BDU Economics

BDU is heavily subsidized
Like most regional airports, BDU relies on FAA, CDOT, and City money in order to exist.  

Land is provided by City, FAA  
BDU occupies 179 acres.    This prime land, three miles from downtown Boulder, is provided for free.  The City owns ~132 acres of land, and the FAA helped purchase ~47 acres.  No rents or taxes are paid on this land.  BDU also controls land beyond the property line, in the form of a Runway Protection Zone (RPZ).  (See Andrus bike path.)

Capital improvements are provided by taxpayers 
BDU receives money from the FAA, CDOT, and the City in the form of grants money for capital maintenance and improvement.   Also, during COVID BDU received money from CARES.  

Private donations 
The BDU 2007 Master Plan refers to private donations.   It is difficult to get further information about what this is.   Who is donating and what are they getting in return?   We don't know.

Utilities - expenses for gas, water, and electric for hangar rentals and EV charging are paid by the City
Grounds - grounds maintainence is provided by the City

BDU is heavily subsidized, serving ~120 tenants, and pilots from around the Front Range who use the runways for free.  Imagine if these resources were instead put towards transporation that everyone could use.

City revenue from BDU is tiny

BDU supports its operations on the rents collected and on sales of services and fuel.   The operating budget is in the range of $750k - $800K/year.   The money that is earned at the airport goes back into airport operations.   When airport vested interests say that the airport is completely self-sustaining, this is the narrow viewpoint that they are using - airport money stays at the airport.    

The Airport Manager's recent Oct 2022 of hangar rental rates show them significantly under market rates.   Even still, some tenants have been in arrears on rent, without any consequence.

The city earns sales tax from the airport for fuel sales of leaded avgas, which is then burned in our sky.  It also earns money from taxes on leases, services, etc.    Note that the airport district also includes the business strip on Airport Road, so not of the revenue reported is actually due to the airport.   Regardless, these are very small amounts in relation to total sales taxes.    Recent monthly revenue reports from City Finance show the magnitude, or lack thereeof, of BDU's contribution to city coffers.

Month	Percent of city sales tax ​ provided by BDU	Dollars provided by BDU
Jan 2023	0.2%	$47K
Feb 2023	0.1%	$84K

Jan 2023 Revenue Report
​Feb 2023 Revenue Report

BDU is not an "economic engine".   ​

BDU: The full economic picture

In addition to providing the subsidies above, the City and residents bear costs that are never counted in any economic numbers, or even talked about.   They are:

• Pollution costs - noise, particulates, carbon, lead.
• Opportunity costs - If that land was used differently, the City and residents could greatly benefit.  By subsidizing BDU the City is losing out on revenue from property taxes, sales and other commercial taxes, and residents lose out on other benefits like housing, parks and recreation, and open space.
• The uncounted cost of growth - Income from BDU rent and fuel sales goes back into BDU operations.   So, BDU operations increased 20% - 25% in 2022, residents bear the costs, with no increased benefit at all for the City.​   The winners: the GA industry.
• Safety costs - That damages resutling from 10 crashes between May 2022 - Sept 2022, including ten deaths, are never counted in the economic impacts.
• Upended lives - That people feel the need to move, wish they could move, suffer deeply from noise intrustions and concerns about lead, feel compelled to spend much of their lives protesting this behavior.  Many people have spent huge amounts of time, energy, and money seeking relief from BDU's unfettered growth at all costs pursuits.   But this is never part of the "conversation."

BDU is a taxpayer subsidized gift for those who can afford to own, travel, and recreate by private plane 
The vast majority of people can't or don't use BDU.   Moreover, many underserved community members struggle every day to get by with inadequate public transportation.    BDU users are a very tiny percentage of the population that benefits from an excessive share of public resources.

BDU's recent FAA grant history

https://www.faa.gov/airports/aip/grant_histories
select:  AIP Grant History Visualization (FYs 2005-2021) (added 11/1/2021)

The cost/benefit of decomissioning BDU

There is no clear data available about the costs of closing BDU to repurpose the land.   What grants need to run out?   What money might need to be paid to the FAA?    Now is the time for City Council and residents to clearly understand financicial costs and benefits involved decomissioning BDU.

A 2022 piece in the Boulder Daily Camera opined that it might cost $100M to close BDU.   The author of the piece has a vested interest in BDU and has not justified that biased figure.  If the City purchasesd the FAA-owned acreage, a cost near the order of $100M could be incurred.   That is not an expense, it is the purchase of an asset, nearly 50 acres of prime land,   Or that land could be sold to a 3rd party, so there would be no cost the City.  

Otherwise, FAA grant obligations are generally on the order of a few million dollars.  Could these monies be returned?  Or, must they stay in place while the airport operates as usual for another 20 years?   We deserve answers to these questions.

We recommend

For too long, Bouldr City Council has relied on economic numbers provided by airport vested interests.   Now, in order make fully informed and transparent decisions, AFA recommends that  City conduct:

• an honest, complete economic study of BDU, including externalized costs and opportunity costs
• a comparative land use study for the ~180 acres of land currently in use.

Note that other municipalities have found that other uses of airport land are actually more profitable than hosting an airport.

Regional airport economics