Service and social life at Colorado’s smallest airports
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BURLINGTON, Colo. — If you are “leavin’ on a jet plane,” there is a fair chance you are headed through Denver.
According to data released by the Official Airline Guide this month, Denver International Airport (DIA) ranked as the sixth busiest airport in the world in 2024, and third in North America after Atlanta and Dallas.
DIA departures increased by 24% in the past five years, the largest increase among the top 10 busiest airports, serving 82,358,744 passengers, breaking all-time passenger traffic records almost every month.
DIA’s domineering international presence and physical presence — the airport operates on 53 square miles of land, larger than the city boundaries of Boston, Miami or San Francisco — is still expanding, and its distinctive mountain-peak design, as well as its conspiracy-laden lore, have made it a staple of the city.
Yet of the 76 public-use airports in Colorado, 60 are categorized as “non-commercial service general aviation airports,” or public-use airports that board fewer than 2,500 passengers in a year or have no scheduled services at all.
While DIA sends travelers across the planet, dozens of single-strip airfields in Colorado exist to provide agricultural, military and life-saving medical services across the state, oftentimes with just one employee.
Video: Chase McCleary, Rocky Mountain PBS
Evan Otto, an ex-army pilot turned Fixed Base Operator (FBO) manager — a commercial operation that runs the day-to-day operations of an airfield — now runs the Perry Stokes Airport in Trinidad. Through his years in the military and building an FBO, Otto has learned a lot about the complicated history of aviation in the United States.
“Post-World War II, aviation exploded in the U.S. and continued to grow for decades,” said Otto.
“So pretty much every airport I can think of in Eastern and Southern Colorado were built as a Works Project either in the lead up to, during or after World War II.”
President Franklin D. Roosevelt formed the Works Progress Administration — later named the “Work Projects Administration” (WPA) — in 1935 as part of his New Deal plan to re-invigorate the United States economy during the Great Depression.
The WPA employed more than 8.5 million workers and cost about $130 billion (in 2025’s value) putting money toward work relief programs such as large-scale infrastructure projects including San Francisco’s Bay Bridge, the San Antonio River Walk and restorations to the Statue of Liberty.
The WPA funded the construction of around 800 airports, including New York’s LaGuardia Airport, Chicago’s Midway Airport and hundreds of smaller, regional airports around the country, including in Trinidad, Colorado, in 1936.
Trinidad had a population of about 13,000 in 1940, making it the 5th largest city in the state, according to an Historic Resources Survey Plan from 2021. Its population peaked during and shortly after WWII when it played a significant role in the mining and the shipment of coal, as well as a transportation stop between Denver and much of the southern United States.
The Trinidad Airport is now named the Perry F. Stokes Airport to honor the Colorado Aviation Hall of Fame airfield manager that helped turn the airfield into a commercial hub through the 1940s and 1950s.
Continental, Frontier and TWA all offered daily commuter services through Trinidad until around 1970, when the town’s population began shrinking with the declining coal mines.
Many smaller airports, like Trinidad’s, began experiencing what Otto called “centralization” — carrier demands at larger airports in Denver and Colorado Springs pulled traffic from regional airports.
“The way many of these airports are funded is primarily through the sale of fuel to aircrafts, and so when the fuel sales went down, these airports stopped making money and stopped being commercially viable,” said Otto.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) supports many public-use airports through grant programs like the Airport Improvement Program (AIP), which can cover up to 90–95% of eligible costs for small airports. Eligible costs might include enhancing airport safety, capacity, security and environmental concerns, according to the FAA website.
The Biden-Harris Administration approved about $2 billion in grants for the AIP last year, the largest in the program’s history. The Grand Junction Regional Airport received $34.7 million in grants to repair its runway.
However, with federal funding comes a “federal obligation” to remain open, meaning despite the fact that Las Animas County owns the Trinidad airport, the county would not be able to close it without cutting ties with the FAA (which might prove difficult and costly).
Las Animas County took ownership of the airport in a trade with the City of Trinidad around 1944, and today it is operated by an FBO.
For smaller airports, the operations are analogous to running a truck stop. Otto and his team of four — which he said is enormous compared to a typical rural airport’s team — do everything from filling jets with gas, communicating weather conditions and providing chauffeur services if a private pilot is spending the evening in town.
Coming from a military background, Otto recognized the opportunity to meet military training demands in the area –– the airport is near the Piñon Canyon Maneuver Site, a training site for Fort Carson.
He recruited a small team to run the airport, including Patrick Conlon, the chief line service technician who also served four years active duty in the U.S. Army and is now in the Colorado National Guard; Wyatt Lisonbee, a maintenance worker and pilot; and Carlos Menendez, the customer representative who said he “welcomes pilots and makes them feel at home.”
