Milestones Icon: Air-traffic control

The Denver Air Route Traffic Control Center in Longmont is probably the most important building you have never heard of.

If you ever wondered how airplanes manage to avoid running into each other – one of the big reasons is the air-traffic control center and its employees in Longmont.

Air-traffic controllers staff the building along 17th Avenue  around the clock – using radar to monitor the progress of flights in nine states. They tell pilots when to perform course adjustments to maintain separation from other aircraft.

When pilots in Colorado want to change altitude or make any other course changes to avoid turbulence or adverse weather conditions, they contact controllers at the center.

The Federal Aviation Administration employs about 440 people at the building, which is located behind a chain link fence at 2211 17th Ave. About 335 of them are air traffic controllers who watch over about 254,000 square miles of airspace in nine states in the western United States – including Colorado and parts of Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota, Wyoming and Montana. It’s the 16th busiest center of the 21 air traffic control centers across the country.

The original “Denver Center,” as the building in Longmont is called, was built at the Denver Municipal Airport in 1942. The FAA moved its operations to Longmont in 1962. A new control room was wrapped up in 1998.

Controllers keep tabs on planes in all of Colorado’s mountain airports. They also watch over airplane approach routes in Denver, Colorado Springs, Pueblo and Grand Junction in Colorado; Casper and Cheyenne in Wyoming and Ellsworth Air Force Base in Rapid City, South Dakota.

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