DIA Press Release
Denver International Airport recorded 4,101,004 passengers in October, a 1.3-percent decline from the 4,154,517 travelers who passed through the facility in the same month last year. Despite the small monthly drop, it was the third-busiest October ever at the Denver airport.
“We continue to be encouraged by the relatively small decline in our traffic,” Aviation Manager Kim Day said Friday. “Because of the sagging economy and the resulting cuts in airline capacity, we had expected we’d see a 2 to 2.5 percent drop in passengers from last year. And that’s where it looks like we will end 2009.”
Year to date through October, passenger traffic at DIA totaled 42,436,235. That was down 2.4 percent from the 43,492,803 travelers who used the facility during the same period of 2008.
DIA handled 49,952 flight operations in October, a decline of 1.0 percent from the same month of last year. For the first 10 months of 2009, DIA’s operations totaled 512,545, 2.8 percent below the 527,163 operations recorded in the same period of last year.
The complete traffic report will be available on DIA’s Web site by following this link:
http://www.flydenver.com/diabiz/stats/traffic/index.asp
The Journal of Commerce reports that Rep. Dan Lipinski, an Illinois Democrat, has urged President Obama to drop White House opposition to the House’s $500 billion, six-year transportation reauthorization.
“Boosting transportation funding right now offers both the short-term benefit of quickly creating jobs and the long-term benefit of enhancing the fast, safe and efficient transportation of people and goods,” Lipinski, a member of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, wrote to Obama.
The administration favors an 18-month extension of the 2005 reauthorization. Go to the Journal of Commerce to see the entire article.
The Wall Street Journal reports that House Transportation Committee Chairman James Oberstar on Wednesday called for at least $69 billion in new federal spending on highway and transit projects, a bid to use a second stimulus bill to address a looming shortfall in transportation funding.
Speaking at a news conference on Capitol Hill a day before the White House convenes its “jobs summit,” Mr. Oberstar said $69 billion would be “a nice down payment” that would upgrade the nation’s transportation system and create hundreds of thousands of jobs.
Go to The Wall Street Journal to see the entire article.
AASHTO Press Release
State transportation departments have identified 9,500 highway, bridge, transit, port, rail, and aviation projects worth more than $69 billion that, if funded, can be used to create hundreds of thousands of jobs across the country.
“State departments of transportation have proven that these ‘ready-to-go’ projects are a great way to put people back work, quickly and efficiently,” said John Horsley, executive director of the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO). “We’re dedicated to getting these projects out to bid fast, but we’re also committed to making certain that every taxpayer dollar is spent wisely.”
Horsley was joined by House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman James Oberstar (D-MN), and House Subcommittee on Highways and Transit Chairman Peter DeFazio (D-OR) at a Capitol Hill news conference releasing the report today. AASHTO also presented the report today to Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA), chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. The report can be found online at http://downloads.transportation.org/Ready-to-Go.pdf.
‘Ready-to-go’ means a project that can move through the federal approval process within 120 days of enactment of authorizing legislation, thus enabling the State to proceed toward construction. Today’s report is based on responses from 50 states and the District of Columbia, and includes 7,497 in “ready-to-go” highway projects valued at more than $47 billion, and 2,091 “ready-to-go” transit, rail, port, aviation, and intermodal projects valued at more than $22 billion.
“We hope Congress will use this survey to make the case that investment in transportation infrastructure projects are guaranteed to create jobs,” Horsley said. “A bright spot of the economic recovery act continues to be state transportation projects that are pumping billions of dollars into households and businesses while fixing our broken transportation network.”
As of November 20, 2009, 10,600 transportation projects worth more than $30 billion have been approved for funding under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Of the 9,300 highway construction projects authorized to date, more than half – 5,458 projects – were either under construction or had already been completed. Three-hundred fifty-five projects approved under the airport grants program and worth $1.08 billion are underway or have been completed. Of the $8.4 billion provided for transit, approval to proceed has been received for 690 grants valued at $7.19 billion. Thousands of buses and rail cars have been ordered and are being assembled, and service cutbacks and layoffs have been avoided.
“We need to keep the momentum going. The unemployment rate in the construction trades today exceeds 18 percent,” Horsley said. “There is still a need to invest more in transportation projects if that’s what it takes to create jobs and bring unemployment down. What the state DOTs have done over the past eight months to put economic recovery dollars to work shows there is no better way to create jobs and long-lasting benefits in every part of the country.”
DIA Press Release
Airlines say they expect 960,293 passengers to use Denver International Airport from today through Monday. The total is 31,073 higher than the 929,220 travelers who passed through DIA during Thanksgiving week last year.
The total makes this week the second-busiest Thanksgiving week in the history of the Denver airport. The busiest Thanksgiving week at DIA was in 2006 when, according to numbers provided by the airlines, 966,976 travelers used the airport.
Sunday, Nov. 29, will be the busiest day of the week with 160,854 travelers. That compares with 157,528 passengers on the Sunday after Thanksgiving last year. The following day, Monday, Nov. 30, will be nearly as busy with 160,063 travelers expected.
The busiest pre-Thanksgiving day this year will be Wednesday, Nov. 25, with 150,007 passengers. That compares with 146,325 on the same day of Thanksgiving week last year.
Other daily passenger totals for the holiday week are: Tuesday, 146,893; Thursday, 97,812; Friday, 106,042; and Saturday, 138,622.
The airport, the Transportation Security Administration, the airlines, and concessionaires will be fully staffed during the week.
