In 1927 the airport opened on east of the city, with two gravel runways. In the late 1930s the first scheduled airline flight went from El Paso, Texas, through Pueblo, Colorado Springs, to Denver and back. The first municipal terminal was built in 1942 in an art deco style. Soon after the terminal was built the field was taken over by the military in the months preceding World War II. After the war, the city regained control. In 1966 a new terminal was built on the west side of the runways, just east of Powers Boulevard. This terminal expanded by the 1980s, with a six gate addition. By 1991 the airport had three wide runways, one long, making it the longest runway in Colorado until 16R/34L, a runway, opened at Denver International Airport in September 2003. In 1991 the city approved a new terminal, two miles east of the former terminal, in the south-center part of the airport. The terminal opened on October 22, 1994 with 12 gates; it was designed by the Van Sant Group and cost $140 million. In the 1990s a second, 5-gate concourse was added on the east side of the main terminal. In 1996, the 1941 passenger terminal, two hangars, and a caretaker residence — by that time all located on Peterson Air Force Base — were inscribed on the National Register of Historic Places. They form the campus of the Peterson Air and Space Museum.
Commercial Service
Through the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s, the airport tried to expand service. The largest number of passengers was nearly 5 million in 1996 when now-defunct Western Pacific Airlines had a hub at COS. Their timetable for 15 June shows 33 daily departures to 20 airports between the west coast and Newark and Washington Dulles.. In 2012, Frontier Airlines attempted to build a focus city at COS with added nonstop service to a number of destinations including Los Angeles, Orlando, Phoenix-Sky Harbor, Portland, OR, San Diego and Seattle–Tacoma in addition to existing daily flights to their Denver hub. In 2013, Frontier discontinued all service from COS citing that performance on the newly served routes were not meeting expectations. Frontier returned to COS in 2016 with nonstop service to Las Vegas, Phoenix-Sky Harbor, and Orlando with plans to grow to 15-20 destinations within 3 to 5 years. In March 2017, Frontier announced 7 new seasonal cities from COS including Chicago O'Hare, Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego and Washington to begin summer 2017 and Ft. Myers and Tampa to begin fall 2017. In 2020, Frontier announced that all seasonal service from COS would be discontinued to allow for the airline to move aircraft for route development in other markets. The airline will continue to offer daily service to Las Vegas, NV and Phoenix, AZ in addition to three-times-weekly service to Orlando, FL. Colorado Springs currently has non-stop flights to 17 U.S. cities on 4 carriers.
Facilities and aircraft
The airport covers and has three paved runways: 17L/35R, long, 17R/35L, and 13/31,. Reached via Milton Proby Parkway, the terminal consists of two concourses. However, only one, the larger concourse housing gates 1–12, has ever been put to commercial use; the second concourse contains gates 14–18 and is now mainly used for meetings. Access between the concourses requires leaving the secure area, walking through the main terminal and down a long hallway. Since September 2011 the airport terminal has been under renovation, that includes reconstruction of the TSA checkpoint to support full body scanners, expansion of office space behind the ticket counters, and new facilities for automated baggage screening. Repairs to runway 17L/35R, first scheduled for 2011, were delayed to spring 2012 by the FAA shutdown. In the year ending December 31, 2019 the airport had 135,431 aircraft operations, an average of 371 per day: 54% general aviation, 25% military, 10% scheduled commercial, and 11% air taxi. At this time, there were 227 aircraft based at the airport: 154 single-engine, 35 multi-engine, 22 jet, 2 helicopter, 1 glider, 1 ultra-light and 12 military.
Airlines and destinations
Passenger
Cargo
Statistics
Top destinations
Accidents and incidents
On March 3, 1991, United Airlines Flight 585, a Boeing 737-291 flying from Peoria, Illinois, to Colorado Springs via Denver, crashed on final approach to Colorado Springs Runway 35 after a rudder malfunction caused the aircraft to roll over and dive, killing all 25 on board.
On April 16, 2018, a fire broke out on the airport's roof. There were no casualties, but the event resulted in the airport being closed for a single day.
