Yampa Valley Regional Airport (HDN) - Hayden, Colorado

Drea H.

This airport is a lifesaver in that it started flying in commercial flights. It’s been nice to travel southwest (almost) direct. The planes always park on the runway and you have to walk off, down a ramp, and into the airport which is different and kind of cool… definitely pack a coat or hat for the walk it can be a little brutal 😂

The actual airport is small, there is one place to get food and drinks that is basically a snack bar and then one small restaurant outside of security. The food is what you’d expect.

The baggage claim is easy to navigate as it is small and relatively straightforward. The oversized pick up is outside the airport where everyone is getting picked up.

The people are generally kind and TSA is efficient. However they do NOT like when you accidentally try to bring hand warmers with you. Make sure you check your bag carefully lol

E V. 1.

Nice small airport with hospital associates. Clean restrooms and seating areas. TSA was friendly and pretty efficient. Give yourself extra time during busy ski season. Choice of rental cars can be limited which isn’t too surprising for the size of the airport.

Joe R.

The operations staff at this airport stranded us for 2 hours on the tarmac without pursuing any simple alternatives for us, or helping us with a temporary gate.

Update to Owner, 16-Jan-2025: I definitely understand there is more to the story than just waiting. My concern is about the operational response to the situation, and the resultant customer experience.

I understand that their could be limitations getting into a designated "gate," per se, for reasons you noted (even if I disagree with them, but so be it). However, note that it wasn't like we were connecting to a gate with a jet bridge, only pulling into a designated space, from which a manual, wheel-up ramp was used to disembark. From there, we walked a short distance outside and then into the terminal. Even if there wasn't a gate for us to arrive to on that flight, it would have been an acceptable solution to maneuver the plane in a safe way near the terminal but not at a "gate", wheel/walk one of the same manual ramps to our aircraft, allow passengers to disembark, and walk and/or take a bus to the terminal. Finally, when ready, the aircraft could have been moved to gate for the subsequent flight. I've done this many times at other airports.

However, in this case, despite being a mere 1,000 feet or so from the nearest gate, all passengers were forced to sit on a plane for 2+ hours, only to move a very short distance and disembark in the same wheel-up ramp and again walk, outside, to the terminal.

All this being said, it was a combination of your and UA's decision to make, and it was decided that there was no other solution than to make us wait for 2+ hours. It is your decision to make, but looking forward, if the only operational solution in these cases is to make passengers wait for up to 3 hours for a gate to open, I would prefer to avoid the risk of this situation happening again. I understand it's a complex situation to run an airport, especially when there are weather delays, but I feel that there was a simple solution in this case that was not pursued (or not planned for, such as creating policies and procedures and approvals for overflow gates, whatever the terminology may be), creating a difficult and unpleasant situation for passengers.

Scottie T.

Small airport, upon arrival was obviously overwhelmed with amount of flights arriving at the same time (likely due to delays and such). Waited a significant amount of time for luggage (I know everyone was working so hard!) and my ski bag didn’t arrive until the next day. (No fault to YVRA)

Three stars due to lack of gender inclusive bathroom options (binary gender, large bathrooms only). Also had an uncomfortable situation going through security where TSA worker made a statement that was unclear as to why or what the intent was - as a trans person I didn’t question it due to fear and anxiety associated with travel and security. And this is the 3rd time (out of 4 airplane trips since changing my gender markers to X) where I have been “randomly selected” for additional security measures (go through body scan machine instead of just detector despite having TSA precheck). Always results in increased anxiety and fear of discrimination. But made it through.

Love walking outside for boarding/deplaning. View is absolutely wild on a clear day.

Jimmy A.

Very small airport. You must exit airplane on Ramp to Tarmac, so dress for cold weather since you can get cold outside. Strangest thing is existing airport have no way to go out unless you exit when your airplane arrives. So don't delay leaving or will get stuck begging security to let you out. Tried out both restaurants, and 3 Wire was not bad, but I did have to exit outside secure area to get there. Employees were kind and helpful. Also, the airport is a long way from Steamboat and closer to Craig, which is not the main destination but women sitting next to me was actually going going to Craig to visit her son but that was very abnormal. Views are nice of mountains during flight so for that and sking is a great destination.

Alexandra L.

Worst regional & ski town airport ever visited. Takes about two hours to get your bags. NO easy transportation—the town apparently makes it difficult for the resorts, hotels & Airbnb patrons. Complete chaos getting your bags—they apologize for nothing, horrible experience. It takes two hours to check in & go through security, MUCH longer than at a major airport because they’re so disorganized (and rude; not consistent with the friendly vibe of the area). It hurts Steamboat Springs resort & all of the surrounding tourism. The airport experience makes me think twice about coming back to Steamboat to ski (which I absolutely loved). The airport transportation situation is not the fault of the carriers. This airport is like a bad Caribbean airport combined with a bus station—sad considering it’s the airport you fly into to go to Steamboat.

Andrew B.

This airport wins on location if you're going to Steamboat.

It loses on virtually everything else.

The tower made us sit on the tarmac for nearly two hours after we'd already been diverted and delayed several hours because of weather.

Their reason? Another plane was landing from Denver and needed the gate from which we'd be deplaning.

Well, that flight was late getting here, was deplaned, reboarded, and then deplaned again because of mechanical issues they tried to fix parked right there at the gate while we all sat starting to petrify.

The operational decision making here is abysmal.

No one controls weather, that just is what it is.

But the rest?

Not good.

Not good at all.

UPDATE: Thanks for chiming in Yampa Valley.

The captain said he was in communications about that empty Southwest gate just sitting there while we also just sat there, and was in someone's ear about how irrational that was. I guess I incorrectly assumed the airport would control where and when planes boarded/deplaned, etc.

He must've been talking with Southwest's base of operations then?

Did anyone from Yampa Valley Regional hit Southwest up and tell them having one of their planes sit needlessly filled with unhappy passengers for two hours on the tarmac probably wasn't the best decision?

I'll leave a Google review for Southwest Airlines, and as a piece of unsolicited advice if I were in ops at Hayden I'd be having words with Southwest about that because it makes the airport look bad in the eyes of passengers like me who know very little about airport operations.

Thanks again for the response.

Rick M.

Fantastic regional airport with nice staff and awesome direct access from EWR via United. Followed the suggestion of local friends and arrived three hours early and had no issues whatsoever. TSA has new scanners and had all lanes open. Food could use some value improvement in terms of quality vs price-the $17 breakfast burrito and $5.50 coffee were mediocre at best but your only choice so come prepared.