If you live in the metro area, you’re probably aware of Centennial Airport. But if you think it’s just a small airport for small planes, you’re mistaken.
Compared with Denver International Airport, of course, it is small. It has only 21 employees and an annual operating budget of just $5 million. But with that small staff and operating budget, according to a 2002 study by the Southeast Business Partnership, the airport supports 23 business parks that are home to 6,000 businesses, which the Colorado Aeronautic Division says account for more than 8,500 jobs.
Estimates are that the airport’s overall economic impact is more than $1 billion per year, which the SEBP says accounts for a startling 25 percent of Colorado’s gross economic product.
Located in Arapahoe County, Centennial is a general aviation airport, meaning that it has no scheduled passenger services. In fact, in 2003, it sought an act of Congress to permanently ban such scheduled service without losing federal funding. Despite the ban — or perhaps because of it — the airport’s three runways handled 320,000 takeoffs or landings last year, one per minute in peak operating hours. That makes Centennial one of the 25 busiest airports in the U.S., and the third in the nation for airports of its kind.
One reason Centennial Airport is so successful, says Executive Director Robert Olislagers, is that it is surrounded by the Denver Tech Center, Inverness Business Park and Meridian International Business Center. Executives from seven of the top Fortune 500 companies in the U.S. — including Wal-Mart, General Electric and Lockheed-Martin — consistently use Centennial.
“For these executives, time is money,” Olislagers says. DIA is too far away, and commercial flights require waiting through long security lines. Top business executives at Centennial are able to “walk from their cars across the runway” and into private jets that are ready to go any hour of the day or night. (The airport operates 2-4/7, with U.S. Customs services open for flights from overseas at all times.)
With the cost of fuel rising, Olislagers says the airport is seeing a trend toward more “fractional” airplanes. These are similar to vacation housing time-shares, with several companies sharing the use and expense of the jets.
Despite the fact that Centennial Airport handles more takeoffs and landings daily than San Francisco International, JFK in New York City or Reagan National in Washington, D.C., it has no plans for future runway expansion.
Noise is always a problem for airports in an urban area. To minimize noise complaints, of which there were nearly 11,000 in 2006 (80 percent from five households, according to Olislagers), pilots are educated to use approaches that avoid residential areas, and he meets frequently with nearby homeowners’ associations to address concerns. Noise problems should be eased further, he says, with a ban on the noisiest type of jet aircraft expected to pass Congress this session. Incidentally, the vast percentage of the homes currently near Centennial Airport were built after the airport became operational.
Centennial’s Airport Authority recently paired with Arapahoe County to prevent the construction of 1,600 homes just east of the airport’s runways. The airport and county purchased 50 acres for open space, sports activities, and commercial activities they deem appropriate near an airport, and got covenants restricting housing construction on a total of 380 nearby acres.
Arapahoe County and the Centennial Airport Authority should be commended for doing all they can to ensure that noise problems don’t escalate around the airport. Given the significant economic engine that Centennial has become, it would be a black day for the entire metro area if noise complaints were to force it to move.
Susan Thornton (smthornton@aol.com) served 16 years on the Littleton City Council, including eight years as mayor.
