Boulder Airport 
What has it done for you lately? 

Fun Facts about Boulder Airport

How Valuable is Airport land?
Summary
The airport property is extremely valuable.
Details
  • The airport property covers 179 acres of city owned land.
  • It is located within city boundaries, 3 miles from downtown Boulder.
  • At $2.2M/acre (a recent city estimate), the land is worth $394,000,000.
Who Does the airport serve?
Summary
The number of Boulder residents served by Boulder Airport number is .4% of the population of Boulder.  

The majority of services provided by Boulder airport goes to non-Boulder residents.

Most Boulder residents will never use the airport.
Details
  • The airport serves private plane owning 102 tenants, providing about 1.8 acres per tenant.
  • The City of Boulder has 106,000 residents.  
  • Roughly 40% of airport tenants are Boulder residents, 60% are not.
  • In 2025, 40% of operations at the airport are from Boulder airport based pilots, 60 %are from  pilots coming from other airports.
What does it cost to host the airport?
Summary
The vast majority of airport support comes from taxpayer subsidies.
Details
  • Airport land is provided for free by the City of Boulder, an ongoing subsidy worth around $400M.
  • Airport improvements are provided by Federal grants, which are paid for by per seat air fare taxes and Federal income taxes.
  • Airport improvement money also comes from state and city grants.
  • The City provides electricity, other utilities, grounds maintenance. 
​​Does the city get revenue from the airport?
Summary
The airport provides very little direct revenue to the city.
Details
  • ​Direct income to the city comes from airport fuel sales (of leaded fuel) and ground leases.  
  • Most months this is in the range of .02% - .04% of total city revenues.
  • CDOT and other estimates of revenue generation from the airport rely on unverified data, multiplier factors, and other soft estimates, making them highly suspect.
What Pollution does the airport generate?
Summary
The airport is a constant, ongoing creator of noise, carbon, particulates, and lead dust.
Details
​
  • The City's own carbon report lists Boulder airport as the 4th largest contributor of carbon in the atmosphere. 
  • In 2022, Boulder Airport sold $110,000 worth of leaded aviation fuel.   This contained 488.4 pounds of lead.
  • The airport violates noise guidelines daily, by the airport's own data.
what about leaded fuel?
Summary
Multiple peer reviewed studies have shown that people living within 2 miles of a regional airport are exposed to toxic lead dust.

Even tiny amounts of lead can permanently impact a child’s ability, potential and future  earnings. 

Many Boulder city and county residents and businesses live within two miles of Boulder Airport, including schools and day care centers.
Details
  • 95% of the lead in aviation fuel is emitted on burning.
  • Children’s blood lead levels correlate with both fuel sales and proximity to an airport.​
  • The lead dust particles are too small to be easily filtered.
  • The lead dust particles are of a size that easily penetrate mucosal barriers.
  • The peer-reviewed 2021 Reid-Hillview study and other studies directly correlate children's blood lead levels with regional airport activity.
  • The risk from an airport can be comparable to and at times worse than the Flint Water Crisis.
  • See Unveiling the Health Impacts of Leaded Fuel for references and details regarding lead impacts from Boulder Airport.​
Who bears the pollution from boulder airport?
Summary
Boulder airport creates a huge environmental equity issue. 

The airport is an unacceptable source of lead pollution and noise adjacent to schools, playgrounds, recreational fields, Valmont Park, open spaces and family homes, including two mobile home parks. 
​
County residents bear a widely disproportional amount of pollution from Boulder airport, yet have no representation.​
Details
See Unveiling the Health Impacts of Leaded Fuel for maps showing distances from Boulder airport.
WHO governs the airport?
Summary
Due to taking FAA grants, the FAA "governs" the airport.   

​In practice, the aviation industry decides what happens at Boulder airport. 
Details
  • The FAA forbids the city from sensibly regulating plane operations and impacts including lead emissions and near-constant noise.
  • The FAA allows only voluntary harm-reduction measures for negative impacts like noise and lead.
  • Our airport’s voluntary noise guidelines are toothless and violated repeatedly every day of the year that planes are flying, according to airport data.
  • We taxpayers are prohibited from governing our own land that we provide. ​
In this day of highly constrained budgets, environmental inequality, and climate change disasters, many Boulder residents have come to see the Boulder airport as a relic from a bygone era.

Dear Boulder Airport,  it was a good run, but now it's time to move on.
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