Colorado’s House Business Affairs and Labor Committee has passed a sales and use tax exemption for the state’s air charter operators, with the House Finance Committee set to vote on the exemption on March 5, according to the Colorado Aviation Business Association (CABA). With multiple sponsors in both chambers, the proposed legislation would exempt Colorado-based charter operators and aircraft owners from state sales and use tax “on the purchase, lease, storage, or consumption of an aircraft for interstate, intrastate, or foreign commerce” when used for on-demand service.

The intended purpose of the act is “to place additional aircraft in commercial service in Colorado, which will increase jobs related to their operation,” according to the bill. In a recent survey conducted by CABA, Colorado-based on-demand air carriers indicated that each additional aircraft placed into service will create, on average, 5.3 jobs to support its operation. These figures include pilots, maintenance technicians, charter schedulers and dispatchers, and ancillary office personnel. Additionally, rural communities will benefit “because service providers critical to rural communities, such as medical support, rely on on-demand air carriers to access communities with no commercial service,” the legislation notes.