A new and generous incentive package is drawing strong interest in three vacant air traffic control positions at the Aspen/Pitkin County Airport tower.

The tower, which is controlled by the Federal Aviation Administration, has struggled to draw and retain employees because of the area’s high cost of living, a declining pay scale and a system that assigns small rural airports like Aspen’s to the bottom of the salary range. The revolving door of controllers has meant that the tower is often staffed less than ideally, and that existing staff work a fair amount of overtime.

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