Departure
95%
vs 95%
MY FS FLIGHTS
MY FS FLIGHTS
Eagle County Regional Airport sits in the Rocky Mountains near Eagle and Gypsum, Colorado, serving as the principal air gateway to the Vail and Beaver Creek ski resorts. High field elevation, surrounding mountainous terrain and a single long runway make it one of the more demanding fields in the United States for both airline and general aviation pilots, and a genuinely engaging challenge for simulator flying.
Eagle County Regional Airport is a public airport owned by Eagle County, located in Gypsum, Colorado, about four miles from the town of Eagle and some 37 miles from Vail. It functions as the primary commercial airport for the Vail and Beaver Creek ski areas, with service that is heavily seasonal and busiest in winter, alongside a steady flow of private and charter jet traffic. For a simulator pilot the field is notable for its high elevation, its mountain-ringed approach and departure paths, and its single very long runway built to cope with the combination of altitude, weather and terrain.
The airport lies along the Interstate 70 corridor in the Eagle River valley, between the towns of Eagle and Gypsum in the Colorado Rockies, roughly 130 miles west of Denver. IFR clearances in the area are issued by Denver Air Route Traffic Control Center, and the field is worked by Denver Center on the enroute frequency. The surrounding high mountainous terrain shapes both the instrument and visual approach and departure paths.
The airport has one physical runway, 07/25, orientated south-west to north-east. Runway 07 is 8,984 feet long and runway 25 is 7,974 feet long; both are hard-surfaced and lit, and runway 25 is equipped with an ILS.
Tower and CTAF operations are on 119.8 MHz, with ground and clearance delivery on 121.8 MHz. ATIS and AWOS weather information is broadcast on 135.575 MHz. Denver Center provides enroute radar service on 128.65 MHz, and a Denver Radio frequency of 122.2 MHz is also published. The field has an on-site Beacon Interrogator (BI-6) radar facility. There is no standard published ILS approach available to all comers; a special ILS procedure exists but is mostly used by the airlines and requires specific permission and training from the FAA Flight Standards District Office. General aviation traffic more commonly flies an LDA approach, uses DME, or operates under VFR.
Specific published circuit heights and joining procedures are not detailed in available sources, but the surrounding terrain and the airport's high elevation make both arrival and departure demanding, and the field has been rated among the more extreme airports in the country because of the combination of altitude, weather and mountainous approach and departure paths. Pilots flying the special ILS procedure require prior FSDO permission and training, while most general aviation traffic uses the LDA approach, DME, or flies the arrival visually.
No formal visual reporting points are detailed in available sources, but the airport can be identified from the air by its position in the Eagle River valley along the Interstate 70 corridor, between the towns of Eagle and Gypsum, with the high peaks of the Rockies rising on either side of the valley.
The airport's passenger terminal was built in 1996 and subsequently remodelled in 2001, 2007 and 2019. Between 2008 and 2009 the runway was repaved and extended to its current length of approximately 9,000 feet to improve safety margins for landings in difficult weather. In July 2010 the History Channel placed Eagle County Regional Airport at number eight on its list of Most Extreme Airports, citing its elevation, weather, mountainous approach terrain and challenging departure procedures. A terminal expansion project began more recently, with the first phase, including four new gates with jet bridges, opening on 1 July 2019.
The airport remains the seasonal commercial gateway for Vail and Beaver Creek, with United, American, Delta and, from December 2024, Alaska Airlines all operating flights, service being far more extensive in winter than in summer. The tower is staffed by contract air traffic controllers, and the airport maintains its own aircraft rescue and firefighting department along with a full complement of snow-clearing equipment and a runway friction measuring system; a dedicated de-icing pad was completed in the south-east of the airfield in 2019. The field also hosts fixed-base operators and private jet charter operators, and has customs facilities for private aircraft at the Vail Valley Jet Center.
