The city says airport operations are vital to the Colorado economy.
Denver is proposing to pay air traffic controllers during the government shutdown to prevent a reduction in flights at the nation’s third busiest airport.
The city made the proposal, which requires FAA approval, to help airport staff and possibly avoid the 10 percent cut in flight operations ordered by the agency ahead of the busiest travel period of the year, Mayor Mike Johnston said Thursday.
“The Denver Airport is maybe the largest economic driver in the Rocky Mountain West,” Johnston told POLITICO. “It is critical to not just our quality of life, but to our economic health.”
The airport, which is overseen by the city, requested a waiver from the Federal Aviation Administration on Wednesday to pay staff but has not yet received a response.
The FAA did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Denver’s proposal reflects efforts by states and municipalities to maintain some services, including food assistance, during the shutdown, which the mayor blamed on President Donald Trump.
“The President’s shutdown is just starting to seep throughout different parts of the city,” said Johnston, a Democrat. “This would be a crushing blow to the city’s economy that affects not just those that are in greatest need, but everybody who relies on the airport for work or for travel or for leisure.”
Denver’s airport served more than 80 million passengers in 2024, according to the Airports Council International, and tourism is a major component of the state’s economy, employing nearly 190,000 people, according to the state’s office of economic development.
The city is among the 40 nationwide that have been ordered to reduce flights by 10 percent because of shortages of air traffic controllers and transportation security agents amid the impasse in Congress over a budget, now the longest shutdown in U.S. history.
Controllers and TSA workers are working without pay, leading to widespread absences as people take other jobs to survive during the shutdown.
Denver stipulated to the FAA that they’d request reimbursement when the shutdown is over. The federal government has a track record of not paying cities and states back post-shutdown, however. Utah, Colorado, Arizona and New York funded national parks operations during the 2013 shutdown and were never reimbursed. There’s also a risk that the FAA could give Denver the waiver to pay employees but still require the airport to reduce capacity.
“We understand there’s some risk,” Johnston said. “We think the greatest risks of all are shutting down the economy by stopping air travel, which is a major economic driver for us.”