United Airlines flight 5782 landed at the Aspen-Pitkin County Airport on Tuesday morning, marking the first official arrival of the Embraer 175 and a phasing out of the CRJ-700 for at least one commercial carrier.
SkyWest Airlines, the regional operator of commercial flights in and out of Aspen on behalf of United, American Airlines and Delta Air Lines, previously announced the transition away from longtime commercial aircraft CRJ-700 and the acquisition of 21 E-175s through the end of 2026. United is the first of the three carriers to employ the E-175 into Aspen service; the flight landed at 10:25 a.m. to airport and county staff fanfare.
The E-175 has a 93-foot, 11-inch wingspan, which fits the current 95-foot wingspan restriction at ASE, the three-letter identifier for the local airport. The 70-seat CRJ-700 has a 76-foot, 3-inch wingspan. The E-175s for ASE have been configured to hold 70 seats, 12 of which are first class.
The aircraft that arrived is one of six E-175s that SkyWest converted to the ASE-specific subfleet. Nineteen other E-175s, on order for United, will join the fleet of six over the next couple of years. The six converted aircraft will be repainted soon, while the aircraft on order will arrive with updated colors.
“The six converted aircraft along with the 19 new deliveries will give us a fleet of 25 ASE-capable E-175s in the end state. The six converted aircraft will get repainted during the normal paint refresh cycle,” Mark Weithofer, managing director of domestic network planning for United Airlines, wrote in an email. “The first delivery is scheduled to close this Thursday (Dec. 5) and the second delivery is scheduled to close the following Thursday (Dec. 12). Both aircraft will be available for the peak holiday schedule, so we’ll have new-livery E-175s operating in ASE soon.”
The Tuesday morning flight was one of two scheduled for the day. Three daily flights are scheduled until Dec. 19, said Bill Tomcich, principal of aviation consulting firm Tomcich Travel and a consultant to the local stakeholder group Fly Aspen Snowmass.
Starting Dec. 19, the E-175s will fly to Aspen more frequently, said Tomcich, who was a passenger on the Tuesday morning inaugural flight. He said the 12 first-class seats were full and the rest of the plane was about half full.
“It was the smoothest and most gentle arrival and landing at the Aspen airport that I’ve ever experienced,” Tomcich said. “It was a momentous occasion and a huge milestone in the history of commercial flights at the Aspen airport.”
He said the E-175 was roomier than the CRJ-700 and had more space in the overhead bins to accommodate most full-sized carry-on bags.
The flight also was the first commercial Part 121 flight into ASE to be flown using the new curved path (NextGen) technology. It utilized the new “RNAV M Rwy 15” procedure, an approach recommended by the Flight Ops Safety Task Force in 2023. Instead of a straight-in/step-down approach from the north, the flight takes a slightly different curved path that allows for a more gradual descent.
Andy Bigelow is a part-time resident of Aspen and a commercial pilot for another airline. He also was a passenger on flight 5782.
“It was a smoother flight and a more comfortable airplane with more room inside,” Bigelow said after the flight.
Airport Director Dan Bartholomew said the airport reinforced the concrete pads on four of the airport’s eight parking positions in anticipation of the E-175’s landing gear. Staff also brought out new ramps for passenger embarking and disembarking.
The airport may welcome a new class of commercial aircraft, the Airbus 220 (100s or 300s), following reconstruction of the runway in a few years. Whether those aircraft fly into ASE one day is up to the commercial airlines serving the Aspen market. Research by local county committees has shown that the Airbus 220-100 is quieter and more environmentally friendly than either the CRJ-700 or E-175. It also is larger, with 110 to 130 seats and a 115-foot wingspan.
The ASE Vision process of 2019-20 identified the A-220 as a good fit for the local airport in future years. Because of the ASE's 95-foot wingspan limitation, it cannot be added to current fleet mixes.
The phase-out of the CRJ-700s and the search for a newer model of commercial aircraft for ASE has been the source of much controversy in recent years, culminating with the Nov. 5 election and two ballot items related to the transformation of the airport.
In the election, a vast majority of county voters opted to proceed with the county’s direction to upgrade the airport with a wider, relocated runway and greater separation between the runway and taxiway. Those projects will lead to full Airport Design Group III status, which would allow planes with a wingspan up to 118 feet to use the airport.
