While it may seem minor, today was an exciting day for passengers at Aspen Airport as the first Embraer E175 touched down at the Colorado airport earlier today. United Express operated the first E175 flight into the airport from Denver International Airport (DEN).
Aspen Airport welcomed the inaugural flight of the E175 this morning!✈️ pic.twitter.com/u5eqGGpc9c
— Aspen Airport (@FlyAspenAirport) December 3, 2024
Regional carriers for many of the major U.S. airlines operate thousands of flights using the Embraer E175 every day. The aircraft is a workhorse and, as far as a regional jet goes, extremely comfortable to fly.
While you likely have flown on multiple Embraer E175s, until today you couldn’t fly one into
Aspen/Pitkin County Airport (ASE). The limitation was due to the separation limitations between the runway and taxiway.
Until today, the largest aircraft operating in and out of the airport was the CRJ-700. 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 have been fighting the expansion and pushing to keep the airport small though the FAA has been pushing the airport to expand or risk losing public funding.
Ultimately, the FAA determined that the Embraer E175 could fly into the airport without any new modifications though it is still pressuring the airport to expand the separation between the runway and the taxiway to the current Category III requirements.
Over the next few months, United plans to expand E175 service into Aspen from Houston-Intercontinental (IAH), Los Angeles (LAX), and San Francisco (SFO). I’m sure it’s only a matter of time before Delta and American begin operating the Embraer E175 to Aspen.
Summary
The first Embraer E175 touched down at Aspen Airport earlier today. United Express operated the first flight into the airport from Denver and has plans to expand operations to three more airports over the next few months. I’m sure it is only a matter of time before American and Delta deploy the aircraft on routes to Aspen.