.
The Durango City Council and the La Plata County Commission will meet Tuesday to discuss short-term construction projects to improve operations and whether a new airport authority should govern the airport in the long term.
Commissioner Julie Westendorff would like to see interim improvements that wouldn’t be a waste of money if the city and county do much larger improvements down the road.
One potentially complicating factor: The Colorado Department of Transportation is concerned a terminal expansion might make the intersection of Colorado Highway 172 and County Road 309 more dangerous.
An April letter from a CDOT engineer to the county said five crashes in five years were recorded at the intersection, a concern because it is above the expected crash rate.
But Vicari did not know what construction projects at the airport would trigger a requirement to upgrade the intersection.
The boards are also expected to explore a shift in oversight.
The airport is owned jointly by the city and the county, but it is managed by the city and, this causes an unequal balance in responsibility, City Councilor Dick White said.
An authority could help balance the roles between the two boards.
“We would really be equal partners,” he said.
The authority could also potentially offer more competitive pay to an airport director, he said.
Westendorff wants to explore an authority because last year the Colorado General Assembly passed a law allowing airport authorities to stretch across state lines, and she wants to see if officials in other New Mexico might want to be involved because travelers across the region use the airport.
This is an exploratory stage for the county commissioners and city councilors, who need to know about the function of airport authorities, she said.
“I am excited that we are having these conversations,” Westendorff said.
mshinn@durangoherald.com
