Air

Salt Lake City has a reputation for having one of the nation’s easiest airports for travelers—with a low rate of delayed or canceled flights. Plus, it’s a western hub for Delta, so your Utah explorations should get off to a timely start. Nonstop flights are available from larger U.S. cities as well as Europe, Mexico, and Canada.

Salt Lake City is about 12 hours from London, 5 hours from New York, 4 hours from Chicago and D.C., 3 hours from Dallas, 2 hours from Los Angeles, and an hour from Las Vegas.

If you're traveling during snow season, allow extra time to get to the airport, as weather conditions can slow you down. If you'll be checking skis, arrive even earlier.

Airports

The major gateway to Utah is Salt Lake City International Airport. If you’re staying in Salt Lake City, you’ll appreciate that it’s one of the closest airports to downtown of any American city, and security wait times are minimal. The entire airport is being rebuilt in two phases, with the new terminal and parking garage which opened in 2020, and the second phase due to be completed in 2024.

Flights to smaller, regional, or resort-town airports generally connect through Salt Lake. Provo, Cedar City, Logan, Ogden, and Moab all have small airports. A convenient gateway to southern Utah, particularly Zion and Bryce Canyon national parks, is McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas. More and more visitors to southern Utah are using St. George Regional Airport, which has daily flights to Salt Lake City, Phoenix, and Denver. There are limited services, but you can rent cars here and it's less than an hour's drive to Zion National Park once you're on the road.

Ground Transportation

You can get to and from the Salt Lake City Airport by light-rail, taxi, bus, shared ride services, or hotel shuttle. A light-rail line called TRAX connects you in less than 30 minutes (and for just $2.50) to downtown Salt Lake City and the rest of the rapid-transit network. It runs every 15 minutes on weekdays and every 20 minutes on weekends. Taxis, though, are faster (15 minutes); the trip to downtown costs $20–$25. If you're in downtown Salt Lake City, your best bet is to call ahead for a taxi rather than hope to flag one down. Shared-ride shuttle services from the airport are similarly priced to taxis, but can take longer. Lyft and Uber also pick up at the Salt Lake City airport and can cost around half the price of a taxi.

Flights

Salt Lake City has a large international airport, so you'll be able to fly here from anywhere, though you may have to connect somewhere else first. The airport is a major hub for Delta Airlines. Delta and its affiliates offer almost 250 daily departures to destinations around the country. Southwest ranks second in terms of daily flights, with roughly 30 daily departures. Alaska, American, jetBlue, United, and Frontier also have flights each day.

If you're flying in from somewhere other than the United States, you'll likely connect in Los Angeles or San Francisco if you're coming from Asia, or a major airport in the East, such as Detroit, Atlanta, or New York, if you're traveling from Europe. Occasionally you may be delayed by a major snowstorm, but these generally affect the mountain areas, not the airport.

If you're heading to southern Utah, it may be more convenient to fly into Las Vegas, which has more flights and is often cheaper. Be advised that the 120-mile drive from Las Vegas to St. George passes through extremely remote country, and the Virgin River Canyon near the Arizona/Utah border can make for treacherous driving, especially at night.