Aspen/Pitkin County Airport will shut down completely for more than seven months in 2027 as crews rebuild and shift its runway, temporarily eliminating commercial, private and helicopter flights into one of the country’s best-known ski destinations.
The airport is scheduled to close at 11 p.m. April 4 and reopen at 7 p.m. Nov. 19, a nearly 230-day shutdown tied to the larger Aspen/Pitkin County Airport Modernization Project. The closure will force travelers headed to Aspen Snowmass to use airports such as Eagle County Regional, Grand Junction, Montrose or Denver International during the construction period.
The timing will affect the tail end of the 2026-27 ski season. Aspen Mountain is scheduled to remain open through April 18, while Aspen Highlands and Snowmass are scheduled to close April 11. Travelers flying in for the final weeks of skiing will no longer be able to use Aspen’s local airport after April 4.
The closure is necessary because crews will completely reconstruct and shift the airport’s runway while also relocating or replacing navigational equipment. According to the airport’s runway reconstruction information, keeping the existing runway open during that work is not feasible.
The runway project is part of a broader redevelopment currently estimated at about $575 million. Construction on a new commercial passenger terminal and fixed-base operator facility is also scheduled to begin during the shutdown, although passengers will return to the existing terminal when flights resume in November 2027. The replacement terminal is currently expected to open in 2029.
Aspen recently received a $37 million Federal Aviation Administration grant to help fund the runway reconstruction and relocation. It is the largest single FAA grant the airport has received, and Pitkin County says future federal reimbursements could cover a significant share of eligible airfield costs.
Preparatory work is already underway around the airport. Crews are relocating utilities, building retaining walls, preparing construction staging areas and realigning part of Owl Creek Road to accommodate the future runway configuration. The airport’s current construction updates also include traffic impacts around Highway 82 as work continues ahead of the full closure.
The project follows years of debate over Aspen’s constrained airport layout. The runway and taxiway sit in a narrow mountain valley, limiting the types of aircraft that can operate there and creating challenges for bringing the airport into compliance with current FAA design standards. Unofficial Networks previously covered the controversy surrounding plans to shift Aspen’s runway, which eventually became part of the broader modernization plan approved by local voters.
Aspen/Pitkin County Airport normally provides one of the most direct airport-to-ski-resort connections in the West, sitting only a few miles from Aspen Mountain, Buttermilk and downtown Aspen. That proximity helped Aspen Snowmass make our list of ski destinations located super close to an airport.
The 2027 closure will remove that convenience for most of the spring, summer and fall travel seasons, with ASE scheduled to reopen just before Thanksgiving. When flights resume, the runway work will be complete enough for operations to restart, but construction on the broader airport redevelopment will continue for several more years.
