Ft.Collins/Loveland Airport Manager Named CDOT Aeronautics Division Director

David Gordon, manager of the Ft. Collins/Loveland Municipal Airport, has been named Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) Aeronautics Division Director. His appointment is effective April 9.

Gordon has worked in the aviation sector for the past 35 years. He served for 24 years as manager of the Jefferson County Airport in Broomfield, and since 2002 he has been manager at the Loveland/Ft. Collins airport.

Gordon is very familiar with the CDOT Division of Aeronautics and its many programs. He was appointed by Colorado Governor Roy Romer to the Colorado Aeronautical Board, which oversees the CDOT Aeronautics Division, where he served from 1996-1999. He was a founding director and served on the Board of Directors of the Colorado Airport Operators Association.

In his new position, Gordon will manage seven CDOT staff members who work directly with Colorado public-use airports as well as Colorado and national aviation associations to help improve aviation safety and operations.

The CDOT Aeronautics Division also oversees an annual discretionary grants program that awards revenues from aviation fuel sales taxes to Colorado public use airports for infrastructure, safety, and programmatic improvements. The most recent round of these grants, announced in February, 2010, awarded $5.7 million for nearly 50 Colorado airport projects. The funds were used to leverage local and federal funding for a total value of nearly $96 million.

DIA's Jeppesen Terminal, looking west at sunset. DIA photo.

By Kevin Flynn
Inside-Lane.com

Denver International Airport can become a global hub, its manager said Thursday, in great part because the people who planned it made sure it had plenty of room to grow at lower cost than its competitors.

Kim Day, Aviation Manager at DIA, marked the airport’s 15th year in operation by giving a “State of DIA” address at a luncheon sponsored by the Metro Denver Economic Development Council in the downtown Sheraton Hotel.

“I’m convinced that DIA’s future is that of a powerful global hub,” she said.

You can read the prepared text of her remarks here.

“What are the future expectations?” she asked the luncheon crowd of several hundred people. “Thanks to the regional dreamers and the committed local residents who embraced the original vision, Denver International was and is considered the future of aviation in the United States. Even after 15 years of delivering on a promise, we are an airport with its potential still unfulfilled. Charles Dickens would say we still have great expectations.”

DIA already is the 10th busiest airport in the world but its international service is lagging. Day outlined five reasons she believes Denver will emerge in its second 15 years as a global hub.

Denver International Airport Manager Kim Day tells a luncheon crowd that her vision for DIA is a global hub. Inside Lane photo.

Second, the “visionary” leaders who planned the facility put it in the middle of 53 square miles of land, where it is easier to expand with fewer of the problems faced by most big cities’ cramped airports.

“Because we sit on 53 square miles, we have the ability to expand incrementally and affordably to meet future demand,” she said. “No other airport in the U.S. can do that – none. Most of them cannot expand affordably, and some of them simply cannot expand.”

Stapleton airport, which DIA replaced, took up just over seven square miles.

Third, Day said that DIA is working toward its goal of establishing non-stop flights to Tokyo, to open up Asian air travel markets from Denver. She emphasized Tokyo over Beijing, saying that the connecting flights all over Asia from Tokyo make it a better jumping-off point for Denver travelers headed to other Asian destinations.

“Beijing only brings Beijing, but with the Star Alliance hub network out of Tokyo – Tokyo gives us all of Asia. It is our gateway to Asia and we want to become their gateway to North America.”

Fourth, the rollout of Boeing’s new 787 Dreamliner series of jets – highly efficient mid-sized craft to carry 210 to 330 passengers, depending on the model and configuration, on long-range routes now flown by jumbo jets – will help make Denver more attractive to airlines flying the long distance to Asia with a full plane. It is just over 5,000 nautical miles from Denver to Tokyo, well within the 787’s range of up to 8,500 nautical miles.

“This aircraft will open the world to us,” Day said. “It is 20-percent more fuel efficient than current wide-body aircraft and its range and seat capacity are ideal for the Denver market. It is the plane that will make a Tokyo flight profitable.”

Finally, Day said, DIA’s commitment to passenger safety and security as it updates its 20-year-old master plan will make it a model facility for foreign travel.

“The travel experience can be burdensome and irritating, or it can be pleasurable and stimulating,” Day said. “We can provide what passengers want and need, or we can be complacent and uninspired. By offering the best customer service and by building loyalty among passengers I believe we can stand out among our competitors.”

