Taos Regional Airport
Taos Regional Airport is a public use airport eight nautical miles (15 km) northwest of the central business district of Taos, in Taos County, New Mexico, United States. It is owned by the Town of Taos. FAA's National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems for 2009–2013 classifies it as a general aviation airport. Although many U.S. airports use the same three-letter location identifier for the FAA and IATA, this airport is assigned SKX by the FAA and TSM by the IATA (which assigned SKX to Saransk Airport in Saransk, Russia). Facilities. Taos Regional Airport covers at  an elevation of 7,095 feet (2,163 m) above mean sea level. It has one runway designated 4/22 with an asphalt surface 5,803 by 75 feet (1,769 x 23 m). On August 25, 2017, the second runway was opened. Designated 13/31, it also has asphalt surface, and is 8,600 by 100 feet (2,621 x 30 m). For the 12-month period ending April 7, 2009, the airport had 13,250 aircraft operations, an average of 36 per day. These operations included 95% general aviation, 3% air taxi, and 2% military. At that time, there were 43 aircraft based at the airport: 88 % single-engine, 5% multi-engine and 7% ultralight. Airlines and destinations. Historical airline service. Taos has seen scheduled airline service by several commuter air carriers. The Santa Fe Airline Company provided the first known service in 1973 and 1974 with flights to Santa Fe and Albuquerque. In 1974 and 1975, Mountain Air provided flights to Denver, Santa Fe, and Albuquerque. Zia Airlines from 1975 through 1978 operated flights to Santa Fe and Albuquerque. Mesa Airlines came to Taos from 1987 through 1991 with flights to Albuquerque and seasonal service to Denver using Beechcraft 99, Beechcraft 1300, and Cessna 208 Caravan  aircraft. Rio Grande Air, based in Taos, operated flights to Santa Fe, Los Alamos, and Albuquerque from 1999 through 2004 also using Cessna Caravans. Other carriers which briefly operated flights to Albuquerque were: JetAire in 1985, Sierra West in 1987, and Westward in 2005. During the winter ski season of 2000/2001, Ozark Airlines (later changing to Great Plains Airlines) operated twice-weekly flights to Dallas/Ft. Worth using 32-seat Fairchild Dornier 328JETs. There was no commercial service from 2005 until the current provider, Taos Air, began winter ski-season service in late 2018 with flights to Austin and Dallas  Love Field airport also using Fairchild Dornier 328Jets. During the 2019–2020 ski season, Taos Air expanded with flights to Los Angeles via the Hawthorne Municipal Airport and to San Diego via the McClellan–Palomar Airport. There was no service during the 2020–2021 season due to the COVID-19 pandemic in New Mexico, but service resumed later in 2021 with flights during the summer season. Ski season service resumed for winter 2021–2022 and the carrier is working to provide year-round service.