Aspen Airport (ASE) Closing For Most Of 2027, For Runway Redevelopment

Looks like the runway movement and widening would allow mainline flights to ASE.

Whatever will the 1% do in the mean time?

The Global & Gulfstream set will find a way. They'll probably fly into Eagle County Airport and jump on a helicopter over to Aspen.

Looks like the Eagle County Airport 30 miles away (near Vail) will be much busier next year. Many smart Aspen pax have already begin to choose it by default. Most carriers already run near-full 319s, 737s and 757s into EGE, so let's hope there's increased frequency during the shutdown. Even with the runway improvements, the ASE will be a "Fisher-Price Airport", incapable of operating with any reliability or delivering any passenger comfort.

I would love to see NYC to Aspen direct.....fingers crossed.

Living in Aspen for 18 years, I worked at the airport for almost 10 years before transferring to DEN. You have no idea of what this modernization means not only to the community, but also the employees that work there. It was a dismal terminal back in its eary days. From all the videos I’ve watched, it looks like they have their act together. Wishing them the best!

Eagle is overrun enough. Takes 45 to get bags everytime. This will make it worse

Donny's buddy Jeff used to fly direct.
It's all in the files.

They'll be leaving on a jet plane.
Don't know when they'll be back again.
Oh Aspen, they hate to go.

Oh no! What are the filthy rich going to do?????

Improvements to the runway (increased width) won't help get bigger planes into ASE. Approach minimums for IFR procedures into ASE basically need VFR weather (the RNAV-F and the LOC/DME-E both require 3200' ceiling / 3 miles for Cat C aircraft).

Besides, the larger narrowbodies are Cat D (737-900ER, A321s, etc.) and neither of those approaches into ASE have authorized Cat D minimums. So the airlines cannot dispatch planes that large (well - with final approach speeds that fast) into ASE.

So don't hold your breath on getting anything bigger than maybe a 737-700 on the route - and hope you booked your flights on a day the weather is nice and clear. If the airline cannot get in because of the weather (clouds below 3000' above the field) a need to go to an alternate would not be considered something within the airline's control. So the airline doesn't owe you a hotel etc.

Your “lounge” comment was tongue in cheek, right? Give one good reason why Aspen needs a lounge. An outdoor observation deck would make a tad more sense.

Yeah I see this as a mess. Advice, don't book a late connection into Eagle.

‘I’d say that I hope there’s also finally a lounge, though I suspect basically everyone flying into or out of Aspen in winter would be eligible for lounge access, so maybe that’s of limited value, unless you really just enjoy standing in line.’

Haha Ben. Do you hope this airport will have something like PS LAX or Huan Yu Terminal at TPE?

Vail resident here - EGE parking is already a complete mess and frequently completely full. I have had to park in some sketchy spots and not been ticketed or towed (yet) but always hold my breath. There is plenty of land out there - hopefully they get this resolved fast. Added way too many flights this winter. Increasing parking from $8 to $10 and gating it is not the answer to fix the capacity issues.

Thank god it's back open for ski season. Not slumming it from Vail

Lots of them fly in and out of Rifle over ASE. It's a much more reliable airport and supports a huge amount of private service. They will not be affected too much by this. It's the normal people that will have a much longer commute, either though Eagle or just driving from DEN.