Hello Amanda,

We hope everyone is enjoying the beautiful Yampa Valley summer! Our weekend-only direct flights to/from Houston (IAH) have been well received and will continue through September 22. United and Southwest Airlines continue to provide daily year-round service from HDN to DEN; more info below.  The Spring, Summer, Fall 2024 and the Winter 2024-2025 flight schedules can be found online and below; the flight schedule is subject to change throughout the season.  

Traveler Tips:

• During the spring, summer and fall we highly recommend our passengers and transportation providers plan arrivals at the airport a minimum of 1.5 hours prior to scheduled departure times.  
• Our 3 Wire Restaurant is open daily from 9:00 am to 2:30 pm; operating hours are adjusted to accommodate flight schedule changes and the restaurant typically opens two hours prior to the first commercial takeoff; find more information about 3 Wire Restaurant online.
• Uber and Lyft availability is very limited at HDN; travelers are reminded and encouraged to book ground transportation to/from Steamboat Springs in advance. Find all ground transportation options online.

For your late summer and fall travel options please check United and Southwest Airlines’ websites for their daily direct flights to Denver (DEN), and United’s summer (now thru September 22) direct flights to/from Houston (IAH); direct flights from IAH arrive HDN on Friday and Saturday evenings and depart HDN for IAH on Saturday and Sunday mornings. This year between September 10 and October 30, Southwest is flying daily Thursday-Monday (no flights on Tuesday and Wednesday). Please don’t forget about the option, through our partnership with The Good Traveler program, to purchase carbon offsets for your flights. This partnership allows individuals and businesses the option and opportunity to offset the carbon footprint of their air travel to and from YVRA through mileage-based charitable donations to hyper-local projects working to mitigate the impacts of climate change.

Steamboat Express and Ski Town Transportation shuttle bus companies along with Avis-Budget, Hertz and Enterprise-National rental car companies provide year-round service at YVRA. There are also many new off-airport For Hire Vehicle Operators at the Airport. The most recent info on airport ground transportation is available online.

ARFF Vehicle Acquisition: As the airport continues to grow in both the number of passengers and aircraft size the Aircraft Rescue and Fire Fighting (ARFF) Index has also changed from B to C during the winter months. The index change was triggered by having an average of five (5) or more Index C aircraft (126’-159’ long; read 757-200s & 737-800s) departures per day during our three busiest consecutive months (January-March). The Index C requirements include having two firefighters and two ARFF vehicles onsite and operational daily from 0600-2100 MST. The airport currently has two (2) 3,000-gallon ARFF vehicles, which meet the Index C requirements as long as both trucks are operational. To reliably meet Index C ARFF requirements the airport received approval from the FAA to buy a third ARFF vehicle, which will be funded with a $1.2M FAA grant matched with 5% contributions from the State and the Airport. The airport opened bids on June 25 and will award as soon as FAA grant funding is available (August). The estimated delivery date for the ARFF vehicle is January 2026.

Taxiway A Rehabilitation Project: We still plan to start construction in April-May 2025 on a major construction project on the “airside” of the airport. The project scope includes rehabilitation of our 10,000’ long x 75’ wide Taxiway A and existing connectors, new Taxiway A lighting, construction of a blast pad on the eastern end of the runway and the addition of a new A2 runway/taxiway connector (see diagram below). The project will not impact any of our scheduled airline operations or include any runway closures during normal aircraft operating hours (6:00 am-9:00 pm). Some of the work will be accomplished during night runway closures. The project is scheduled for completion NLT October 31, 2025.

Terminal Expansion and Enhancement: Our Terminal Area Plan (TAP) was completed at the end of 2023 and adopted via resolution by Routt County. We’re now in the design phase of our Terminal Expansion and Enhancement project and construction could start as early as summer 2025 if grant funding is secured! The TAP provides the foundation for terminal expansion and addresses current and future (through 2040) requirements at the airport. The TAP outlines our plans for funding, design and construction of a three-phase terminal expansion project. The TAP identified a need to more than double the terminal size; it adds four new gates (three of those with jet bridges), significantly expands baggage claim and ground transportation areas, and increases the TSA checkpoint size and ticketing capacities. All of the YVRA TAP documents are available online; the second Public Open House presentation recording is still available at this same link. Based on current funding availability we’re moving forward with design of Phase 1 only and hope to start Phase 1 construction in spring/summer 2026. Phase 1 & 2 diagrams from the HDN TAP Executive Summary are shown below and and the entire brochure can be found online.  

Airport Business Park (ABP): Our recently completed General Aviation Development Plan facilitates and encourages future aviation-related business development at the airport and should produce more good paying jobs at the airport. The project brings an additional 27 acres inside our perimeter fence with direct aircraft access to the airfield/runway complex. Phase 1 of the project has already been awarded and aeroHDN is set to break ground on new hangars in August 2024 (see current concept drawing below). A Request for Proposal (RFP) for development of Phase 2 is expected to be published in summer or fall of 2024. We are also actively pursuing federal grant funding to widen and strengthen Taxiway B and construct Taxilane F to provide safe transit for larger (ADG III) aircraft to both Phase 1 and Phase 2 parts of our ABP. If successful in obtaining grant funding for this taxiway/taxilane project we plan to complete the project in 2025.

YVRA is currently advertising two full time, fully benefited positions (Equipment Operations Technician, and Building and Grounds Maintenance Supervisor). Additional full time and seasonal positions will be advertised soon for the 2024-2025 winter flight season. To stay informed about job opportunities or to apply for any positions please visit: https://selfservice.co.routt.co.us/ess/employmentopportunities/default.aspx  

For questions about the application process please contact us at 970.276.5003.