Find the right Grand Canyon airport for your trip to Grand Canyon National Park this year. With around six million people visiting the park every year, it is one of the busiest in the country and it is easy to understand why it is often called the 8th Wonder of the World when you are standing on the rim.
Fortunately, for many around the United States, there are cheap flights into the area, giving park visitors a viable option other than making a long road trip through the desert heat in the summer.
Grand Canyon Airport
The Grand Canyon National Park Airport (GCN) is a state-owned airport in Tusayan, Arizona. It is located 7 miles from the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. However, the Grand Canyon airport is used mostly by private charter, flightseeing trips and helicopter rides. We have searched several times and did not see major commercial airline flights flying into it or out of it.
Flagstaff Airport
Flagstaff Pulliam Airport is located five miles south of Flagstaff, nearly 90 minutes and 75 miles from the national park. Airlines such as American Airlines and Alaska Airlines fly from Phoenix to Flagstaff. However, most commercial flights to Flagstaff go through Phoenix, and it can be faster to drive to the park from Phoenix rather than grab a connecting flight to Flagstaff, which is located about two hours north.
Phoenix Airport
The Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport (PHX) is the closest major airport to the park, a little bit closer than the Las Vegas airport. The Phoenix airport is nearly 4 hours and 230 miles from Grand Canyon National Park. It serves around 45 million passengers a year.
Las Vegas Airport
McCarran International Airport is one of the ten busiest airports in the United States, with more than 50 million passengers traveled through the airport in 2019. The Las Vegas airport is over 270 miles and just over 4 hours from the south rim of the park. When we visited the Grand Canyon in fall 2019, we flew into and out of Las Vegas, Nevada due to the many cheap flights into Sin City.
Salt Lake City Airport
The Salt Lake City airport is nearly 400 miles and 6.5 hours away from the North Rim. It is a significant drive, but can be combined with stops at some of the amazing Utah national parks such as Bryce Canyon and Zion. This is a good option during the summer, when the Grand Canyon’s North Rim can be accessed. It is not really a viable option during the winter, when the road to the North Rim closes and you would have to drive around the canyon to get to the south rim.