{"id":2452391,"date":"2019-12-19T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-12-19T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/?p=317940"},"modified":"2019-12-19T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2019-12-19T07:00:00","slug":"more-room-at-airports-departure-lounge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/more-room-at-airports-departure-lounge\/","title":{"rendered":"More room at airport\u2019s departure lounge"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"swift-gallery p402_hide\" readability=\"6.4275092936803\">\n<ul id=\"imageGallery-317940-692\" class=\"gallery list-unstyled\">\n<li data-thumb=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/12\/airport-atd-121919-1-150x150.jpg\" data-src=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/12\/airport-atd-121919-1-1024x691.jpg\" data-sub-html=\"Kelsey Brunner\/The Aspen Times | Travelers mill around the newly renovated terminal in the Aspen\/Pitkin County Airport on Wednesday, December 18, 2019. The renovations gives travelers more space, which improves safety. (Kelsey Brunner\/The Aspen Times)\" class=\"h-100\" readability=\"0.48255813953488\">\n<div class=\"caption\" readability=\"11.581395348837\">\n<p><strong>Travelers mill around the newly renovated terminal in the Aspen\/Pitkin County Airport on Wednesday, December 18, 2019. The renovations gives travelers more space, which improves safety. (Kelsey Brunner\/The Aspen Times)<\/strong><br \/>Kelsey Brunner\/The Aspen Times<br \/><a class=\"buy-link\" href=\"http:\/\/aspentimes.mycapture.com\/mycapture\/remoteimage.asp?backtext=Return+to+AspenTimes.com&amp;backurl=https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/news\/more-room-at-airports-departure-lounge\/&amp;image=https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/12\/airport-atd-121919-1-1024x691.jpg&amp;notes=https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/12\/airport-atd-121919-1-1024x691.jpg\"><i class=\"fas fa-shopping-cart\"><\/i> Buy Photo<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"row no-gutters h-100\">\n<div class=\"col my-auto\"> <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/12\/airport-atd-121919-1-1024x691.jpg\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" alt=\"Travelers mill around the newly renovated terminal in the Aspen\/Pitkin County Airport on Wednesday, December 18, 2019. The renovations gives travelers more space, which improves safety. (Kelsey Brunner\/The Aspen Times)\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li data-thumb=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/12\/airport-atd-121919-1-1-150x150.jpg\" data-src=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/12\/airport-atd-121919-1-1-1024x682.jpg\" data-sub-html=\"Kelsey Brunner\/The Aspen Times | A day after the newly renovated terminal was completed, a couple more fixes remain in the added passenger space in the Aspen\/Pitkin County Airport on Wednesday, December 18, 2019. (Kelsey Brunner\/The Aspen Times)\" class=\"h-100\" readability=\"0.48214285714286\">\n<div class=\"caption\" readability=\"11.571428571429\">\n<p><strong>A day after the newly renovated terminal was completed, a couple more fixes remain in the added passenger space in the Aspen\/Pitkin County Airport on Wednesday, December 18, 2019. (Kelsey Brunner\/The Aspen Times)<\/strong><br \/>Kelsey Brunner\/The Aspen Times<br \/><a class=\"buy-link\" href=\"http:\/\/aspentimes.mycapture.com\/mycapture\/remoteimage.asp?backtext=Return+to+AspenTimes.com&amp;backurl=https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/news\/more-room-at-airports-departure-lounge\/&amp;image=https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/12\/airport-atd-121919-1-1-1024x682.jpg&amp;notes=https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/12\/airport-atd-121919-1-1-1024x682.jpg\"><i class=\"fas fa-shopping-cart\"><\/i> Buy Photo<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"row no-gutters h-100\">\n<div class=\"col my-auto\"> <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/12\/airport-atd-121919-1-1-1024x682.jpg\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" alt=\"A day after the newly renovated terminal was completed, a couple more fixes remain in the added passenger space in the Aspen\/Pitkin County Airport on Wednesday, December 18, 2019. (Kelsey Brunner\/The Aspen Times)\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"caption-toggle\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/news\/more-room-at-airports-departure-lounge\/#\" class=\"show-captions\">Show Captions<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/news\/more-room-at-airports-departure-lounge\/#\" class=\"hide-captions\">Hide Captions<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText DropCap\">Just in time for the Christmas crowds, construction crews at the Aspen airport have completed a $2 million project that significantly expands the space for passengers waiting to fly out.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Airport officials eliminated their own administrative offices in favor of adding approximately 1,300 square feet to the departure lounge area, John Kinney, airport director, said Wednesday. The result is a large new gate waiting area on the east side of the terminal outside the restaurant space that features 70 more seats.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">In addition, officials moved the gift shop from in front of the restaurant area to the corner of the restaurant space, opening up the area just to the east of the Transportation Safety Administration checkpoint and making the eating area more accessible. They also added more waiting area seats in that space for a total of 109 new seats in the departure lounge, according to a Pitkin County news release.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Work on the project began in late August and finished Monday, Kinney said. The new space opened Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cWe really fast-tracked it,\u201d Kinney said. \u201cWe thought it was optimistic to try and open yesterday, but we hit it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">The new space creates a much larger area for departing passengers, which will come in handy for the huge amount of Christmas and New Year\u2019s visitors, he said. Flights this week will increase from 12 per day to as many as 38 per day through the beginning of 2020, according to a county news release.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Other new amenities at the airport include 100 new parking spaces and a cellphone waiting lot.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Administration offices are temporarily in the Airport Operation Center on the opposite side of the airport from the terminal. Construction crews are building a new office area on the east side of the facility, near where a tent is being constructed to house overflow baggage.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">The $2 million for the project came from the airport fund, which collects airport-related fees from airlines, rental car companies and others, and not the county\u2019s general fund. Kinney said airlines were in on the renovation and will end up paying for it over the next five years.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Meanwhile, the county vision process looking at a new, larger terminal and expanded runway for the airport is continuing. A 28-member committee is now <a id=\"N0x114b7b0N0x12b8d00:N0x114b7b0N0x114e588\" href=\"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/news\/future-of-aspen-airport-begins-to-take-flight\/\">working on recommendations<\/a> for Pitkin County commissioners, who will eventually decide how big the new terminal will be and whether the runway will move to accommodate larger planes.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">A new airport terminal and runway, if approved, won\u2019t come online for at least four years, Kinney said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText Tagline\"><a href=\"mailto:jauslander@aspentimes.com\">jauslander@aspentimes.com<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/news\/more-room-at-airports-departure-lounge\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Travelers mill around the newly renovated terminal in the Aspen\/Pitkin County Airport on Wednesday, December 18, 2019. The renovations gives travelers more space, which improves safety. (Kelsey Brunner\/The Aspen Times)Kelsey Brunner\/The Aspen Times Buy Photo A day after the newly renovated terminal was completed, a couple more fixes remain in the added passenger space in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2452391","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-local-news"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-19 01:29:26","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSPN The Valley&#039;s Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2452391","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2452391"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2452391\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2452391"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2452391"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2452391"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}