What Is the Closest Airport to Keystone Ski Resort?

Keystone Ski Resort is west of Denver, Colorado, south of Rocky Mountain National Park and north of Pike National Forest. Visitors have two options if they intend to fly into the area on their way to Keystone. Eagle County Airport is a regional airport servicing Vail Valley, and Denver International Airport is the largest airport in the United States. Both of these airports are within a two-hour drive of Keystone and are appropriate for national and international visitors.

The Facts

Denver International Airport is the largest airport that is close to Keystone Ski Resort, but it is not the closest, at 96 miles to the east. Eagle County Airport is the closest, situated 74 miles to the west. The resort website says travel time from either airport will take approximately 90 minutes. Denver International Airport appears to be the more popular choice, although visitors traveling shorter distances will find the smaller jets flying to the Eagle County Airport useful.

Geography

Denver International Airport is 35 minutes northeast of Denver. From there it is a 90-minute drive to Keystone Ski Resort and Breckinridge, Colorado. It takes two hours to drive from Denver International to Vail or Beaver Creek. Visitors from all over the world and the United States can fly into Denver International because of its size and capability of handling large jetliners.
Eagle County Airport is in Vail Valley and is a 30-minute drive to Vail and Beaver Creek, or 90 minutes to Keystone. Because Eagle County is a regional airport, it specializes in lower numbers of passengers and smaller planes. Flights are available to the airport from more national airports in the winter than in the summer. Summer service includes flights from Seattle, Washington; San Francisco and Los Angeles, California; Las Vegas, Nevada; Salt Lake City, Utah; Phoenix, Arizona; Denver; Dallas and Houston, Texas; Atlanta, Georgia; Tampa, Ft. Lauderdale and Miami, Florida; Charlotte, North Carolina; St. Louis and Kansas City, Missouri; Cincinnati, Ohio; Chicago, Illinois; Minneapolis, Minnesota; Detroit, Michigan; Washington, DC; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Boston, Massachusetts; Newark, New Jersey; and New York, New York (LaGuardia Airport). Winter flights can arrive from the same locations with the additions of Portland, Oregon; San Diego, California; Austin, Texas; West Palm Beach, Florida; Pittsburg, Pennsylvania; and New York (John F. Kennedy International Airport).

Size

Denver International Airport sits on 53 square miles and is the largest airport in the United States in terms of land mass. The longest of six runways measures 16,000 feet, making it possible for the largest jets to take off in Denver's thin air caused by high altitude. The Jeppesen Terminal is 1,200 feet long which is longer than the Sears Tower is tall.
Eagle County Airport is much smaller in scale than Denver International, spanning 632 acres and containing one runway. There is one terminal with five gates.

Features

Eagle County Airport has free wireless Internet capabilities, a restaurant, gift shop, luggage carousels, and special areas for picking up skis and snowboards. The airport also has rental car terminals.
Denver International also has free wireless Internet, as wells as restaurants, gift shops, a chapel, pet area, smokers lounge, post office, car rentals and other transportation, and luggage carousels. The roof of the Jeppesen Terminal is a fabric tension design using Teflon-coated fiberglass. The appearance from the outside mimics the peaks in the Rocky Mountains.

Considerations

Eagle County Airport is limited in its capability to accommodate a large quantity of specific airliners. Airliners that service the airport are American, Continental, Delta, Northwest and United. Denver International receives global flights from a global collection of airline brands.
As of 2009, the Eagle County Airport was undergoing construction and was closed for the summer. This is the final anticipated closure from a five-year project and the airport is scheduled to reopen in September.
Keystone Ski Resort operates a shuttle service to the Denver International Airport, but not to Eagle County Airport. The shuttle will pick up visitors between the hours of 10 a.m. and 8:30 p.m. and is available for round-trip or one-way purchase.