Day noted that Denver’s airport fared rather well in the economic downturn compared with others, with air fares coming down in the last two years and a fraction of the passenger declines that many airports have experienced in the recession.

“Considering the turbulence of this past year, DIA has done quite well. While most major airports saw double-digit passenger declines, we experienced a minor 2.1 percent decline in passengers. Even with that, we served over 50 million passengers for the second consecutive year, and this January 2010 was our biggest January ever, exceeding January 2009 by 2.9 percent.”

DIA at sunset. The airport has been open 15 years now. DIA Photo.

By Kevin Flynn
Inside-Lane.com

Denver International Airport turned 15 years old over the weekend. A milestone for sure for a facility that had a difficult time in development and construction, and that many critics even predicted never would open or would go belly-up financially within 18 months.

Instead, today it is one of Colorado’s primary economic engines and, locally, a driver for growth. Have you driven up U.S. 85, Tower Road, 104th Avenue or any of the other northeast metro arterials in Adams County? The airport area not only rivals but outstrips the rest of the metro area in expansion of residential and commercial development.

I remember folks in Adams County in the mid-‘80s saying they would get stuck with the noise and the traffic but few of the benefits. It didn’t turn out that way. It’s now among the hottest markets in metro Denver.

With more than $20 billion a year in impact on the economy, DIA is a “category killer” catalyst.

For me, however, there’s an impact of DIA that is more meaningful for metro fliers, and it shows how wrong the critics were about costs. Despite all the fear and loathing that the massive costs of this monster halfway out to Kansas would propel ticket prices out of reach for families and business fliers, here’s the fact: The average air fare out of Denver is lower now than when the airport opened, according to U.S. Bureau of Transportation Statistics.

In fact, of the top 85 airports in the nation, Denver had the second-largest decline in air fares over that 15-year period. DIA is the source, and the return of Southwest Airlines to the stable of carriers is the reason.

It is supremely ironic that expensive DIA would be the reason we have lower air fares than when we left inexpensive Stapleton behind. But everything is market-driven.

Southwest never would have returned to Denver without the new airport – a notion that would have seemed counterintuitive 15 years ago when all the discussion was its supposed high costs. It was going to cost airlines an average of $16 per passenger, nearly three times that of Stapleton! But in fact Southwest abandoned low-cost Stapleton in 1985 after operating out of subleased gates there for a short time. The reason?

The overcrowded airfield limited Stapleton to one jet arrival runway during bad-weather restrictions. It choked operations to the extent that Southwest couldn’t keep its schedule-driven system running effectively. The low-fare airline determined that 70 percent of its total flight delays nationwide could be traced to problems getting in and out of Stapleton. So it pulled out, despite Stapleton’s low $6 per passenger average cost.

Now it is back, and it is keeping Denver air fares low and contributing to DIA’s status as fifth busiest airport in the nation and 10th in the world. Not bad for a facility once called “Peña’s Folly” because of Mayor Federico Peña’s incessant push for it. Critics who mimicked the attacks on Mayor Ben Stapleton in 1929 for building what had been dubbed “Stapleton’s Folly” should have remembered that it really didn’t turn out so well for those earlier critics either.

To mark the 15th anniversary of DIA, it is more than appropriate to take a brief look back and a longer look ahead at some of the controversial changes that may be coming with the new master plan.

So what made the news about it? Cupcakes.

Seriously. The lead story on 9News’ 10 p.m. newscast the day after the anniversary was a 9 Wants to Know investigation into the cost of the airport marking the event by giving out cupcakes to passengers and visitors, and building a full-size mock-up of a Boeing 787 wing in the terminal. The new jumbo-craft being rolled out by Boeing plays a major role in DIA’s targeted goal of increasing overseas flights, especially to Asia.

Where is Paula Woodward when we need her?

All airports have marketing. It’s a cost of doing business. And a nice bit of refreshment for passengers like a cupcake is more in-touch with today’s marketing than speechifying at a press conference. But instead of a piece on DIA at 15, 9News told us how some of the workers who assembled the wing model had been told to charge their overtime to the snow plowing account.

Scandal, right?

No.

It turns out the next day after the report, we discover the workers actually were on call-in for snow plow duty, and while on the clock waiting for snow, were assigned to help assemble the model. That’s a good thing, not a bad one. The 9News follow-up to its own story called it “accounted for properly.”

That’s the way the cupcake, and gotcha journalism, sometimes crumbles.

