"United CEO touts DIA's model efficiency"

Tuesday, March 1, 2005

United CEO touts DIA's model efficiency
Glenn Tilton tells partygoers celebrating the airport's 10th birthday that
the airline plans to expand low-fare Ted service in Denver.
By Jeffrey Leib 
The Denver (CO) Post


Denver International Airport is a model of efficiency among United Airlines'
five domestic hub airports, and the airline plans to expand its highly
successful low-fare unit, Ted, at DIA, United chief executive Glenn Tilton
said in Denver on Monday night. 

Tilton spoke at United's flight-training center near the former Stapleton
airport at a party celebrating the 10th anniversary of DIA's opening.

The airport is celebrating its first 10 years just as United, its biggest
tenant, struggles to climb out of bankruptcy and overcome the federal
government's rejection of the carrier's bid for financial assistance.

After United restructures and emerges from bankruptcy, Tilton said, the
airline will be in a position to collaborate with Denver officials on plans
to promote economic expansion in the area that also will benefit United.
  
Among the possibilities, Tilton said, would be efforts by United to alter
ticketing procedures to encourage travelers who ordinarily might just
connect to another flight at DIA to instead lay over for a number of days in
Colorado, pumping money into the local economy.

In doing so, United could fulfill its role for "creating wealth" in a
community that goes beyond merely putting passengers in airplane seats,
Tilton said.

Similarly, United could adjust flight schedules to enhance the
"connectivity" of DIA flights with the airline's all-important routes to
Asia and other international destinations, he said.

The United CEO said he spoke about such collaborative and mutually
beneficial measures with Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper and members of the
Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce earlier Monday.

But Tilton stressed that United's first task is to emerge as a restructured
airline from Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

Also earlier in the day, Federico Peņa, former Denver mayor and U.S.
transportation secretary, said helping financially ailing airlines is in the
national interest.

The airline industry "is so fundamental to our way of life and standard of
living" that it is appropriate for the government to provide loan guarantees
to troubled carriers, Peņa said.

United's recovery is crucial to DIA's success in the next decade because
United and its commuter-airline partners account for 59 percent of the
airport's passenger traffic.

At Monday morning's event, Peņa joined his successor as mayor, Wellington
Webb, and Hickenlooper in celebrating DIA's birthday and the 350 million
passengers who have passed through the nation's newest major airport.


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