page_title: Colorado Springs Airport
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Colorado Springs Airport / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Inside the Freedom Financial Premier Lounge.
context_page_description: City of Colorado Springs Municipal Airport is a city-owned public civil-military airport 6 miles southeast of downtown Colorado Springs, in El Paso County, Colorado. It is the second busiest commercial service airport in the state after Denver International Airport. Peterson Air Force Base, which is located on the north side of runway 13/31, is a tenant of the airport.
context_section_description: 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.
caption: Inside the Mortgage Solutions Financial Premier Lounge.
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