Highlighted by more daily flights scheduled between Aspen and Texas than any summer previously, the Aspen-Pitkin County Airport’s mid-year flight season got underway Thursday.
American Airlines is flying to Aspen from Dallas/Fort Worth four times a day, and United’s daily schedule includes two flights daily from Houston. In addition, American will provide a Saturday flight from Austin, Texas, a route that represents a new addition to the ASE lineup.
“We now have twice as many flights from Texas as ever before in the summer,” local air travel consultant Bill Tomcich said Thursday. In the summer of 2019, American flew twice daily from D/FW and United flew once per day from Houston.
Local officials have said that Texas’ connections with Aspen grew stronger during the pandemic as tourist stays, both short- and long-term, picked up last summer and winter. Through most of 2020 and early this year, the Lone Star State shied away from strict COVID-19 limitations on mask wearing and social distancing that were being observed in most other areas of the country.
Many Texans also have relocated to the Roaring Fork Valley over the last year.
“We saw a lot of Texans coming to Aspen during the summer and the winter,” said Tomcich, consultant to the group Fly Aspen Snowmass, a partnership among the Aspen-Pitkin County Airport, the Aspen Chamber Resort Association, Snowmass Tourism and Aspen Skiing Co. “That momentum [from the winter] is carrying over into this summer. Both American and United have seen strong demand from Texas and they are responding to that demand by adding additional flights.”
Through Aug. 16, ASE will see a total of 23 daily flights Sunday through Friday and 24 on Saturdays with the addition of American’s Austin route. American will fly four times daily from D/FW, two times daily each from Chicago and Los Angeles and once daily from Phoenix.
Meanwhile, United has eight flights scheduled daily from its Denver hub, along with two flights per day from Houston and Los Angeles, as well as one flight a day from both Chicago and San Francisco.
The summer flight schedule follows the completion of a project that required a closure at the local airport May 18-23. The $1.7 million project was a partnership between Pitkin County, the Federal Aviation Administration and the Colorado Department of Transportation.
Generally, the project involved patching, sealing and restriping of the asphalt-based taxiway and apron. It also included some repainting on the concrete runway.
“We wanted to take this opportunity to thank everyone for their patience and understanding of the recent ASE airport closure for runway rehabilitation, which was completed on time allowing the airport to reopen [May 24] as scheduled,” a Thursday news release from Fly Aspen Snowmass says.
All of the nonstop flights are scheduled to continue through Labor Day weekend, albeit on slightly reduced schedules after Aug. 16. American’s new summer service from Austin and United’s service from San Francisco are set to end after Labor Day weekend. All other nonstop flights are now scheduled to continue through at least Oct. 4, the release states.
All commercial flights into ASE, the three-letter identifier for the Aspen-Pitkin County Airport, are operated by SkyWest Airlines using CRJ-700 aircraft configured with 65-70 seats.
The 23 daily flights to Aspen scheduled by the two airlines represent a record for the summer tourism season. The previous peak occurred in 2019, when United, American and Delta Air Lines operated 20 flights daily through the summer. Delta previously flew to Aspen from Salt Lake City but it suspended that route last year following the onset of COVID-19.
The Austin flight represents ASE’s first new nonstop route since Houston service was added more than 10 years ago, the release adds.
Until 30 days ahead of a departure date, future schedules are still subject to change based on demand, Tomcich said.
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June 04, 2021 at 04:00PM
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Twice as many flights from Texas to Aspen this summer compared with 2019 - Aspen Daily News
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