In 1948, Walter Paepcke and a business partner from Chicago opened Aspen Airport, a gravel airstrip with a log cabin passenger terminal on ranchland three miles from downtown. Four years later, Paepcke founded Aspen Airways as the aviation division of The Aspen Institute, flying guests and personnel to and from Denver.

Pitkin County took ownership of the airport in 1956, adding a paved runway and a taxiway, plus a place for aircraft to park. A new, larger terminal was built in the early ’70s with a lot more room for passengers, then expanded again in the ’80s. Over time, to make room for larger planes, the runway grew wider—from 60 feet to 80 to 100—but even that’s not wide enough to meet current safety standards set by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). With the tarmac crumbling and the terminal showing its age, something needed to be done.

So last fall, the county and the FAA signed off on a new airport layout plan that includes a wider runway and a new net-zero terminal with a transit hub offering easier bus connections for plane passengers and highway commuters alike, with a potential ribbon-cutting in 2029.

The old terminal will remain open while the new one is built, but the same can’t be said about the runway. Expect the biggest impacts in 2027, when the runway could close for eight to nine months, and even those flying to Aspen by private jet will have to land their Lears at the Vail Valley Jet Center and fight traffic on Highway 82 with the rest of us.