Federal Aviation Administration records show 212,588 passenger boardings (enplanements) in calendar year 2008,[4] 228,850 in 2009, and 219,358 in 2010.

[5] The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems for 2023–2027 categorized it as a non-hub primary commercial service facility.

[2] In 2021 the airport saw 56,343 aircraft operations, averaging 154 per day: 70% general aviation, 14% air taxi, 12% airline, and 4% military.

Western soon sold this route to United Airlines in 1947 which continued the service using DC-4s but soon upgraded with Douglas DC-6s and, by the late 1960s, to Boeing 727-100 jets.

GJT was the only airport in Colorado west of Denver that saw major airline jet service until Durango upgraded their runway in 1977.

Monarch Airlines began flights in 1947 by serving Grand Junction as one of many stops on a route between Salt Lake City and Albuquerque.

Frontier began the first jets at Grand Junction with Boeing 727-100s flying DEN-GJT-SLC and back starting in October, 1966.

These include Western Air Stages with flights to Aspen, Steamboat Springs, and Vail, as well as Salt Lake City, Moab, and Vernal in Utah.

By the late 1990s the carriers serving GJT began upgrading with regional jets including the British Aerospace 146, Bombardier CRJ100/200 and CRJ700, and the Embraer ERJ145 and E175.

By 2010 all service to Denver had been upgraded with regional jets however between 2013 and 2017, some United Express flights were operated with Dash 8 Q400 turboprops.

Summer seasonal nonstop flights to Chicago's O'Hare International Airport on Saturdays only began in 2020.

Air21 flew nonstop to Colorado Springs and Las Vegas and direct to Los Angeles using Fokker F28 Fellowship jets for a brief time in 1996 and 1997.

Maverick Airways, a very short-lived carrier operating De Havilland Canada Dash 7 aircraft, provided service to Denver for a brief time in 1997.

Great Lakes Airlines started serving GJT with flights to Denver in 1998 as United Express but reverted to its own branding in 2002.

Allegiant Air began flights on two days per week to Las Vegas in 2006 using McDonnell Douglas MD-80 jets.

The new Frontier Airlines began flights to Denver in 2008 by way of a subsidiary carrier called Lynx Aviation.

Continental Express began regional jet flights to the George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston in 2011.

After Continental Airlines discontinued their last mainline jet in 1994, GJT was only served with turboprop aircraft for most of the remaining 1990s decade.

[13] On 7 February 2024, a Hawker 900XP, N900VA, that had departed Grand Junction Regional Airport was destroyed when it impacted terrain near Loma, Colorado.