Heavy-rail self-propelled electric-powered commuter rail cars are the vehicles chosen for the FasTracks East Corridor and Gold Line projects. Courtesy RTD.

Prendergast gave a comprehensive look at DIA as a teenager, what its impact has been and the controversy over changes in the master plan that will fundamentally alter the way we initially plotted the airport’s growth.

Getting DIA built was no cupcake, but it has become a huge economic pie.

When you get the time, read Prendergast’s piece here. It’s well done and the only major correction I would offer is that the FasTracks train that will be built out to DIA is not light rail, but a heavy-rail commuter train line using Electric Multiple Units. We need to introduce the Denver public to the fact that the north metro rail lines in FasTracks will not be the smaller light-rail trolley-type cars but inter-city type train cars for a more comfortable trip to the airport.

As usual with a Westword piece, it’s lengthy. Have a cupcake or two while you read it.

Gov. Ritter announces $5.7 million for local airport projects

Gov. Bill Ritter announced today that he has approved distribution of 50 grants worth $5.7 million to Colorado airports and one aviation association under the Aviation Discretionary Grant program administered by the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) Division of Aeronautics.

The grants, ranging in size from $4,000 to $250,000 and funded by state aviation fuel tax revenues, will leverage local and/or federal dollars, bringing the total value to $95.67 million for various airport projects ranging from runway lighting improvements to runway maintenance and construction. The Colorado Airport Operators Association also received grant funding for a training program. A complete listing of all grants, including the governmental unit, authority, or association receiving the funds, funding totals, and details of the approved projects, is attached.

“This is an excellent program,” Gov. Ritter said. “The state funds come from state aviation fuel taxes, which are then combined with local and federal funding on projects that might otherwise not be possible. These airports are important to our economic development strategies, our quality of life, our recreational access, and our overall mobility. Because the projects will also help boost local economies, this is a win-win situation.”

The statutorily-based program, which began in 1992, receives grant proposals from any Colorado public-use airport. These proposals are evaluated by CDOT Aeronautics staff and approved by the Colorado Aeronautical Board, which is comprised of aviation community representatives appointed by the Governor and approved by the Colorado Senate. The Governor then reviews the Aeronautical Board decisions and has 30 days in which to comment.

Harold Patton of Greenwood Village, chair of the Colorado Aeronautical Board, said the discretionary grant program has been a success story. “Over the years, the state has been able to be a true partner to our public use airports by distributing more than $51 million through these grants,” he said. “This year, 47 airports statewide will be undertaking projects to improve safety and convenience for airlines, pilots, airport operators, and the public. This grant program is a true Colorado success story.”

Colorado communities/airports receiving the grants are listed below:
San Luis Valley Regional Airport, Alamosa County
Aspen/Pitkin County Airport
Boulder Municipal Airport
Central Colorado Regional Airport, Chaffee County
Kit Carson County Airport, Burlington
Fremont County Airport
Colorado Airport Operator’s Association
Centennial Airport
Leach Airport, Saguache County
Colorado Springs Municipal Airport
Cortez-Montezuma County Airport
Craig-Moffat County Airport
Astronaut Rominger Airport, Rio Grande County
Blake Field, Delta County
Durango/La Plata County Airport
Eads Airport
Erie Municipal Airport
Fort Collins-Loveland Municipal Airport
Fort Morgan Municipal Airport
Front Range Airport, Watkins
Glenwood Springs Municipal Airport
Grand Junction Regional Airport
Greeley-Weld County Airport
Yampa Valley Regional Airport, Routt County
Holyoke Municipal Airport
McElroy Field, Grand County
La Junta Municipal Airport
Lamar Municipal Airport
Las Animas City & County Airport
Lake County Airport
Limon Municipal Airport
Meadow Lake Airport/Monument Hill Area
Meeker Airport
Monte Vista Municipal Airport
Montrose Regional Airport
Hopkins Field, Montrose County
North Fork Valley Airport, Delta County
Pueblo Memorial Airport
Rangely Airport
Garfield County Regional Airport
Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport, Jefferson County
Harriet Alexander Airport, Chaffee County
Bob Adams Field, Steamboat Springs
Sterling Municipal Airport
Telluride Regional Airport
Perry Stokes Airport, Las Animas County
Walden-Jackson County Airport
Spanish Peaks Airfield, Huerfano County
Wray Municipal Airport
Yuma Municipal Airport

One of the two steel truss bridges carrying US 50 over the Gunnison River in Gunnison that is on CDOT's wish list to repair with federal funds next year. CDOT photo.

