ALAMOSA — At the Sept. 14 meeting of the San Luis Valley Regional Airport Advisory Board, a recent news report by KRDO in Denver, alleging safety issues by former pilots with Key Lime Air dba Denver Air Connection was discussed. The airline serves the airport with flights to Denver. Board member Donna Wehe asked Denver Air spokesperson Jon Coleman about the piece.

Coleman said, "We have a training contract. As you know, it is very expensive to train a pilot, a simulator, and all of those things and get them online, so we have a [employment contract] of varying lengths of time. In the current environment, pilots can jump and get another job, this group [five pilots featured in the news segment] is trying to not have to pay back the training contract."

The pilots no longer work for the airline, and cite safety concerns as their reason for leaving.

"There is a misleading aspect to the story regarding pressurization. The group is made up of passenger pilots and cargo pilots, our cargo Metroliners are capable of pressurization, but it is not a required thing — I’m specifically talking about cargo here. As a matter of fact, the Cessna Caravan, the most widely used cargo airplane in the U.S., doesn’t pressurize at all as far as I know…the main point is what we are talking about is cargo here, and not passenger in any case at all...I just want to sort of set that straight. When they are discussing pressurization, it sort of makes it seem like they are talking about passenger operations which they are not," said Coleman.

"We have been in operation for 27 years as a cargo operator. There have been some incidents over the years, which is not unusual; tragic to be sure, but it is not unusual in a cargo operator/ single pilot environment. On the passenger side, it is flawless," said Coleman.

Coleman concluded, [the news story], "is sort of salacious, like I say, as the story winded down it was pretty clear that our record is good, I did want to clarify, there is two sides to our house, there is cargo, and passenger."

Key Lime/Denver Air is suing the pilots for not fulfilling their contracts and several have countersued the airline. In one of those cases filed by a former pilot this allegation is made regarding the type of passenger aircraft the airline uses to serve Alamosa, “Key Lime Air [Denver Air] dispatched an Embraer 145 jet aircraft with known autopilot and auto-trim failures despite the failures."

The Valley Courier has reached out to Coleman at Key Lime/ Denver Air who said he would be available on Friday.

The news article on KRDO included this near the end of the newscast, “Since 2015, the airline has had no enforcement actions [from the Federal Aviation Administration].”

The meeting also discussed other business including the recent airport Fly-In that was described by airport manager Will Hickman as a success.

Tara Maugham with Centric Aviation reported the number of aircraft they serviced was up, with 280 serviced in July, and 264 in August. Their car rental fleet has increased from seven in May, to the current 15.

The board also discussed the logistics and public outreach that will be needed as the airport eliminates the current free parking policy for passengers who leave their cars in the parking lot to a daily fee. The cost is estimated to be in the $6-$7 per day range.