The Durango-La Plata County Airport broke passenger records in June with more than 59,000 travelers passing through.
High marks for June are not the only sign of increased travel and growth at the airport. DRO is expanding the terminal and will be adding another parking lot in 2027.
The multiyear airport expansion is well underway and expected to be done by the end of this year. Additionally, United Airlines has announced twice weekly direct flights from DRO to Houston beginning late December and going through March, a first-time service option for the airline. And come August, American Airlines is expected to bring in larger aircraft to provide more seat capacity.
Growth has been the name of the game at the airport, with the June record not just breaking last year’s June record but the airport’s all-time monthly passenger record.
“There's a chance that when we firm up July numbers here in a couple of weeks for this year, that we could be at or close to that again,” said Tony Vicari, aviation director for the airport.
Vicari said the airport has seen its sharpest uptick in growth over the past four years. The year-to-date passengers are already up 13% from last year, meaning the airport is on track for another record-breaking year, he said.
Growth over the past four years isn’t the reason for the airport’s expanding terminal. The airport has grown over the past 20 years. The terminal was constructed in 1988 and hasn’t undergone any substantial expansions until the current project, Vicari said.
“The main crux of things is that in the last 20 years, the overall passenger traffic at the airport has increased about 180%,” he said.
The expansion will not only expand the terminal but modernize it. New concessions are underway, updated TSA screenings and boarding gates are coming, as are in-seat chargers and work tables.
The terminal itself isn’t the only thing that needs expanding. Parking demand has also increased and resulted in several hundred new parking spots over the past three years, Vicari said.
A new lot is going through the design and approval process. Once the parking lot design is finalized, the new lot could yield anywhere from 120 to 200 new spots at DRO. Until the design is finalized, the project start date is unknown, but Vicari said he expects a mid- to late-2027 start.
Before another parking lot is added to the mix, the airport is updating its parking access systems. The transition to the new technology should be completed by the end of August, he said. The new system will have license plate recognition, which will eliminate the need for parking tickets that passengers scan upon exit. The new system should streamline entries and exits for airport parking lots.
“It’ll be a transition process, but by the end of August, we should be fully through that process and be running on a new system, which we think will – at the end of the day – just make parking easier and quicker for all of our users,” he said.
The construction process hasn’t been easy to navigate. DRO has early-morning and late-night flights. Vehicles are on lots 365 days a year, Vicari said. The airport is a dynamic environment, which can make construction difficult because closing isn’t an option, he said, but incremental progress has slowly made a dent in the update and expansion project.
“That’s been one of our major challenges is just working through that phasing,” he said. “It makes a project take longer, but it’s a necessity in order for us to keep the airport operating and humming on an ongoing basis.”
gwallace@durangoherald.com
