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Laramie Airport

C

castlerocker

Well-known member
To make UW a major player in the college sporting world, possibly the most important thing that could be done to upgrade facilities is to make the airport accommodative to passenger jet traffic.

Some have said all that needs to be done is to lengthen the runway. I have no idea what that would entail but it should be a concept worth pursuing.

If teams can fly into Laramie then we could stop hearing about how difficult it is just getting here and.... scheduling and recruiting could be made much easier.

What would be the cost and extent of such a project?
 
The runway was extended in 1997 out to 8500 feet to accommodate larger aircraft, including charter jets. At the time, it was important because it allowed the Wyoming football team to fly in and out of Laramie. The Airport was able to count those boarding towards the 10,000 threshold for receiving additional FAA money for airport development. How long do you think it should be to entice those jets to land here? Here's a clue -- The problem isn't the airport runway. The issue isn't flying into Laramie. The issue is that most teams don't want to STAY in Laramie the night before, so they fly into Cheyenne, Denver or Fort Collins/Loveland and then bus in on game day. FYI -- The Jackson Airport, which receives direct flights from all over the country has a 6,300 foot runway. Bottom line - the airport is not an issue.
 
BTW -- I just checked, and the Ft Collins/loveland airport has an 8,500 foot runway as well and they run commercial flights out of there to Vegas.
 
I'm guessing that the federal government would pay for most of it (meaning you and me via taxes). The FAA loves to support something called "General Aviation", meaning the small local airports and personal aviation. That's why you can get a federal licence for your Piper Cub for almost nothing.
 
I work at aviation engineering firm and the Laramie Regional Airport is public commercial airport (CII or CIII classification based on runway dimensions), the FAA usually provides a percentage of funding, typically 80%, the state usually provides about 15%, and the county/city provide the remaining 5% for major projects (like a runway project). Smaller projects are typically mostly state and county funded.

Not having the master plan for the airport in front of me but my hunch is that runway is at its master plan length. Another thing is that runway length is not the only factor on what size plane can land, the angle at which the plane lands is another key component, pavement thickness, and navigational equipment. The only commercial service is to DIA and Worland for some reason. However, all general aviation can land (which includes charters). Most the money that comes to airports around Wyoming is from the sale of jet fuel for general aviation and parking of aircraft at the airport not commercial service.

They also have a cross wind runway of 6500 feet that limits what can fly into.
 
CowboyCO said:
BTW -- I just checked, and the Ft Collins/loveland airport has an 8,500 foot runway as well and they run commercial flights out of there to Vegas.
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Allegiant no longer flys out of Ft. Collins/Loveland. They pulled out last year and there are no regular commercial flights in or out of that airport.
 
When I was at UW, the football team would fly out of Laramie on a 767 (not sure if it was a 767-200 or 767-300). Either way, that is still a decent sized plane. Certainly big enough for any football team to fly in IF they wanted to.
 
WestWYOPoke said:
When I was at UW, the football team would fly out of Laramie on a 767 (not sure if it was a 767-200 or 767-300). Either way, that is still a decent sized plane. Certainly big enough for any football team to fly in IF they wanted to.
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A high school friend of mine from Oklahoma used to play for UNM and he said that they flew to Laramie for a game. The landing of the plane scared the daylights outta him. Can't remember why. He told me about it years ago.

My friend played TE for UNM and played one year in the NFL with Jacksonville. Even played in the 1996 AFC Championship game.
 
Flying in Wyoming is a whole different animal - especially in smallish and sometimes even bigger planes. It's not that uncommon to have to land at an alternate location due to wind & weather. I'm a pilot, and it's something you have to learn to deal with and plan on. Density altitude is another thing you have to be aware of in the summer.
 
WYCowboy said:
Flying in Wyoming is a whole different animal - especially in smallish and sometimes even bigger planes. It's not that uncommon to have to land at an alternate location due to wind & weather. I'm a pilot, and it's something you have to learn to deal with and plan on. Density altitude is another thing you have to be aware of in the summer.
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i would assume that landing at a higher elevation your air speed needs to be higher to maintain altitude


correct me if i'm wrong
 
I'm really surprised that Fly Frontier (Poke Sponsor) or someone else doesn't step up and do the connecting flight to denver for Basketball teams flying in. I don't think its a big deal for football teams (seems like they all fly in).

The Hillton Garden center is a nice enough place for them to stay these days.

Frankly, I think most of the complaints are just excuses for losing. If your an athlete in a good shape, playing at 7220 is not much different than playing at the AFA (just 600 ft lower than us). Much of the front range is within 2000 ft of our facilites.

Just excuses more than anything.
 
Isn't part of the home court/field advantage we have the fact that we are difficult to get to?

Recruiting and ease of our own teams' travel probably outweighs that I suppose.
 
point well taken, if it's hard to get there, it's gotta be hard to play there anyway!!!! Wyoming isn't for everyone!!
 
castlerocker said:
To make UW a major player in the college sporting world, possibly the most important thing that could be done to upgrade facilities is to make the airport accommodative to passenger jet traffic.

Some have said all that needs to be done is to lengthen the runway. I have no idea what that would entail but it should be a concept worth pursuing.

If teams can fly into Laramie then we could stop hearing about how difficult it is just getting here and.... scheduling and recruiting could be made much easier.

What would be the cost and extent of such a project?
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It is. Super jumbo jets land there often when DIA is snowed in.
 
Thanks to y'all for sharing your info.

This travel thing just may be a convoluted excuse for not wanting to get beaten..........mostly, but there are probably other factors such as wind, general bad weather conditions for landing planes and the next question I have is, "if a team flys into Laramie, do we have accommodations enough to put up a whole football team and staff?"
 
If they were to book it a year in advance...absolutely. If they wait until 3 months before the season, probably not. The Holiday Inn or the Hilton would have more than enough room for a D1 team. The Hilton also has plenty of conference space for team meetings, meals, etc. However, as most of us know, those rooms go quickly and a team would have to reserve them far in advance to get enough space.
 
I know there has been many improvements since I've left......is there still a bunch of trash/junk on the properties around the airport?
 
BJC said:
I know there has been many improvements since I've left......is there still a bunch of trash/junk on the properties around the airport?
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Not when I was last out there. Though the roads can be covered with a solid inch of ice in the winter.
 
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