FAA halts Centennial parallel departures after two near-collisions

The FAA has halted simultaneous departures from Centennial Airport’s parallel runways after a review of more than 35,500 departures found two hazardous midair near-collisions. The review covered May 2025 through April 2026. Its event classifications were:

• 2 hazardous near-collisions
• 9 high-risk major events
• 49 medium- and low-risk incidents

A copy of the FAA safety assessment, released by Centennial Airport, provides the documented basis for the federal action. The airport was one of nine facilities evaluated for simultaneous parallel departures, meaning adjacent-runway takeoffs conducted at the same time. Centennial was the only Colorado airport in that comparison group, according to a Sept. 29 memo between FAA officials.

Centennial recorded more pilots deviating from assigned flight paths and more aircraft drifting off course than the other eight airports. The assessment linked those deviations to unmitigated convergence, meaning converging flight paths without mitigation. It cited aircraft proximity, increased controller and pilot workload, and compressed reaction times as factors producing significant collision risk.

FAA investigators rated Centennial high risk for parallel takeoffs. The same assessment assigned medium risk to takeoffs at the other eight airports. The FAA did not respond to questions about what happened during either near-collision, leaving the circumstances unresolved in the released material.

An FAA spokesperson said the order requires Centennial Airport to stop simultaneous departures from its parallel runways for now. Updated safety measures are expected after a safety risk management panel meets the following week, according to the spokesperson. Neither the restriction’s end date nor the proposed measures were specified.

The notification process became another point of concern. Neither the FAA control tower nor the Airport Authority received advance notice before the restriction took effect, according to a Centennial Airport statement. Airport officials called the immediate cease “highly unusual.” The statement did not describe how controllers and operators implemented the change without preparation.

What does the restriction change for operators?

The current order ends concurrent takeoffs from the parallel runways but does not amount to an airport closure. Centennial separately said it was not authorizing regular touch-and-go operations, in which an aircraft lands and immediately takes off again. It also restricted most other pattern work, meaning repeated practice operations.

The immediate capacity effect centers on flight schools, pilots and aircraft owners using the airport for training and repeated movements. The airport said the changes have had a “significant impact” on flight schools, pilots, airport businesses, aircraft owners and the broader airport community. It did not quantify lost training hours, movements, revenue or costs.

Operationally, the restriction reduces the number of aircraft that can depart simultaneously from the parallel runways. That is a direct capacity constraint, although the source provided no revised flight-volume forecast, revenue estimate or cost calculation. It also identified no affected airline schedule or connecting network.

Centennial officials said safety would remain the airport’s highest priority. They also noted that the airport had operated at similar, and at times higher, traffic levels for decades without an accident involving aircraft departing simultaneously from its parallel runways. The historical comparison addresses overall traffic, not whether the current risk profile matches those earlier periods.

Updated safety measures are expected after next week’s safety risk management panel, but their cost, operational content and effect on concurrent departures remain unspecified. Until those measures take effect, operators face a continued constraint on parallel-runway capacity, while the airport’s traffic history offers context rather than proof that the risk has been resolved.