"DIA: After 10 years of success, the sky's the limit"

Saturday, February 26, 2005

After 10 years of success, the sky's the limit
Airport shrugs off rocky start, begins gearing up for next big building boom
By Ann Imse
The Denver (CO) Rocky Mountain News


Imagine Denver International Airport with 72 more gates, a fourth concourse,
another underground train, a larger terminal - and, once again, an automated
baggage system.

Booming DIA, which is 10 years old on Monday, is seeing so many more
passengers that it could hit 50 million in two to eight years, triggering
all this expansion. Actual construction would be done in stages, as traffic
demands.

But while DIA's airlines are growing madly, they're also going broke. So
it's risky for the airport to invest perhaps a billion dollars to handle new
passengers, when it doesn't know which airlines will be around to pay it
back for the work.

Struggling United Airlines could liquidate, canceling 59 percent of DIA's
flights overnight and emptying much of the airport. Or it could thrive.

Other airlines are also in bankruptcy, or near it. Some are expected to shut
down, or shrink. Finances in the industry are so tight that American
Airlines just decided to remove pillows from its planes to lighten the load
to save fuel.

And looming in the background is a government warning that terrorists may
try to repeat the disastrous attacks of Sept. 11.Still, this kind of turmoil
is not so different from what happened during the airport's first decade.
Over the years, DIA has had to cope with the departure of Continental
Airlines' hub, early predictions of financial disaster, an automated baggage
system that chewed up suitcases, a train that stranded passengers and the
fallout from the Sept. 11 hijackings.

"It's nothing like Stapleton," said co-manager Vicki Braunagel, referring to
the old airport that closed the night before DIA opened on Feb. 28, 1995.
"The pace of life has never slowed down."DIA was built so that air travel
could continue to be a driving economic force for Denver. Stapleton was too
small for the growing airline traffic, and neighbors in Park Hill and Adams
County were furious about jets roaring right over their homes.

So, Mayor Federico Peņa negotiated an agreement with Adams County that would
permit Denver, with voter approval, to annex land for a new airport.

Planners envisioned an aggressive, four-year construction schedule. It took
51/2 years, largely because United insisted on an automated baggage system
and Denver then insisted that it had to serve all the airlines.

The system's failure to operate delayed the airport's opening three times
and cost hundreds of millions of dollars in extra interest and construction
costs. Only one section of the baggage system remains operating, and part
has been scrapped.

DIA attracted plenty of nay-sayers who said no one would use it because it
was too far from town.

Instead, the 32 million passengers of 10 years ago ballooned to 42 million
in 2004. Driven by low fares, travelers have been flocking back to the skies
they abandoned after 9/11.

Still, it's hard to invest a fortune on expansion when airlines are
hemorrhaging money. It's their airport fees that will increase to pay for
it.

"The crystal ball is cloudy," said DIA Director of Planning Rick Busch. Most
growth plans are on hold while DIA waits for the crystal ball to clear up.

One plan that's already been delayed two years would extend Concourse B,
replacing 25 temporary gates with 35 permanent ones to handle United's
growing fleet of regional jets. Now, the $51.2 million project will start
"most likely, later this year," said Busch.

Airline makes changes

United has dramatically changed its operations in Denver. It's still running
about 400 flights a day, just as before Sept. 11, 2001. But the number of
flights on 50- to 70-passenger regional jets has jumped from 88 to 221.The
result? Just as many departures and arrivals, but fewer seats, Busch said.

"We may have to add gates to handle the same number of people," he said.

DIA also has plans to extend Concourse A for growing Frontier Airlines,
adding six narrow-body gates and five regional jet gates. But that $97
million project also is on hold until it's clearer that other airlines will
not cut back or shut down, leaving gates empty.

With DIA's garages regularly full at midweek, the airport intends to build
another 2,000-space garage on the southwest side. But again, the $25.2
million project is designed, ready to go - and only tentatively set for
construction next year, Busch said.

Meanwhile, Braunagel promises that DIA will soon restore short-term parking.

DIA opened with several hundred spaces reserved for two-hour parking, but it
lost them when parking adjacent to the terminal was banned for security
reasons after Sept. 11.

Soon, Braunagel said, several hundred garage spaces will be reserved for
those with quick business at the airport.

In the next several years, as DIA grows from 42 million to 50 million
passengers, it will extend all three existing concourses to their maximum
lengths, adding 52 gates, Busch said. That can be done in sections, as
traffic demands.Gearing up for 50 million

But these projects are relatively minor compared with the construction DIA
expects to do when it exceeds 50 million passengers. By then, nearly every
part of the airport will be at capacity.

If last year's phenomenal 13 percent growth rate were to continue, DIA would
reach that milestone halfway through next year. At even a very slow growth
rate of 2 percent a year, DIA will hit 50 million in just eight years. DIA
passenger traffic grew at an average annual rate of 3.5 percent over the
last 10 years.

Busch said efficiencies might allow major expansion to be delayed until the
55 million mark, which he said is most likely five to eight years out.

But at about that point, almost every part of the airport will need to be
expanded.

A new Concourse D would be built, starting with 20 gates.

A second underground train and new tunnels would be added. Braunagel said
the train is now reliable and a long-discussed tunnel for foot traffic is
not in the plans.

DIA also would need a 300-foot-long addition to the south end of the
terminal, DIA Co-Manager Turner West said.

And with so many passengers, the only way to handle all the luggage is with
another automated baggage system, West said.

After all the problems with the airport's original computerized coaster, "We
would never, ever put in a baggage system that was not tried and true," West
said.

"We did develop a paranoia about 'state-of-the-art,' " added Braunagel.

In the next decade, Braunagel said, the airport will build its 518-room
Westin Hotel on the southeast corner of the terminal. The $125 million
project was delayed when air travel and hotel stays plummeted after 9/11,
and remains on hold.

And thanks to the voters, in nine years, RTD will have a FasTracks train
running between the airport terminal and its downtown station.

If an airline decides it wants to fly the new, 840-passenger Airbus 380 to
Denver, the sixth runway completed in 2003 can handle its weight. DIA will
have to spend only a few million dollars to widen taxiways and add a
double-deck jetway on Concourse A, Busch said.

But that huge Airbus is expected to be used more in congested skies like
those between European cities. Braunagel said she expects the new long-haul
Boeings to be more common at DIA.

Sprawling DIA has room to grow. It already has a place for six more runways,
a fifth concourse and a terminal twice its current size.

"The good news for Denver is we can provide capacity for growth more
cheaply, and more efficiently, than any airport in the U.S.," Braunagel
said.

By the numbers

Facts, figures in brief

$3.3 billion: Amount Denver spent to plan and build DIA

$4 billion: Amount spent to build DIA, including construction by airlines,
the Federal Aviation Administration, rental car companies and other private
parties

$52 million: Estimated 2005 net revenue

327 feet: Height of FAA control tower, one of the tallest in the nation.

267 Number of complaints about airplane noise during last three months of
2004, coming from 50 households.

1995 2004

NO. OF PASSENGERS

32 42

million million

PARKING GARAGE FEES

$10 $15

maximum maximum

AVERAGE AIRFARE

$162 $150

Attached Photo:

Peaks and mountains: Denver International Airport, with its distinctive
Jeppesen Terminal rising from the Plains east of Denver - its multipeaked
roof echoing the Front Range skyline to the west - celebrates its 10-year
anniversary Monday. The 53-square-mile airport is the fifth-busiest in the
country.

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