A citizens’ committee advising Pitkin County commissioners on the local airport is preparing to tackle several meaty issues in 2023 — greenhouse gas emissions, safety of flight operations, planning for a new passenger terminal and assessing the types of commercial aircraft that will serve the market in the future.

As daunting as those technical issues are, it is public relations that is providing one of the biggest challenges, some committee members said Tuesday during an update with the county commissioners. Commissioner Greg Poschman asked members of the Airport Advisory Committee what surprised them most during their deliberations in 2022.

“For me personally, what I’m most surprised about is the communication around what the board is doing and how that communication is getting out there to the community in general,” said Jacque Francis, chair of the advisory group. “The communication has been oddly negative about what this committee is trying to do and what they have been able to do.”

Howie Mallory, another longtime Aspen resident and airport advisory board member, agreed that interacting with the community has been a primary challenge.

“The surprise has been the difficulty of messaging,” Mallory said.

The Aspen-Pitkin County Airport has been a sensitive topic for decades because of the critical role it plays for the resort…