Yampa Valley Airport


Yampa Valley Regional Airport is in Routt County, Colorado, two miles southeast of Hayden and about west of Steamboat Springs. Also known as Yampa Valley Regional Airport, it has the only scheduled passenger flights to northwest Colorado. It is also used by larger business jets that cannot use the smaller Steamboat Springs Airport.
The National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems for 2011–2015 called it a primary commercial service airport. Federal Aviation Administration records say it had 136,600 passenger boardings in calendar year 2008, 122,480 in 2009 and 110,044 in 2010.

Facilities

Yampa Valley Airport covers at an elevation of. Its asphalt runway, 10/28, is.
The airport recently completed Phase II of a project that expanded the terminal, apron and parking lots. The project will cost about $18 million. The airport has six gates that can handle Boeing 757s, Boeing 737s, Bombardier Dash 8 Q400s, Airbus A319s, Canadair CRJ 200s, CRJ 700s and Embraer 170s. Like other Colorado airports serving ski resorts, there are no jetbridges, only open air airstairs. The private ramp can handle up to 30 private jets. In the winter months larger private jets such as the Boeing 737 cannot be parked due to lack of space and must depart after deplaning passengers.

Airport procedures

The airport has no air traffic control tower. All aircraft are on a CTAF and/or Unicom. All aircraft receive approach control services from the Denver Air Route Traffic Control Center. Gates and aircraft parking slots can be assigned via the airport operation radio communication channel. Jet A fuel is provided by the FBO, Atlantic Aviation. All aircraft departing runway 28 make a right or left turn to avoid the populated area of Hayden. Runway 10 has an Instrument Landing System. Snow and low ceilings during winter months cause some aircraft to divert to other airports including Denver International Airport.

Airport operations

In the year ending December 31, 2018 the airport had 11,474 aircraft operations, average 31 per day: 47% general aviation, 18% scheduled airline, 34% air taxi, and <1% military. Eight aircraft were then based at this airport: four single-engine and four multi-engine.
The airport has two ARFF trucks in the operations garage that are run by full-time and seasonal firefighters. They operate ARFF index C from December to March, and ARFF index B from April to November. The ARFF trucks are staffed by firefighters when a scheduled flight is arriving or departing with more than 10 passengers. Local fire departments, like The North Routt Fire Protection District and the West Routt Fire Protection District, can respond to the airport if mutual aid is needed. Transportation can be provided by local taxi, Lyft, Uber, and two shuttle companies with staffed help desks in the baggage claim terminal.

Airlines and destinations

Passenger

Statistics

Top destinations

Airline market share

All seasonal flights during ski season begin in December and end in April. The only year-round scheduled flights are to Denver International Airport by SkyWest flying as United Express with CRJ-200s and CRJ-700s and by Trans States Airlines, also United Express, with Embraer family ERJ 145 regional jets. Mainline jets operated by the three major airlines during ski season include the Airbus A319 and A320 as well as the Boeing 737-800, Boeing 717 and 757-200.

Accidents and incidents

At 1:56 PM on March 14, 2001, TWA flight 641, a McDonnell Douglas MD-81 from St. Louis Lambert International Airport with 122 passengers and crew, mistakenly landed at the Craig-Moffat Airport while on approach into the Yampa Valley Airport during a snowstorm. Craig-Moffat Airport is located approximately 17 miles west of Hayden, Colorado, and its only runway, 7/25, measures 5,600 feet—nearly half that of the Yampa Valley Airport’s 10,000 foot runway 10/28. Though the flight landed safely with no injuries, the aircraft did get stuck in mud while attempting a turn at the end of the runway. Passengers were eventually bussed to the Yampa Valley Airport.