Denver City Council voted 11-1 to approve a new three-year agreement with Key Lime Air, reversing course just months after rejecting the Colorado-based carrier over its work flying people for Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The vote clears the way for Key Lime to keep operating at Denver International Airport starting in January 2027.
The agreement, first detailed by Axios, covers Key Lime's regional passenger service at DIA rather than its immigration-related flying. According to Denverite, the space in question would be used for Key Lime's regional passenger service, known as Denver Air Connection, not its immigration flights — with the airline looking to rent roughly 1,200 square feet, mostly in a concourse basement. The outlet also reported that Key Lime's ICE flights fly out of the airport's fixed-base operator facility for charter flights, a physically separate operation from the gate space council members were voting on.
Council had delayed the vote by a week amid concerns about Key Lime's ICE contract work, per the seed reporting, before ultimately siding with city staff who argued Denver had little legal room to say no. George Karayiannakis told a committee meeting last month that airlines without an agreement can pay nearly 25 percent more to operate at DIA, underscoring the financial stakes of turning qualified carriers away. Federal rules limit Denver's ability to turn away qualified airlines, a constraint that shaped much of the debate.
Fiscal Warnings Pushed the Reversal
Kevin Flynn warned that rejecting the contract could cause irredeemable harm to the airport's current and future fiscal health, while Michael Biel cautioned Tuesday that rejecting the agreement could violate federal law. Miko Brown argued the opposite risk cut the other way, saying a contract actually gives DIA leverage to enforce its terms — including the ability for DIA to fine Key Lime Air for violations. Under the new deal, Key Lime also receives lower rates and fees than airlines operating without agreements, a financial incentive city officials weighed alongside the legal pressure.
Council didn't just take up Key Lime's case in isolation — members also approved several other airline agreements alongside it, part of the routine business of keeping DIA's gate and concourse space under contract. Key Lime did not respond to a request for comment Tuesday, according to the seed reporting, continuing a pattern; the airline also did not immediately respond when Denverite sought comment in September.
A Reversal From December's Rejection
The about-face is notable because the council had rejected a Key Lime lease by the same 11-1 margin before this approval, according to Denverite. That December rejection made headlines at the time: the Denver Post reported that the council rejected the contract on Dec. 15, 2025, specifically over the company's work helping carry out mass-deportation efforts. That rejection didn't go unnoticed by federal regulators — the FAA opened an investigation aimed at determining whether Denver violated federal grant assurances by rejecting Key Lime's proposed lease expansion for reasons outside FAA-defined grounds, as reported by Colorado Politics.
Key Lime's connection to immigration enforcement flights is well documented beyond Denver's airport dispute. Colorado Newsline reported that Key Lime operated 83 domestic immigration-enforcement flights in September 2025 as part of a broader monthly record tallied by Human Rights First, and that two of the company's aircraft changed routes that same month to fly primarily to and from major immigration-detention hubs in the South. Between Sept. 15 and Oct. 17, 2025, those planes visited Alexandria 59 times, Harlingen 11 times, El Paso 14 times, and Lake City nine times, per the same outlet's flight-tracking data.
A Pattern Playing Out Beyond Colorado
Denver isn't the only city grappling with the financial and logistical footprint of ICE charter flights. In Ohio, the Ohio Capital Journal reported that deportation flights moved to Akron-Canton Airport after Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport partially closed its longest runway for repairs, and that three charter companies flying those routes owed a combined $46,513 in landing fees for 148 landings since the end of April, with $33,927 of that past due. The unpaid fees highlight how local airport budgets can get tangled up in federal immigration enforcement contracts, even when the flights themselves don't touch passenger terminals.
For Denver, the practical upshot is that Key Lime Air may continue operating at DIA starting in January 2027 under terms city officials say protect the airport financially while keeping its immigration-flight operations walled off from the newly approved lease. Whether the FAA's investigation into Denver's earlier rejection concludes with any finding against the city remains an open question that hasn't been resolved in available reporting.
