Louise Ellen Cooley bought a plot of land in 1911 that served as the foundation for building what would become Eagle County Regional Airport. The area became an attraction to local residents as barnstormers used the strip to perform aerial tricks and maneuvers.

Harry A. Nottingham (Eagle County Commissioner) was eager to see a fully functional airport for Eagle County. New plans for the airstrip were laid out in 1939 by an engineer from Denver's Airport District Office. Nottingham borrowed $20.00 for the development of a gravel road which would connect the air strip to the towns of Eagle and Gypsum

Eagle County Airport was officially dedicated for service as a fully functioning airport on September 14, 1947.

Past air service

During the mid- and late 1970s, only one airline scheduled passenger service into the airport: Rocky Mountain Airways, which flew STOL capable de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otters followed by larger, 50-seat STOL capable de Havilland Canada DHC-7 Dash 7s nonstop from Denver Stapleton Airport and Aspen. In the late 1970s through the mid-1980s, Rocky Mountain Airways nonstops to Denver were all flown with the larger Dash 7. The April 1, 1987, Official Airline Guide (OAG) listed three airlines serving the airport: Rocky Mountain Airways operating as Continental Express for Continental Airlines via a code sharing agreement with Dash 7 flights from Denver, Royal West Airlines operating nonstop British Aerospace BAe 146-200 jets from Los Angeles (LAX) on Saturdays, and commuter air carrier Monarch Airlines operating Twin Otters from Aspen, Crested Butte, Grand Junction and Telluride. In August 1985 runway 8 at the airport was 5,000 ft in length by 60 ft in width with its west end located at 39.6452°N 106.92145°W / 39.6452; -106.92145; by December 1987, runway 7 had been added on its present alignment, 7,000 ft by 100 ft, with its LDA approach which then permitted operations with larger mainline jet aircraft with the current runway being 9,000 feet in length.

The airport was being served by mainline jets in early 1994: American Airlines Boeing 757-200s nonstop from Chicago O'Hare Airport, Dallas/Fort Worth, Miami, and New York La Guardia Airport; Delta Air Lines Boeing 727-200s from Salt Lake City; Northwest Airlines Boeing 757-200s from Minneapolis/St. Paul; and United Airlines Boeing 737-300s from Denver. The OAG lists 36 jet flights a week operated by these four airlines into the airport early in 1994. In 1995, TAESA Lineas Aereas, a Mexican airline, was operating nonstop jet service into the airport from Mexico City. Air Canada began flying an Airbus A319 nonstop from Toronto Pearson in 2013 by pre-clearing passengers in Toronto since the airport does not have custom facilities. Air Canada dropped the route after the 2017–2018 winter ski season due to relocating its A319s to other U.S. destinations.