FAA flags 2 near midair collisions at airport in Colorado, restricts parallel takeoffs at Centennial

The Federal Aviation Administration is restricting takeoffs at Centennial Airport after identifying dozens of safety-related incidents, including two verified near-midair collisions. Local flight schools say the changes are disrupting training, with one instructor saying they are losing business as pilots look for other airports.

CBS Colorado obtained a new FAA safety assessment outlining the agency's concerns. The report reviewed flights from May 2025 through April 2026 and classified Centennial Airport's parallel departures as high risk for safety incidents involving deviation or "drift resulting in unmitigated convergence."

The FAA directed air traffic management at Centennial Airport to pause simultaneous departures from parallel runways on Oct. 1. The FAA's assessment is dated Sept. 29, and a memo to an air traffic official is dated Sept. 30. The airport says they did not receive that memo until Oct. 1.

In a statement in part, Centennial Airport posted, "Neither the FAA Control Tower nor the Airport Authority received advance notice of the directive, or the standard opportunity for stakeholder engagement before the restrictions took effect..." The airport also called the move "highly unusual."

The restrictions are also affecting flight schools that rely on Centennial's runways to teach student pilots.

Earlier this month, pilots received a message from the airport's air traffic control tower stating: "All runways unavailable for touch and goes, pattern work."

A touch-and-go is a training maneuver in which a plane lands and immediately takes off again.

J.T. Murphy, an independent flight instructor at Centennial and owner of Breakthrough Aviation, said while safety is paramount, the lack of warning has impacted his business.

"Myself and several other instructors were kind of scrambling to find other locations to train," Murphy said, "As we have to fly to other airports, that's less time that we're able to practice the skills that are vital to becoming a private pilot."

Multiple flight schools at the airport said the changes were impacting their programs as well, including pushing pilots to use more fuel to fly to farther airports to train repeated takeoffs and landings.

"I've had a number of students that have canceled flights and are looking at other opportunities. So that's lost business or about a 50% loss in business as they move to other airports that aren't going to cost as much to train at," Murphy said.

Flight schools and airport officials share concerns beyond Centennial, as shifting training flights to other airports could put additional pressure on facilities that are already busy.

The FAA's safety assessment identified concerns involving aircraft operating on Centennial's parallel runways, including planes drifting toward one another. The report included 54 recent safety-related incidents, among them two verified near-midair collisions.

When Murphy was asked if the communications from the FAA came as a surprise, he said, "Absolutely. The way it came out through just a memo was very abrupt and was unusual for how the FAA normally conducts business."

The FAA has not yet clarified its process for these changes, but said in a statement in part, "The FAA directed Centennial Airport (APA) air traffic management to pause simultaneous departures from parallel runways on October 1, 2026. Updated safety measures are expected to be implemented following a safety risk management panel, scheduled for later this month."

The FAA has scheduled the panel for next Tuesday and Wednesday. Airport officials have also asked that local stakeholders be included in the process as the agency considers future safety measures.

Centennial Airport's statement in its entirety has been posted online.