The main thing Denver has going for it is location. “We’re smack-dab in the middle of the country,” says Kim Day, aviation manager for the City and County of Denver. Arrayed around DEN’s 53-square miles of mid-America are six non-intersecting runways, the kind of layout designed to minimize delays. Add to that, “very [large] taxiways between concourses,” she says, adding “concourses that were laid out so that you can move quickly from one gate to another.”
Most of the airplanes you’ll find out on those gates are painted in United blue and white. UA and its Express partners command a 45 percent of the share at DEN. Hometown Frontier is next, with 25 percent. Stirring the competitive drink is Southwest, with 14.4 percent of the market.
Southwest says it doesn’t really operate hubs, but that’s what Denver’s operation amounts to for the leading low-cost carrier. So potent is its presence that Denver’s average fare plummeted 34 percent over the past nine years from an average of $215 for the second quarter of 2000 to $141 during the first quarter of 2009. “Certainly that’s helping people make the decision to travel,” says Day.
In an era when big is bad, and moderation matters most, Denver breaks lots of molds. As traffic at most aerodromes shrinks, sometimes precipitously, DEN defies the trend. “Year-to-date,” Day told BTE in October, “we were down only 2.8 percent over 2008.” And the airport just racked up its busiest July ever.
Seems location, location, location begets competition, competition, competition.
Yeah, but doesn’t it snow in Denver? Doesn’t that render all those time-saving runways moot? “We’re not Minnesota,” maintains Day. “People think we get lots more snow than we do.” The norm is about four significant snow days per year, and a blizzard every three of four years.
TSA’s Fast; Parking’s Not
A few years back Denver was attracting a blizzard of flyers, so many that you could almost fly to Aspen in the time it took some folks to clear TSA’s gauntlet. The normal security wait time could be stultifying, negating much of the efficiency gain out on the tarmac. People stood in line an average of 25 minutes during certain times of the year. Now that TSA has re-configured staffing, wait times average five to ten minutes.
Getting to the airport, and finding a consummately convenient place to stay, can be a bit of a challenge. Denver International Airport is 23 miles northeast of downtown, and the cab fare will set you back $54. There is no rapid rail, at least not yet. One’s due to come on line in 2015. It will run from the city’s Union Station to DEN’s signature Jeppesen Terminal, the massive 1.5-million square-foot affair designed to mimic the nearby Rockies. “That will give us a 30 minute connection to downtown,” says Day. It should also drive cabbies crazy, just the way Atlanta’s downtown-to-airport MARTA system has.
Driving to DEN is a trek and involves toll charges on most routes. But when you arrive, there are plenty of spaces to park, including a free cell phone waiting lot located off Peña Boulevard’s 75th Avenue Exit. There’s an array of parking options, from $6 per-day Pikes Peak Shuttle Parking to $27 per-day valet.
Got some dwell time on your hands at Denver International? Among shops built for business are a Johnston & Murphy shoe store and First Class Baggage out on Concourse B. One of the best eateries on-premises is the Denver Chop House & Brewery on Concourse A. If you’re catching an RJ flight and want to grab some food make a stop at Heidi’s Brooklyn Deli on Concourse B’s Regional Jet Facility. (These are authentic bagels; ex-New Yorkers Steve and Heidi Naples developed a method of making them at high altitude so that they are truly puffy.)
In search of a business center at the world’s fourth-busiest airport? You’ll have to go to an airline club. There is no stand-alone facility, and may not be until Starwood finishes its new 500-room hotel in 2013. “We’ve talked to them about the possibility of having a business center on the ground floor that will serve their guests as well as ours,” says the aviation manager.
That hotel will be connected to the terminal, and mark DEN’s first on-airport property. The other hotels are peripheral (and it’s a pretty huge periphery) to DEN.
Still, if you don’t want to pony up $50 for a day pass at an airline club you’re not entirely out of luck. Denver offers free Wi-Fi. “It’s not like some systems that are free for a few minutes and then you pay,” says Day. “Ours is utterly free.”
As are the power stations the airport is in the process of installing at virtually every other seat in its hold rooms. Look for more electrification no later than January 2010.
Wish Upon A Star
You might also look for nonstop Tokyo service when Boeing finally lofts its interminably-delayed (2 1/2 years late and counting) 787 Dreamliner. “We’ve been working very hard for years with ANA (the 787’s launch customer) to get a nonstop to Tokyo,” says Day. The 787 is the right size for the transpacific run. Once ANA gets the airplane, Day believes Denver will get the route.
There’s real reason for optimism. United is DEN’s prime player. It’s also top dog, along with Lufthansa, in the globe-girdling Star Alliance. ANA is a member of Star. A Narita - Denver nonstop opens up legions of connection opportunities on both ends of the line. “They’ve seen the numbers,” she says. “They know that it will be a profitable flight with that type of aircraft.”
Denver has decent, if not great, connections to Europe. UA flies to London Heathrow, as does British Airways. Lufthansa offers Frankfurt service.
Star may hold the key to Latin American connections too. Although service to Mexico is adequate, there isn’t any to deep Latin America. That could change now that Continental has left the SkyTeam Alliance and joined Star. Day contends even in today’s economy, “There are some exciting international possibilities” out there. The proviso: they’ll probably be Star Alliance carriers. (See Attached)
The location — and the logistics — of Denver International remain compelling. When the airport opened back in 1995, this BTE reporter took a ride to the top of the 327-foot control tower, a perch from which, I tell Day, you can-quite literally-see Kansas.
She demurs a moment. “I think,” she smiles, “you can see Florida.”
