Colorado Springs Airport

Busy morning ramp

Inside the Mortgage Solutions Financial Premier Lounge.

In 1927 the airport opened on 640 acres (260 ha) 7 miles (11 km) 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 150-foot (46 m) wide runways, one 13,501 feet (4,115 m) long, making it the longest runway in Colorado until 16R/34L, a 16,000-foot (4,900 m) 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 280,000-square-foot (26,000 m²) 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.[3][4]

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 (they moved it to Denver International Airport in late 1996). Their timetable for 15 June shows 33 daily departures to 20 airports between the west coast and Newark and Washington Dulles. (All their flights left from or landed at COS).

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. [5]

Colorado Springs currently has non-stop flights to 17 U.S. cities on 4 carriers.

The airport covers 7,200 acres (2,900 ha) and has three paved runways: 17L/35R, 13,501 ft × 150 ft (4,115 m × 46 m) long, 17R/35L, 11,022 ft × 150 ft (3,360 m × 46 m) and 13/31, 8,269 ft × 150 ft (2,520 m × 46 m).[2]

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 (called the Western Pacific Airlines concourse) contains gates 14–18 (there is no gate 13) 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, 2018 the airport had 137,089 aircraft operations, an average of 375 per day: 51% general aviation, 28% military, 10% scheduled commercial, and 11% air taxi. At this time, there were 251 aircraft based at the airport: 148 single-engine, 40 multi-engine, 32 jet, 5 helicopter, 1 glider and 25 military.[2]

• 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 December 30, 2010, a Delta Air Lines Boeing 757-300 operating as Flight 1921 from Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport to Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport with 225 passengers and crew had to make an emergency landing at the airport due to engine problems. Two people were injured during the evacuation.
• 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.[7]

• List of airports in the Denver area

• Official airport website
• Colorado Springs Municipal Airport at Colorado DOT website
• FAA Airport Diagram (PDF), effective June 18, 2020
• Resources for this airport:
  • AirNav airport information for KCOS
  • ASN accident history for COS
  • FlightAware airport information and live flight tracker
  • NOAA/NWS weather observations: current, past three days
  • SkyVector aeronautical chart for KCOS
  • FAA current COS delay information
• flight path in Colorado Springs