Piloting change at Grand Junction Regional Airport

GRAND JUNCTION — With more passengers flying in and out of Grand Junction Regional Airport, the airport’s manager says now is the perfect time for the airport to complete its $20-million, year-and-a-half-long construction project.

The airport has boarded more passengers each month this year than it did in corresponding months in 2007. From January to July 2008, Grand Junction flights have carried 116,082 passengers to and from the airport. From January to July 2007, the airport saw 97,302 fliers.

Fliers can expect to park in a newly paved parking lot and ride to and from the airport on freshly paved roads by Labor Day. Reconstructing the airport’s parking lot and the roads around it has been the airport authority’s number one priority for years, said GJRA Manager Rex Tippetts.

“The roadway system at the airport was really bad,” Tippetts said. “There was no storm water system, there were cracks four inches wide in the pavement, the streets were inadequately lit, the parking lot was inadequately lit.”

A landscape project will take another two years to complete, and improvements around the airport’s exterior other than paving should be done by Oct. 1, said Tippetts.

More projects are on the way. A 20-year master plan is being reconsidered at the moment, but is likely to include interior remodeling of the airport.

“Everything needs to be rebuilt at the airport,” Tippetts said.

The airport’s 10,501-foot-long runway could turn into a taxiing lane, and a replacement runway of the same length could go just north of the existing runway. A second runway 3,700 feet north of the current runway is also a possibility, but not until at least 25 to 30 years from now, said Tippetts.

Tippetts said the airport is doing well and ready to grow. Grand Junction needed more seats at a time when other airports had too many seats available, he said, which is why he believes other airports have cut flights.

“Airlines want to lower supply so they can raise the price. There is a lot of surplus capacity nationwide. We didn’t have a surplus. We actually had a need,” Tippetts said.

The extra need is shown in flight numbers. United Airlines saw more ticket sales this year. New Frontier flights have had more than 3,500 passengers a month since starting flights at GJRA in May. The addition of American Eagle flights to Dallas have seated about 10 percent of passengers so far this year. And that’s without flights in January through March.

United’s Denver flights were the most popular flights in 2008, carrying 39.3 percent of GJRA passengers. United is followed in popularity by U.S. Airways’ Phoenix flights (12.2 percent), Lynx/Frontier’s Denver flights (9.8 percent), American Eagle’s Dallas/Ft. Worth flights (9.1 percent), Allegiant’s Las Vegas flights (7.4 percent), Great Lakes’ Denver flights — which ended in May (4 percent) — and SkyWest’s Salt Lake City flights (2.6 percent). SkyWest is operated by Delta, the only airline that’s seen a dip in passenger numbers this year at GJRA.

Car rental outlets have taken in less money by July this year than by the same time in 2007. From January to July this year, rental car revenues reached $3.73 million. Last year, rental companies took in $3.84 million by July 31.

Reach Emily Anderson at eanderson@gjfreepress.com.