Pitkin County settles on airport rates change to cover maintenance costs

Presented with two possible options to fund the annual maintenance that the aging Aspen/Pitkin County Airport runway requires, the Pitkin County Board of County Commissioners made a decision this week that would split costs with flight operators and the county through increased landing fees and additional fees at the airport. 

The other option was to put the full cost on flight operators, causing a higher increase than the 55% increase in landing fees for “signatory” airlines that operate at least one flight per day. These changes would not affect locally-based air traffic that weighs less than 12,500 pounds. 

“The driving force for the 2026 increase is the $6.8 million runway pavement project,” Bryan Elliot, vice president of Ricondo & Associates — the company providing financial consultation to the county about the airport. “There would be a 50/50 share of that $6.8 million.”

The county’s portion of the 50/50 split on the $6.8 million bill will be paid for from the county’s airport fund. The rest will be paid for by various fees but primarily the landing rate change. As discussed during Wednesday’s second reading of the rate change, the “per 1,000 pound landing fee” will climb from $7.75 to $12.05 per 1,000 pounds for airlines that frequently operate from the Aspen/Pitkin County Airport. 

The fee is more expensive for seasonal airlines and general aviation, up from $10.85 to $16.87 and from $9.18 to $13.76, respectively. 

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Commissioner Francie Jacober pointed out that the new rate will amount to per landing costs below $1,000. 

“It seems to me that the cost for a Gulfstream to land here, which averages somewhere between 50,000 and 100,000 pounds, comes out to be a few hundred dollars, around $600 or somewhere between $500 and $1,000,” Jacober commented at Wednesday’s meeting. 

That landing fee still puts the Aspen/Pitkin County Airport in line with large national and international hub airports in Los Angeles, Chicago, and New Jersey airports, which are among the higher cost to land airports. While the fees may be high, commissioners and staff do not expect this cost to be a substantial factor affecting the cost of plane tickets into and out of Aspen. 

According to County Manager Jon Peacock, a significant part of the reason the yearly costs for maintenance of the airport has climbed so high are due to the subsurface conditions deteriorating so much that yearly maintenance has become required. 

However, this cost structure is not intended to be permanent. 

“When the runway is rebuilt, and we are not annually doing repairs… we will have a different cost structure,” Peacock told commissioners on Wednesday. 

The rate changes were ultimately approved unanimously by the attending commissioners.