Next summer, the trip home to Aspen starts at a different airport, and the airlines have done more to get ready than the roads have. Aspen/Pitkin County Airport closes on Sunday, April 4, 2027, at 11:00 p.m. and stays closed until Friday, November 19, 2027, at 7:00 p.m. while the runway is rebuilt to current FAA standards. No commercial or private flights will operate at ASE during that time, and the terminal will be closed. The airlines responded quickly and moved the flights about 67 miles away. The ground link between that airport and Aspen is the part still being worked out.

The Seats Moved to Eagle Before Anyone Asked

The Aspen Times reported in August that Eagle County Regional Airport will have 112 weekly flights at the peak of summer 2027, up from 46 this past summer, which is well over double.

Here's how the two big carriers rebuilt their Eagle schedules:

• American Airlines goes from three to four daily flights out of Dallas Fort Worth and adds twice-daily nonstops from Los Angeles and a daily flight from Chicago O'Hare. That takes it from 21 weekly flights from one hub to 49 weekly flights from three hubs.
• United Airlines doubles its Denver service from three to six daily flights. It also turns weekend-only Houston and Chicago service into daily flights and adds daily Los Angeles service, for 63 weekly flights instead of 25.
• Delta, ASE's third major airline partner, hadn't announced any added Eagle service as of early October, according to Airport Director Diane Jackson's report to county commissioners.

The expanded schedules are already on sale up to 11 months out. Pay attention to the start date, though. American's expanded schedule begins May 27, 2027, when its peak summer season starts. ASE closes on April 4, so there are roughly seven and a half weeks of spring when the local runway is gone and American's added Eagle flights haven't started. Anyone who usually flies in for spring skiing, or out for the spring off-season, will be booking against Eagle's regular schedule during those weeks.

Every Option Is Measured From Brush Creek

The airport's own guide to traveling during the closure measures every drive time to the Brush Creek Park & Ride, about 6 miles from Aspen and 5 from Snowmass, where local transit picks up. For next summer, that park-and-ride on Highway 82 is the starting point for every route below.

Look at the right-hand column. Eagle, which has the biggest jump in flights, is the one airport on the list with no public transit option listed. The guide lists rental cars and private car services there and nothing else. Denver and Grand Junction take longer to reach, but both already connect to the valley through Bustang and RFTA.

Private flyers have their own answer. The airport's runway reconstruction FAQ says Rifle Garfield County Airport stays open for general aviation during the closure, and it lists Glenwood Springs and Rifle as nearby helicopter options. Atlantic Aviation runs the FBO at Rifle, which has a 30,000-square-foot heated hangar that can hold aircraft up to a Gulfstream G650. The airport also expects AERO to run jet charter service from Rifle in summer 2027.

The Shuttle That Would Close the Eagle Gap

The planning effort is mostly about that missing link between Eagle and the valley. The Post Independent reported on October 8 that a new Community Continuity Planning Group, with members from Pitkin and Eagle counties and other community stakeholders, has made its main goal a dependable connection between the upper valley and Eagle County Regional. RFTA and Aspen One lead its transportation subcommittee. RFTA has started a request for qualifications for shuttle service from Eagle and from Denver.

County Manager Kara Silbernagel explained to commissioners why public money is involved, in comments the Post Independent reported:

"If there was a free-market solution, a private solution, it would already be happening."

So the plan relies on a subsidy. Here's where it stood in the Post Independent's October report:

1. Fare. The target is around $50. The goal is to keep it low enough that a wave of rental cars doesn't flood the valley.
2. Subsidy. The projection is $600,000, with half from the Elected Official Transportation Committee and half from other partners. ACRA, RFTA and Aspen One have each tentatively offered to contribute.
3. Timing. Service to Eagle could start as early as this ski season, months before ASE closes.
4. Vendor. The Aspen Chamber Resort Association's closure page, updated through September 17, said two viable responses were under evaluation and a selection was likely by the end of October.

All four items were still targets, projections or pending decisions as of these reports. If the winter start happens, residents will get to try the Eagle run in the snow before they depend on it in July.

The subcommittee is working on several other pieces as well. They include an Eagle shuttle with several stops through the valley, a study of a direct shuttle to Denver International, overnight and long-term parking for shuttle riders, relocating ASE's rental car facility, enough rental cars at both the new facility and Eagle, a vetting process for limo, taxi and shuttle operators, closer coordination with Bustang toward Eagle, Grand Junction and Denver, and a single source of travel information.

The rental car piece is also headed for Brush Creek. Pitkin County's October 1 public notice put a proposed lease of Brush Creek Property Lot A to the airport, for a temporary rental car facility during the modernization, on the commissioners' October 14 agenda. The same agenda included a resolution on an FAA grant of up to $74 million for the runway work. If the lease goes ahead as proposed, the shuttle, the rental counters and local transit would all meet in one place, six miles down-valley from Aspen.

A Town That Stays Open, With Two Hotels Dark

The other side of the plan is keeping visitors coming. ACRA says the valley's annual special events are planned as usual. It also lists The Gant and the Little Nell as the two hotels it knows will be closed during the airport closure, with all other hotels open. The summary from the July "Ready Together" community town hall goes a step further. It expects nearly all community events to continue and names the 2027 Security Forum as the one known exception.

Visitors seem less worried than locals. In ACRA's visitor profile survey, 66 percent of respondents said the closure won't affect their plans to come to Aspen. According to the town hall summary, 18.6 percent said they were more likely to visit because they expect a less crowded summer. ACRA's separate preparedness survey drew 271 responses from business owners, employees, and full- and part-time residents. About 43 percent said they felt completely or somewhat unprepared. If summer visitors arrive on schedule and the Eagle connection is still being finalized, that preparedness gap will show up on Highway 82.

For locals planning a summer that's been on the calendar for years, the events in our Aspen summer guide are expected to go ahead as scheduled. The bigger change is that travel days now include an extra stretch of road.

Construction You Can Already See on Owl Creek Road

The project has already started. Crews started enabling work on Owl Creek Road and the Owl Creek Trail the week of July 27. The work moves the road about 30 feet west along roughly 1,800 feet. Pitkin County expected alternating one-lane traffic through October. The county also forecast that Owl Creek Road and its trail would be back to two lanes in their new layout by November, after a Highway 82 lane-closure window that ended October 10.

The schedule includes a cushion at the end. According to the town hall summary, the project team wants the runway finished by the end of September 2027, which leaves time before the scheduled November 19 reopening. When ASE reopens, flights will use the existing terminal until the new one is finished in 2029. Commissioners moved the new terminal into a roughly 16-week Design Development phase on September 23. The current design has eight aircraft positions and ground transportation tied to RFTA service along Highway 82. The airport says the schedule depends on weather and could change, and it posts updates at aspenairport.com/modernization.

At PJ Bory, a lot of the owners we work with fly in from somewhere else, and next summer their trips will start in Eagle or Rifle. If you're planning arrivals for 2027, hosting guests or coordinating a property visit while ASE is closed, call us and we'll help you plan around the Brush Creek connection as the shuttle and rental car decisions are made.