Aspen/Pitkin County Airport (ASE) is finally getting more comfortable commercial jet service as of today, which is an exciting development for those traveling to the airport.
In this post:
Aspen Airport now served by Embraer regional jets
Aspen is of course an incredibly popular and high-end ski destination. The city’s airport isn’t very big, and also has challenging conditions, due to the big mountains in the area. As a result, most of the commercial air service at the airport is on the regional subsidiaries of the “big three” US carriers.
Not only that, but service has historically exclusively been on Bombardier CRJ-700 aircraft, as Embraer E175s haven’t been allowed to fly to the airport. In recent years, that has started to pose some issues for the airport’s future, given that many airlines are phasing out Bombardier regional jets, in favor of Embraer jets.
However, earlier this year some major progress was made, as airlines started to get approved to fly Embraer E175s to the airport. As of today, United Airlines has started flying it’s more modern regional jet to the airport, and by early 2025, United will fly the Embraer E175 to Aspen from Denver (DEN), Houston (IAH), Los Angeles (LAX), and San Francisco (SFO).
Presumably in the not-too-distant future, we’ll also see American Eagle and Delta Connection upgrade their Aspen flights. This is fantastic news in terms of passenger experience, since the Embraer E175 is a pleasure to fly. It has real big jet energy, without the middle seats. For that matter, United’s E175s have significantly more first class seats and extra legroom economy seats than CRJ-700s.
Another major improvement with this change is that the E175 has better avionics than the CRJ-700, which should reduce delays and cancelations due to weather. That has historically been a major issue for the airport.
Aspen Airport’s expansion drama
Earlier this year, I wrote about the debate over Aspen Airport’s future. In a narrative that’s all too familiar in many communities, some (particularly wealthy) locals in Aspen didn’t want the airport to grow, as they wanted to limit access to the city. However, expanding air traffic to a city is of course objectively good for the economy.
The challenge in Aspen has been that the airport has needed some major upgrades in order to grow and accommodate larger jets, including updates to the taxiways and runway. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) was threatening to withhold funding if local authorities weren’t willing to get onboard with improvement projects.
As it turns out, it was ultimately decided that the Embraer E175 could fly to the airport without any modifications to the setup, which is why this is now possible. While some testing was required, this should be an easy enough transition, though it’s expected to happen in a phased manner.
Bottom line
Aspen Airport is now receiving service from Embraer E175s, with United Airlines being the first to fly these jets to the airport. This is a major development, as historically the airport has been restricted primarily to Bombardier CRJ-700 aircraft. This is great for passengers, in terms of comfort, operational reliability, and more.
What do you make of this Aspen Airport development?
NIMBY residents do no good but kill their own neighbourbood.
*neighbourhood
Waiting for lie flat seats for the jet set at Aspen :-)
Oh thank goodness. Super excited by this and can't wait to start flying them into ASE in Jan. UA has already updated their schedules w/ E175s for this winter season, so I'm guessing AA and DL will follow suit for the summer or next winter.
When is DELTA going to fly there?
Not as premium an airline as UA - only the most premium one can fly in to Aspen with the E75.
@UA-NYC, wish I could disagree, but you can't argue with facts. Premium service to premium destinations.
Does E175 have the range for them to add a NYC direct flight? That would be amazing.
Unfortunately NYC is out of range.
My husband was in the cockpit today, a very proud day for all the hard work by so many that went into making this day possible for SkyWest!
For those who are interested, Wendover has a good video about this issue and the debate over widening the spacing of the airport's runways.
Also, Darren Byrd has a video about his different type ratings. For the CRJ-700 he mentions that it has way more excess engine thrust than the E175. His favourite plane is the E135/140/145 since no one has ever died on one.
Couldn’t help but notice that you never said what airline is actually operating these flights. Aspen is a very tricky airport to fly into, complicated by their weather and the high terrain around the airport. Not all regional carriers are created equal and not all regional carriers are up to the challenges of operating into and out of ASE. I’ll wait for the A220s.
SkyWest flies all Airliners into ASE, only carrier certified to do it, with their own special program.
I thought and hoped it might be them. Thanks.
I used to fly there in the CRJ, the ERJ is gonna be crazy weight restricted especially with weather. Also it’s the same approach, ERJ wont get in anymore than the CRJ already does, no difference. Yes it’s more comfortable but there’s gonna be way more weight restrictions.
A big situation with restricted landings and the CRJ700 was lack of instrumentation support for assistance during reduced visibility. My understanding from being at some of the early presentations at town council meetings was that the E175 would support more advanced avionics and would improve arrivals during storms.
Their are no publicly published RNP approaches into ASE unless Skywest develops one. I'm assuming a CRJ can't fly an RNP approach due to the lack of VNAV. The only publicly published approaches are a GPS and a localizer approach which both aircraft can fly. Now if the E175 is category B for approaches (don't think it is, this will make a difference)
The approach is actually a completely different one than the CRJ uses.
the locals lost... as they should have.
The complaints were petty.
Now bring on the A220