By Kevin Flynn
Inside-Lane.com

The Colorado Department of Transportation has put 40 highway and airport projects totaling $136.8 million on its wish list for federal grants in 2011.

Each year, the U.S. Department of Transportation awards what it calls discretionary grants, over and above each state’s usual formula funding, in targeted areas such as bridge repair, interstate maintenance, scenic byways and others.

There are 31 highway projects on the list, totaling $90.3 million, and nine airport projects totaling $46.5 million. You can read the entire CDOT list here.

Because it focuses on specific needs, discretionary funding can quickly be put to good use – a series of such grants was used by CDOT to replace the old Interstate 25 viaduct over Broadway and the railroad mainline at the same time T-REX was under construction, allowing both new projects to open at the same time and effectively making the T-REX improvements go a little bit farther.

The federal government sets up funding in various categories and then solicits candidate projects from the states. Projects are selected based on how well they fit the criteria for each category.

This US 24 bridge over California Gulch three miles south of Leadville, built in 1934, is one of those up for replacement if CDOT wins a federal discretionary grant it is seeking for next year. CDOT photo.

Other requests include $6.6 million to replace the Sixth Avenue Freeway bridge over Sheridan Boulevard, on the Denver-Lakewood line; $5.5 million for four miles of concrete resurfacing on Interstate 70 in Glenwood Canyon; $5 million to reconstruct I-70 in concrete from Tower Road to Colfax Avenue, and $4 million to replace the CO 120 span over the Arkansas River and Union Pacific Railroad in Fremont County.

The Sixth Avenue bridge and the CO 120 bridge are two of the 124 poor-rated bridges in the state that are part of the FASTER program. Drivers are being charged an average of up to $18 a year extra on their vehicle registrations to replace poor-rated bridges under the law passed last year. The Sixth Avenue span was built in 1961 and is rated 45.1 on a scale of 100 as structurally deficient. The Fremont County bridge is a steel truss structure built in 1927 and is rated 17.9 for being functionally obsolete.

You can take a photo tour of the 124 bridges on a map of the state by clicking here.

Among the airport projects for which funds are being requested are $13 million to extend the runway at Aspen’s Sardy Field; $7 million for a wildlife fence at Walker Field in Grand Junction; $7 million for an apron extension at Denver International Airport; $5 million for taxiway rehabilitation at Colorado Springs Municipal Airport, and $4 million for runway rehabilitation at Front Range Airport.

While CDOT isn’t likely to get all it asks for, it will enlist the help of the state’s congressional delegation to push for them.

There’s reason for that.

CDOT says the projects are a priority that “address pressing needs of the state transportation system.” They are already on the Statewide Transportation Improvement Program and were selected in consultation with the Statewide Transportation Advisory Committee. The Colorado Transportation Commission approved the list at its January meeting.

Denver International Airport recorded its second-busiest year ever in 2009, despite a predicted
2 percent decline resulting from the sagging economy and capacity reductions by the airlines.

December passenger traffic at DIA totaled 4,003,422, a 1.7 percent drop from the 4,073,246
travelers recorded in the same month of 2008. The monthly figure pushed DIA’s yearly
passenger total to 50,167,485. That was 2.1 percent below the record 51,245,334 travelers
who used DIA in 2008.

It was only the second time in DIA history that December passenger traffic topped the 4 million
mark, and the second time that the airport’s yearly total exceeded 50 million.

“This is exactly where we had expected to end the year, based on the airlines’ cuts in capacity
in response to the decline in air travel,” Denver Aviation Manager Kim Day said Thursday. “But
some airlines have already reported traffic increases for January, and given the strength of the
Denver market, we are optimistic of a turnaround in the near future.”

Another indication of the economy’s effect in 2009 was a yearly decline of 10.6 percent in cargo
handled. That came despite a 7.8 percent increase in cargo activity at DIA in December.

Flight operations in December dipped slightly, 0.6 percent, to 51,648. For the year, 2009
operations declined to 611,977, down 2.2 percent when compared with 2008.

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

In just a year’s time — between the third quarters of 2008 and 2009 — Denver’s airfares fell 16 percent.

In comparison, the U.S. average domestic airfare dropped 9 percent between the third quarters of 2000 and 2009 and 14.4 percent between the third quarters of 2008 and 2009. Bureau records show it was the biggest year-to-year decline on record.

Go to the Denver Post to see the entire article.

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

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.”

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.