LOVELAND — An electronic guidance system that aids pilots as they descend toward the runway at Northern Colorado Regional Airport has been decommissioned by the Federal Aviation Administration — apparently a year too early.
The airport, jointly owned by the cities of Loveland and Fort Collins, plans next year to widen its main 8,500-foot runway from 100 to 150 feet in phases that will close first 3,500 and then 5,000 feet of it, still allowing most general-aviation aircraft to take off and land but not providing enough open length to accommodate corporate jets.
When the closures were to start, in May 2026, the Federal Aviation Administration would be expected to decommission the system called PAPI — Precision Approach Path Indicator — that lets landing pilots know whether they’re coming in too high, too low or just right.
And yet on June 12, the FAA issued a NOTAM — a Notice to Airmen — that the PAPI system for Runway 33 had been decommissioned.
“The FAA got confused and thought it was this year,” airport director John Kinney told BizWest on Friday. “One of the branches’ facilities folks came out and decommissioned our visual indicator. We have no idea why they were out there a year early.
“We had pilots calling and asking, ‘What in the H-E-double hockey sticks is happening?’ So we immediately called the FAA.”
At Northern Colorado Regional Airport, the PAPI system consists of three boxes placed on either end of the runway, each with a row of four lights that can show red or white to send messages to pilots about their approach.
“The FAA owns one, and we own one,” Kinney said. “They’re on the pilot’s side as you’re approaching a runway. The color pattern shows whether your descent angle is below the glide path, above the glide path, spot on, or kind of in between low and spot on.”
Turning them off “is like taking down the road sign and flashing light that says ‘Slow down, sharp curves ahead.’ Now it’s up to pilots whether they want to operate absent that,” Kinney said. “Seasoned pilots have muscle memory and may not need it, but a student pilot practicing touch and go might need it and might not want to risk it.”
Even for experienced pilots, he added, “When it gets cloudy and we have IFR (instrument flight rules, for days with low visibility), it becomes a more critical piece of equipment.”
Now, Kinney and Dylan Swanson, the airport’s operations and maintenance manager, are working with a different branch of the regional FAA office to get use of the PAPI system restored.
Swanson told Kinney that he was told PAPI could be back online by Aug. 7, but Kinney responded that higher-ups at the FAA needed to be sent a clear message: “You decommissioned a perfectly good runway, and we want it back.”
Much more disruptive will be next year’s 161 days of work that will close portions of the runway at a time.
Swanson said the first phase of widening would close part of the runway for 70 calendar days beginning in May. The next phase would take 90 days, with work on the remaining section. The third phase would involve grooving the surface, he said, adding that he’s pushing the contractor to do that work at night. The final phase would involve 35 days of pavement sealing and marking, which also would be done at night.
Especially impacted will be individuals and corporations that have jets based at the airport.
“Some of the tenants are frustrated with the 161-day closure, and naturally so,” Kinney said, “but at the end it’s really going to position the airport well into the future.”
Still, he said, “every lease out there says the cities have a right to develop and maintain the airport, which could mean closures at times. Aspen will shut down for 45 days as well this summer, and Redding, California, is doing a hard closure for 30 days, so their airline service will cease to exist.
“This is not unusual when you have a single-runway airport,” Kinney said, “so we appreciate the stakeholders hanging with us.”
This article was first published by BizWest, an independent news organization, and is published under a license agreement. © 2025 BizWest Media LLC.
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