$40.5 million to be used for growth at the Grand Junction Regional Airport

GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. (KJCT) - The Grand Junction Regional Airport is the largest airport in Western Colorado, and new money pouring into the airport’s budget is only going to make it bigger.

“Customer experience is a top goal for us,” said Angela Padalecki, executive director of the Grand Junction Regional Airport. “Passengers have seen us refresh the different areas of the airport. Going into 2025, they will see us refreshing the secure side of the airport.”

The airport received around $40.5 million in grant funding to power a whole list of improvements. According to airport officials, it is the largest grant they have ever received. $900,000 will purchase a new fire truck, and $3.7 million will replace two passenger loading bridges. “Those older passenger loading bridges do not match the fleets that are flown today by airlines. The new loading bridge will provide a better passenger experience,” said Padalecki. The remaining $35 million is being used to expand the airport’s runway—which has been in the works for over a decade. “The sub-base construction will start next year and will take at least two years. After that, we will be getting into the paving portion of the project,” continued Padalecki.

We had an opportunity to tour the airport’s runway construction operations. The scene is crews and crews of workers preparing miles and miles of land. “This activity on the west end is a scrape and dump operation,” pointed out Jeremy Lee, project manager with Mead & Hunt. Lee is one of the many people overseeing the runway construction. Construction crews have already moved 3 1/2 million yards of dirt, and they still have a lot to get to.

The new runway will run a total distance of 2 miles from east to west and will be 150 feet wide. The current runway would become a taxi runway once everything is complete. Airport officials told us this new upgraded runway could bring an increased possibility of more planes landing in Grand Junction. Padelecki stated, “We welcomed Breeze Airways in February. We are welcoming Delta in December, and we want to continue. A very basic component of that is making sure we have the facilities they need to operate.”

On the brink of these improvements, the airport is experiencing growth year after year. They anticipate to set a record for the busiest year by serving 525,000 people in 2024. They hope to break that record in 2025 with over 560,000 passengers served. “We take it very seriously that we tell people where they are when they get here. We want to make sure we are doing a good job reflecting the community we serve, and, if this is the only experience a traveler has with our community, we want it to be a positive one that accurately reflects the community,” added Padalecki.

The next area of improvement the airport is working on is expanding its parking lots.