Need has nothing to do with it. The Slate Book Appendix A for Facility Pay Level has a formula that defines your level. ASE is actually under represented by Appendix A. As are most seasonal facilities that don’t have sustained traffic. There is no complexity bump for the type of complexity they actually have because they don’t have crossing runways or converging runways. So single runway ODO gets you nothing. They also have no Air Carrier or Military so the “mix” they actually deal with is under represented.
Some facilities make out very well with the values in that formula. Some get hosed.
To clarify I know single Runway gets no complexity, I was stating the info what I found on ASE that I believed to not be as complexed, aside from it being a (secondary radar) TRACAB.
JNU, ARB and ACK are other seasonal lvl 5 Facilities. Though JNU gets air carriers and helo traffic (LC2 position for Helo Traffic) I believe they were on the way to lvl 6 pre covid. There’s also STT that got downgraded from a lvl 5 to 4, and ARB got upgraded from a lvl 4 to a 5.
These were all lvl 5 facilities at one point, ALL in high cost of living locations, and all get GA traffic.
JNU and STT both being single Runway Ops just like ASE, and both do ODO.
The Difference is JNU and STT get Air Carriers, JNU has a Sea Lane, STT has runway Crossings, and ARB and ACK have intersecting runways.
Projected 2021 ops from TAF as follows: ARB 65k, ACK 62k, JNU 56k, STT 45k, ASE 43k (ASE TRACON ops 49k).
ASE Tower having a LOWER ops count.
*This is estimated and can be higher/lower
With all that being said, from an outside perspective it just sounds like ASE TRACAB part is pulling the weight for the upgrade. Just like HTS and YNG TRACON are doing for their respective Tower sides to remain a lvl 5, because without the Radar those facilities would easily be a lvl 4 tower.