The New York Times reports that Sen. Barbara Boxer urged Obama Administration officials to help broker a congressional compromise in the stalemate over a new transportation funding bill, as the extensions of SAFETEA-LU are beginning to take a toll on highway and transit projects.
“We need your help on this standoff,” Boxer (D-Calif.), chairwoman of the Environment and Public Works Committee, told two top Transportation Department officials that she had summoned to brief her committee.
Boxer’s comments came one day after she and six other committee leaders and ranking members – including James Inhofe (R-Okla.) – relented on their ongoing effort to punt the next multiyear highway and transit bill into 2011 and instead called for a shorter, six-month extension that would continue current federal spending until June 2010.
Simulation shows the FasTracks East Corridor commuter rail station planned to adjoin the DIA terminal’s south side.
Officials from Denver International Airport and RTD gathered Friday to mark the federal government’s approval this month of two environmental studies that keep crucial FasTracks corridors on the path toward $1 billion in grants.
Environmental Impact Statements for the East Corridor heavy-rail line to DIA from downtown and the companion Gold Line heavy-rail to Arvada and Wheat Ridge both were approved by the Federal Transit Administration.
This allows RTD to proceed with final design, financing and construction. The transit agency in September formally began a procurement process to select a private sector team that would do the work, with selection expected by June.
DIA Press Release
To celebrate America Recycles Day on Nov. 15, Denver International Airport and 16 of its shops and restaurants will be rewarding passengers who recycle with gift certificates for an entire week starting on Monday, Nov. 16, and running through to Nov. 20. The way to win? Get caught “green handed” in the act of recycling something at one of Denver International Airport’s 520 special recycling bins.
Members of DIA’s Environmental Services team will be combing the main Jeppesen Terminal and the three concourses looking for passengers who are recycling. Participating restaurants have provided gift certificates for discounts on meals and beverages at the airport and include Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream; Boulder Beer Tap House; Burger King; Caribou Coffee; Chef Jimmy’s; The CofTea Shop; Dazbog Coffee; Einstein Bros. Bagels; Jamba Juice; Lefty’s Mile High Grille, Colorado Trails Grille and Front Range Grille; Mesa Verde Lounge; Red Rocks Bar & Grill; Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory; Schlotzsky’s Deli; TCBY and Coffee Beanery / UNO Pizza.
Denver International Airport is world-renowned for its environmental achievements, including being the first international airport in the United States to develop and implement a facility-wide, ISO-14001 certified Environmental Management System (EMS). The EMS is the tool that DIA uses to systematically and proactively manage the airport’s environmental programs. Denver International Airport’s environmental management has established many firsts in the United States and internationally:
• Received the FAA Environmental Stewardship Award (2007)
• Accepted into Colorado’s environmental leadership program as a Gold Level member (2004)
• Active participant in local and state sustainability initiatives, including Greenprint Denver and Colorado Climate Action Plan
• In 2008, DIA diverted over 1400 tons of municipal solid wastes from the landfill for recycling
• DIA is one of 10 international airports that are working together with the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) to establish sustainability guidelines for the world’s airports
According to Janell Barrilleaux, Director of Environmental Programs at DIA, “America Recycles Day provides DIA with the opportunity to educate our travelling public, business partners and employees about the importance of recycling. Recycling conserves resources, reduces waste and in many cases, reduces costs. With the generous participation by our restaurants and shops, we’re hoping to raise the level of awareness about DIA’s environmental programs—and make it fun at the same time.”
For additional information about DIA’s Environmental Management System, visit http://www.flydenver.com/diaBiz/community/enviro/index.asp . For more information about America Recycles Day 2009, visit http://www.americarecyclesday.org/americarecycles.aspx .
DIA Press Release
Passenger traffic at Denver International Airport totaled 4,011,123 in September, a decline of 0.2 percent over the 4,017,761 travelers recorded at the airport in the same month last year. Despite the nearly flat monthly total, it was the second-busiest September ever at the Denver airport.
Traffic records had been set at DIA the two previous months, when the airport had its busiest month ever in July and its busiest August in history. Traffic growth in those months ended a downward trend that began in December 2008.
“To be down only a fraction of one percent from the same month in 2008, when DIA set its all-time traffic record, is encouraging for us,” Aviation Manager Kim Day said Wednesday. “We still believe that traffic is starting to rebound as the economy improves, and that we will finish 2009 only slightly below last year’s record number.”
For the year, passenger traffic at DIA totaled 38,335,231 through September. That was down 2.5 percent from the 39,338,285 travelers recorded during the first nine months of 2008.
DIA handled 49,287 flight operations in September, also a decline of 0.2 percent from the same month of 2008. For the first nine months of 2009, DIA’s operations totaled 462,593, 3.0 percent below the same period of last year.
The complete traffic report will be available on DIA’s Web site by following this link:
http://www.flydenver.com/diabiz/stats/traffic/index.asp
The average air fare out of Denver International Airport was lower in the first quarter this year than when DIA opened in 1995 – testimony to airline competition, cost containment by the city and what some call the “Southwest Effect.”
In fact, Denver is one of only four air travel markets among the top 85 on the country that had lower air fares than 14 years ago, according to figures compiled by the federal Bureau of Transportation Statistics, part of the U.S. Department of Transportation.
Only Richmond, Va., declined more in average plane ticket price than Denver over the same period.
The figures show that the average air fare in Denver in the first quarter this year, the latest period available, was 3.7 percent lower than in the first quarter of 1995. That was when Denver was preparing to transition to the new airport from Stapleton International Airport. DIA opened Feb. 28, 1995.
The national average air fare, by contrast, was 16 percent higher in the first quarter this year than in 1995.
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