Crowd packs new Loveland-Fort Collins airport terminal

LOVELAND — Bitter cold Thursday afternoon didn’t keep hundreds of people from turning out for the grand opening of Northern Colorado Regional Airport’s recently completed terminal, a $22 million,19,400-square-foot, two-gate facility that its officials hope will lure the return of scheduled passenger airline service.

Fire officials estimated the crowd at approximately 1,500 people, far exceeding the 300 that acting airport director Francis Robbins said he had expected.

Also attending the event were construction company partners, members of the airport’s operating staff and governing commission, representatives of the Transportation Security Administration and United Airlines, and officials from city, county and state governments, fire and police departments.

“It came out so beautifully,” said Fort Collins Mayor Jeni Arndt, who also serves on the airport commission. “The architects and builders did a fantastic job. It’s going to be a really nice public facility.”

The terminal’s opening comes at a key point for the airport, she said. “It’s a really important time, with Loveland and Fort Collins discussing a new governance model where we could professionalize the leadership in a way that benefits the airport as a real gem in Northern Colorado.”

Added Loveland Mayor Jacki Marsh, who chairs the commission, “It was very surprising how well attended it was, but a good surprise, and it was inspiring to see how the community takes an interest in it.

“I appreciate the partnership with Fort Collins, and I look forward to more discussion about governance,” Marsh said. “Setting up an authority would have to be approved by both city councils, but I think it’s the direction we should go to give the airport a little more autonomy over dollars and planning.”

With 800,000 residents living within 30 miles of the airport, designated FNL, and 4,000 of them traveling to and from Denver International Airport each day, Robbins said, the demand is more than apparent.

Greeley-based Hensel Phelps Construction Co. built the terminal, which was funded with $16.9 million in federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act dollars, plus $2 million from the airport’s budget, $1.6 million from a Federal Aviation Administration grant and $1 million each from the cities of Fort Collins and Loveland, which jointly own the airport.

Officials hope that the terminal project — coupled with an FAA-financed experimental remote tower project and expansion of the main runways from 100 to 150 feet wide, elements Robbins called a “three-legged stool” — will position the airport to attract a fixed-route airline to Northern Colorado, which it hasn’t had since the loss of Allegiant Air, Elite Airways and Avelo Air and be a major economic driver for Northern Colorado.

Currently, the airport’s only passenger service is provided by The Landline Co., which runs a scheduled shuttle bus between FNL and DIA.

The new terminal replaces one that was constructed in 1989 before Transportation Security Administration monitoring and security checkpoints were required.

The new terminal can handle up to 500 travelers at once and includes arrival and departure lounges and a baggage-handling system, and the design includes room for future additions such as a restaurant and retail space.

At the terminal’s groundbreaking 16 months ago, Chris Aronson, principal at Fort Collins-based Vaught Frye Larson Aronson Architects, said it the terminal was designed to be “a place where adventure begins, where relationships reunite, where we say hello, where we say goodbye, and also where we say welcome home – where all these human experiences culminate.”

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