Airport Decides To Close For 3 Days, Airlines And Passengers Will Have to Make Other Plans

by Gary Leff

The Lexington, Kentucky Blue Grass airport is the primary air travel embarkation point for central and eastern Kentucky. American, United, Delta and Allegiant all service the airport with service to 16 destinations frequented by more than 1.3 million passengers per year. And it’s decided to close and shut down to all air travel for 3 days.

The airport will resurface its 7000 foot asphalt runway 4/22 in a $16.2 million federally-funded project to being 6 p.m. on August 19 and end at 6 p.m. on August 22. The airport also has a 4000 foot concrete runway as well.

Since no takeoffs or landings will be permitted, customers already booked on flights will need to be re-accommodated by their airlines. The Lexington, Kentucky airport is about an hour and ten minutes’ drive to Louisville and around an hour and a half to Cincinnati.

Shortly after the airport’s last repaving project, 15 years ago, Delta Connection flight 5191 operated by Comair crashed during takeoff after its pilot taxied to the wrong runway because they missed markings. That looms large as this project moves forward.

Jackson Hole decided to close its airport for two months, with the nearest alternative an hour and a half’s drive away and the nearest hub 5 hours away. In comparison a 3 day shutdown in a mere nuisance.

About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

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Comments

  1. ASE (Aspen) is currently doing the same thing for a week. The closest airport is 90 minutes away (EGE – Eagle-Vail). While it is “off season,” it is punishing to the locals who want to get out of town.

  2. This happens from time to time and it was communicated WELL in advance to airlines and passengers. Not sure why you’re trying to make this a big deal

  3. CVG is way more convenient and cheaper. My friend always drives to CVG instead of LEX.

  4. If they only have one runway, it’s not like they have a lot of options. This happens at small single runway airports all the time.

  5. This is a non-story. It was announced a while ago and all airports have to resurface/repair runways.

  6. Amazing that they waited until airlines started operating again rather than during the COVID Crises when there was virtually no traffic.

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