Aims Community College is expanding its aviation program in Northern Colorado, adding a $19.5 million hangar and an on-site aviation mechanic program to its school. The additions are being made at the Loveland Fort Collins airport campus.
On Tuesday, Sen. John Hickenlooper attended a tour of the facilities, known as the Aims Community College Flight Training Center. There he learned more about the projected need for pilots over the next several decades, and how the college is working to get northern Coloradans involved in the industry.
“We’ve got a push to get more pilots trained and ready to make sure we don’t have bottlenecks,” Hickenlooper said. “I think this is a way for local communities to make sure in their catchment area they got enough pilots.”
Aims relocated in 2018 to the Loveland Fort Collins airport. Prior, they were located at the Greeley Airport in Weld County.
Some residents reached out to CBS News Colorado expressing frustrations that the college was relocated to, and expanding in, a county in which Weld taxpayers do not live.