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You know that NoCo has an airport, right? You'd be surprised how many people don't know that! I mean I literally just asked a fellow station cat who had NO IDEA.. Now that we've got you up to speed, let's catch you up on some BIG news! For the last 17 years, the Northern Colorado Regional Airport in Loveland has been operating in a temporary terminal facility.. YES 17 YEARS! Doesn't seem very temporary to us but that's hopefully about to change! The AAC (Airport Advisory Commission) has always had the vision of a shiny new state of the art building and now that could become a reality thanks for some dough from the Federal Cares act. The project is said to be cost in the wheelhouse of $26 Million Dollars so it would obviously need A LOT of help getting to that magic number.. But if all goes as planned, this new 26,000 square foot facility would be quite the upgrade over what's there now and may attract bigger airlines to fly in and out of the local Airport. Allegiant Air used to fly in and out of this airport to Vegas and made a quick trip to sin city and back extremely quick, easy and cheap! I flew out of there twice myself and I miss how easy it was! They pulled their flights out of the airport in 2012 due to a lack of a proper FAA approved Air Traffic Control Tower to insure the safety of their passengers. Allegiant announced two years ago that they would be making a return to the airport after it was announced that the NoCo Airport would be utilizing a new virtual tower to better insure safety of these bigger aircrafts but the deal was scrapped, again, after the FAA couldn't certify the new virtual Air Traffic Control Tower in time of it's fall 2019 flight launch. Would this new Terminal along side the proper FAA Approved Tower entice Allegiant and possibly other bigger airlines to give us some more local flight options without having to make the trek to DIA? Only time will tell but it's certainly a step in the right direction! While designs are still in the very early stages, Fort Collins and Loveland need to get some final decisions made on how, when or if they move forward with the proposed plans. Fingers crossed in the meantime for this amazing new terminal to approved and to possibly be ready by mid 2024!
Photo Credit: Getty