Business View Magazine | August 2019

125 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE AUGUST 2019 out for the 1994 grand opening of the Airport’s existing three-level, 280,000-square-foot structure, which came in at a cost $140 million. The Colorado Springs Airport has three, 150- foot wide runways, with one at 13,501 feet long, making it one of the longest in the state. As a city-owned “enterprise fund,” it receives no appropriations from it. “We live and die on the revenues we make,” says Director of Aviation, Greg Phillips. “We’re always looking at ways we can increase our revenue, because the money we spend to operate and improve the Airport comes from the revenue we make. We don’t take a dime in general fund taxes.” While the Airport has several different revenue streams - corporate and general aviation; the Peterson Air Force Base, which is its largest tenant; and a 900-acre non-aeronautical business park - Colorado Springs is mostly known for its commercial service. Carriers serving the Airport over the years included such long-forgotten names as Wyoming Air Express Service, Pikes Peak Air Service, and Western Air Service. Today, the Airport is served by American, Delta, United Airlines, and Frontier. “Our commercial service continues to grow,” Phillips says. “In the last three years, we’re up over 40 percent, and we’re still looking at additional growth for this year, as well. So, we’re pleased about that, because we worked hard on our air service efforts to make sure our current routes are sustainable and that we’re making a strong business case for additional routes. Our commercial load factor, just in the month of May, which is our latest confirmed data, was 87.9 percent. So we’re definitely filling airplanes out of Colorado Springs.” “Our traffic with Frontier has waxed and waned,” Phillips adds. “Last year, they brought in seven different seasonal flights, and they took them out at the end of August, so the season ended early. This year, they brought four of those flights back and they’re doing very well and they are scheduled through the middle of November. So, what we saw in the first several months of this year, was THE COLORADO SPR INGS A I RPORT