Milestones Icon: Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport

It seems hard to imagine, but the dusty airfield now known as Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport was so small when it was built that planners decided it did not need a control tower.

The airport – BJC to pilots – has come a long way since it opened on July 30, 1960, with a ceremony attended by President Dwight Eisenhower.

Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport is now one of the five busiest airports in Colorado and handles about 128,000 takeoffs, landings or flyovers a year. A 2008 study by the Colorado Department of Transportation estimated that the airport and related economic activity create about 3,700 jobs and pump $363.3 million per year into the local economy.

At first, the airport, originally known as Jefferson County Airport, was modest. It had one 6,000-foot runway, a 600-square-foot hangar, a small terminal and T-hangar space for 17 aircraft.

The airport would not stay small for very long. A new runway was opened in 1964, and in 1965, construction began on a 62-foot tall control tower, which was built at the cost of $384,000. The tower was completed in 1967.

The expanded runway and new tower were instrumental in the airport’s growth. Soon, Jeffco Airport was the busiest general aviation airport in the state.

By the late sixties, the National Science Foundation and the National Center for Atmospheric Research were using the airport as a base for scientific missions.

The 1990s were busy times for the airport. A new runway was completed in 1992, and in 1993 a small terminal with modern amenities was opened to the public. The U.S. Customs Service opened an office at the airport in 1995, and a year later, Pilatus Business Aircraft Ltd., a Swiss airplane manufacturer, located its North American headquarters at the airport.

The transition of the airport from a small field for hobbyists to a bustling regional hub for corporate jets was finalized in 2006, when the airport was renamed the Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport. The new name was selected to emphasize the airport’s location as a gateway to the Rocky Mountain region and the greater Denver area. Jefferson County continues to own the field.

At its peak in 2005, the airport was handling about 177,000 landings and takeoffs a year. While the 2008 recession hurt the airport, it could not halt its progress. In 2009, the Federal Aviation Administration started building a new, 125-foot-tall control tower and 7,000-square-foot support facility. The project cost $14 million.

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