Regional US airports are back after years of decay

Lebawit Lily Girma | Bloomberg News (TNS)

The ski resorts near Gunnison and Crested Butte, Colorado, are so close to Aspen, you’d think the area wouldn’t need its own airport. Their glitzier neighbor is just 48 miles north as the crow flies, though that’s roughly 150 miles by road.

But people flocking to Crested Butte’s laid-back town, extreme ski slopes and epic mountain biking have a new reason to bypass farther-away Aspen: the destination’s gleaming new airport, which debuted in January 2023.