Aspen Airport Hits Record High
March was a record-breaking month for the Aspen/Pitkin County Airport as passenger counts soared above 100,000 people.
Bill Tomcich, consultant for Fly Aspen Snowmass and member of the Pitkin County Airport Advisory Board, presented to the board on Thursday about the increased passenger numbers.
“One thing I can promise you is that it will be the high-water mark, at least for the next year,” said Tomcich. “We’re not going to see that much activity, at least not for the next 11 months or so.”
The increase amounts to almost a 9% jump in passengers compared to March 2024 and a 6.6% jump in passengers by this time in 2025 as compared to 2024.
Tomcich speculated, using data not yet publicly available, that because occupancy rates were “virtually identical” to last March in Aspen Snowmass, the increase in passengers doesn’t suggest an increase in Aspen visitors.
According to him, the increase in passengers inbound and outbound could largely be due to a spike in locals using the airport. He also suggested there could be an increase in the same amount of visitors flying directly to Aspen rather than flying to neighboring airports and then driving in.
While the Aspen/Pitkin County Airport began taking flights from the newer E-175 planes in December 2024, which are notably larger than the CRJ-700, they still carry the same number of passengers as the CRJ-700. The increase in passengers cannot be credited to any type of increased seating capacity in the planes themselves.
But Tomcich does not expect this passenger growth to continue.
“Looking ahead, once the airport reopens from the construction, capacity is almost perfectly even year over year,” he said at the Thursday board meeting. “I’m not anticipating several more months of growth like we have for the last 11 months.”
By: Colin SuszynskiI The Aspen Times I April 18, 2025