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Northern Colorado Regional Airport (KFNL) sits between Fort Collins and Loveland in northern Colorado, roughly 55 miles north of Denver, and is best known to VFR pilots as the gateway airfield for Rocky Mountain National Park to the west. It offers a long main runway with an ILS, a general-aviation-focused operation, and a history that includes several stints of scheduled airline service.
Northern Colorado Regional Airport, jointly owned by the cities of Fort Collins and Loveland, is a public-use field serving the Fort Collins-Loveland metropolitan area of Larimer County, Colorado. It is primarily a general aviation airport today, with a long asphalt runway equipped with an ILS, and it has periodically hosted scheduled airline service over the decades. For a simulator pilot, its proximity to Rocky Mountain National Park and its high field elevation on the Front Range make it an interesting and slightly demanding destination.
The airport lies about nine nautical miles southeast of downtown Fort Collins and northeast of Loveland, both in Larimer County, Colorado, and sits just west of Interstate 25. Denver is roughly 55 miles to the south. Rocky Mountain National Park lies directly to the west of the field. The airport has been used as a test site for a remote air traffic control tower, and at times has operated without a conventional staffed tower, with UNICOM providing local advisories.
The airfield has two physical runways, both hard-surfaced and lit. The main runway, 15/33, is 8,489 feet long and carries an ILS on the runway 33 approach. The secondary runway, 06/24, is a shorter 2,180-foot hard-surfaced strip without lighting listed. Field elevation is 4,993 feet.
Radio services at KFNL include an air/departure frequency of 134.85 MHz for Denver Approach/Departure, an AWOS-3 automated weather observation on 135.075 MHz, clearance delivery on 120.25 MHz, a Denver Radio flight service frequency of 122.4 MHz, and CTAF/UNICOM on 122.7 MHz. The main runway 15/33 is served by an ILS for instrument approaches.
As a non-towered field for much of its operating history, and more recently the subject of a remote-tower trial, traffic at FNL is coordinated primarily through UNICOM on 122.7 MHz, which also serves as the CTAF. Pilots should monitor this frequency for local traffic advisories when joining the pattern, using the AWOS on 135.075 MHz for current weather and Denver Approach/Departure on 134.85 MHz when operating under a service from Denver's terminal airspace.
Boyd Lake State Park lies immediately west of the airport and is a useful visual reference when inbound from the west or northwest. Interstate 25 runs close by to the east, providing a linear feature for orientation, while Rocky Mountain National Park forms a prominent backdrop to the west. Fort Collins lies to the northwest and Loveland to the southwest of the field.
The airport opened in 1964 (some sources give 1963) under a joint agreement between the cities of Loveland and Fort Collins, built with federal grant support following a rise in enrolment at Colorado State University. It was originally known as Fort Collins-Loveland Municipal Airport before the Northern Colorado Regional Airport Commission renamed it Northern Colorado Regional Airport in April 2016 to better reflect the wider area it serves. The field has seen several periods of scheduled airline activity: commuter shuttles to Denver by Air US and Air Link in the 1970s and early 1980s, Continental Express service from 1990 to 1993, United Express from 1992 to 1997, Allegiant Air from 2003 to 2012, Elite Airways from 2015, and Avelo Airlines, which launched flights to Burbank and Las Vegas in October 2021 before ceasing all service by June 2022 citing rising fuel and supply costs. In 2015 the FAA selected FNL as a test facility for a remote air traffic control tower using cameras and sensors rather than a conventional staffed tower, a project costing some 5.9 million US dollars and funded through the Colorado Aviation Fund.
FNL is today a general aviation airport with no scheduled airline service. It is home to three flight schools and a 24-hour Fixed Base Operator, along with specialised aircraft maintenance services. The airport recorded around 94,896 aircraft operations in the twelve months to the end of 2018, of which the great majority were general aviation, with 303 aircraft then based on the field. A new terminal building held its grand opening in November 2024.
