Aspen/Pitkin County Airport (ASE) will soon see flights operated by Embraer E175 regional jets. While a change in aircraft type, especially for regional jets, isn’t typically newsworthy this is a special case.
Currently, the big three U.S. carriers serve Aspen with Bombardier CRJ-700 regional jet aircraft. This isn’t because the CRJ-700 is the better plane for the job but rather that, due to the airport layout, planes operating to and from ASE must have a wingspan of no more than 95 feet. This is due to the separation, or lack thereof, between the runway and taxiway.
In order to accept larger jets, such as the Embraer E175, the airport would need to provide additional separation between the runway and taxiway. With the CRJ-700 no longer in production and airlines phasing them out in favor of the more popular E175, the airport needs to expand. Local residents however are fighting the expansion and pushing to keep the airport small.
While no official announcements have been made by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) or the airport regarding a waiver, IshrionA, is reporting that United will begin service to the airport with E175 aircraft this winter.
The Embraer 175 is coming to Aspen, Colorado!
— Ishrion Aviation (@IshrionA) July 31, 2024
United Airlines plans to begin flying its E175 from Aspen (ASE) to several cities:
• Denver (DEN) starting Dec. 3
• Los Angeles (LAX) starting Dec. 19
• San Francisco (SFO) starting Jan. 7
• Houston (IAH) Dec. 3 to 18
The E175… pic.twitter.com/pFj93pz9bz
This is quite the development as the FAA has been pushing the airport to expand its facilities or risk losing public funding. Since itr clearly didn’t get a new taxiway overnight, it will be interesting to see what factors went into the decision to allow the larger planes.
The United Express flights will be operated by regional partner SkyWest. SkyWest also operates flights to/from the airport on behalf of American Eagle and Delta Connection so there is a possibility that we see other airlines add E175 flights to ASE.
Many travelers prefer the E175 to the CRJ family of aircraft (though I do have a soft spot for T-tails) as the plane feels more like a mainline jet due to its slightly larger size. I’ve had the opportunity to fly on both many times and tend to prefer the E175 from a comfort perspective.
It will be interesting to follow this development leading up to the scheduled launch of the E175 to Aspen as we still don’t have the full picture of how this became possible.
Summary
United Express is launching service utilizing Embraer E175 aircraft to Aspen/Pitkin County Airport (ASE) from four destinations this winter. Prior to this announcement, airlines exclusively operated the Bombardier CRJ-700 at ASE as it was the largest airplane that met the wingspan requirements. Now, we just have to wait and see what developments come to light that made this change possible.
