Eagle County airport’s control tower situation appears to be under control
Last-minute decision creates full staffing at the airport

Chris Dillmann/Vail Daily archive
The feds operate in mysterious ways, but the result turned out well at the Eagle County Regional Airport.
Airport officials were notified in December that the Federal Aviation Administration was changing operators at the airport’s control tower. The county has nothing to do with operations at the tower. Local officials received word that Serco North America, which had operated the tower for more than a decade, was being replaced by another contractor, Robinson Aviation Inc. The change was supposed to happen on Feb. 1, in the heart of the airport’s busy season, when there can be a flight operation as often as once every 90 seconds.
The problem was that Robinson had no controllers certified to work at the tower and Serco’s controllers weren’t going to be retained during the changeover.
That would leave the job of directing the commercial, private and military traffic at the airport to the control center at Denver. That works well at other regional airports, but officials said delays could be expected for all those flights.
After Eagle County Aviation Director David Reid spent just about all his waking hours bending the ears of just about anyone who would listen, FAA officials agreed to put two controllers in the airport’s control tower as of Feb. 1. Those controllers would be certified and ready to work as of Feb. 1.

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That all changed over the weekend.
In a series of emails, Reid wrote there were “no delays or issues,” over the weekend, adding that tower operations are still in a transition phase over the next 60 to 90 days.
The FAA notified airport officials late in the afternoon of Jan. 31 of a new plan to retain the three controllers from Serco for an extended transition while Robinson continues to recruit staff.
Denver traffic control had to take over for a couple of “small time frames” on Feb. 1 and 2 due to the late notice of the transition, but, Reid wrote, “those operations were seamless.”
The situation now is that the three Serco controllers will be on the job through March, with someone from Robinson on-site as the facility manager. That person should be certified by the end of this week. Three controllers from Robinson are currently in Gypsum going through the site-certification process. The FAA controllers have been sent home.