“Commercially, it’s a tough space… but in the public’s interest, it is critical infrastructure,” said Otto. “Like for national defense, it’s important to keep the national airspace system functioning.”
“And it’s really valuable in environmental crises. Places like these can become emergency response hubs, and they can become firefighting bases.”
Daniel Melia, the 12-year airport director of the Burlington-Kit Carson County Airport in Burlington, knows as well as anyone the local, statewide and national impact of a single-strip airfield.
“Small airports in small towns are extremely important,” said Melia. “They boost local healthcare, it drives the economy… and the transient traffic. Some people… they just become friends over time, too.”
Melia grew up in Goodland, Kansas, a town of fewer than 4,500 people about 30 minutes from Burlington. Goodland is also home to the Goodland Municipal Airport.
“I loved everything airplanes as a kid,” said Melia. “I used to ride my bike to the airport every day and eventually they had to hire me.”
After working at the Goodland airport through high school and during summers while attending Kansas State University in Salina — where he earned a bachelor’s degree in aeronautical technology and a minor in aviation safety — Melia relocated to Burlington.
He started as the Burlington Airport director in 2012. He also co-founded a drone company that mapped farm fields and dabbling in aerial photography.
“You have to love planes and want to be around planes all the time to do this job. It can be a lot,” said Melia.
Melia is an employee for the City of Burlington, which owns and operates the airport (as compared to Otto, who operates the Las Animas County with an FBO).
He and his assistant, Zach Lamb, do everything “from scrubbing toilets to signing million dollar contracts with the FAA.” Airport upkeep is important in order to meet strict FAA regulations, so Melia is in charge of ensuring all reflective signs are visible above grass that must never be taller than 12 inches.
While Melia’s airport sees much less military traffic than Otto’s in Trinidad, the Burlington airport is a hub for a number of industries, including medical services, agricultural services and general aviation.
Burlington is only about 4,500 people large, yet it is home to the Kit Carson County Memorial Hospital, a near-80 year-old critical access hospital (CAH).
CAHs are 24-hour rural hospitals that offer emergency medical services to surrounding areas that have little to no other nearby resources.
The small town of Burlington is about 170 miles from Denver and Colorado Springs, a two-and-a-half hour drive that could prove fatal for those suffering life-threatening medical emergencies.
The airport acts as a key location for medical evacuation (medevac) operations for residents, facilitating over 300 medevac flights a year, according to Melia.
“Every week, we have doctors and surgeons that fly in and out for specialty clinics as well,” said Melia.
Dr. Charles Frankum, a colon and rectal surgeon based in Denver, flies into Burlington every Tuesday to perform surgeries, and specialized gynecologists, anesthesiologists and obstetricians come monthly to treat patients and deliver babies.
Beyond medical services, Melia reserves space in the Burlington hangar for agricultural airplanes, like those designated for crop dusting and treating bug infestations.
Burlington is the last place that sells jet fuel between Kansas and Denver, according to Melia, so he frequently welcomes pilots with private planes stopping through for a quick re-fuel.
“We’re great at ‘turn-em-arounds’ — getting pilots fueled and back in the air quickly,” said Melia
Over his decade of experience, Melia has become friendly with private pilots who use the airport frequently. After a man traveling from Fargo to Arizona was blown off of his original course, he landed in Burlington, where he first met Melia. The man now visits annually to re-fuel, chat and catch-up.
Melia uses his position as airport director to represent and support the small town of Burlington as well. When travelers are stopping for an evening, he chauffeurs them to town and shares recommendations on what to see, where to eat and where to stay.
“Especially in a small community, lots of money in town gets passed around… but everyone coming to the airport is bringing new money into town,” said Melia. “So sometimes I’m kind of like a concierge.” (He mentioned that he has made dinner reservations and hotel arrangements for visitors.)
Melia was recently re-appointed to his second term on the Colorado Aeronautical Board, the aeronautics division of the Colorado Department of Transportation, where he “represents eastern Colorado airports and gives them a voice” at the table.
Yet even when responding to 3 a.m. landing calls or shoveling the runway after a heavy snowstorm, Melia said he feels like he has never worked a day in his life.
He likened his love for aviation to “a disease,” that makes pilots and airplane aficionados like himself “do dumb things to work around airplanes.”
“Funding is difficult, [running an airport] takes a lot of time and hard work… and it isn’t easy to find people to take over, so it often takes years to find another qualified person,” said Melia.
“But I love it. And if I were bored, I would probably come to the airport anyway.”
Type of story: News
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources.
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources.
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