Denver International Airport can become a global hub, its manager Kim Day says, because the people who planned it made sure it had plenty of room to grow at lower cost than its competitors. DIA already is the 10th busiest airport in the world but its international service is lagging. Day outlined five factors she believes will contribute to the emergence of DIA as a global hub.

The FasTracks Northwest Rail corridor could get a head start under a plan that would build its first six and a half miles, between Denver Union Station and south Westminster at 72nd and Lowell Boulevard, as part of the construction of lines to the airport and Arvada. That will give RTD the capability of initiating rail transit service to southwest Adams County and Westminster sooner rather than later.

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 would never open or go belly-up financially within 18 months. But what was on the news about it? Cupcakes.

A divided RTD board committee has given preliminary approval to removing a set of planned moving walkways from the design of the FasTracks transfer facility at Denver Union Station,a controversial element that has divided transit advocates and helped spawn a lawsuit.

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.

FasTracks’ federal funding picture came into sharper focus on Friday as the Federal Transit Administration announced it will provide the sought-after $304 million in loans toward the conversion of Denver Union Station and $120 million in grants to three rail corridors.

DIA Media Release: Four million passengers in December push Denver International Airport to second-busiest year ever; yearly passenger total tops 50 million for only the second time.

Rendering shows Denver Union Station after its planned conversion into the hub of seven FasTracks rail corridors. DUSPA graphic.

Federal Transit Administrator Peter Rogoff is in Denver on Friday to talk about the Obama Administration’s inclusion of $80 million in initial grants to the FasTracks East Corridor and Gold Line projects and to disclose whether the feds will issue a $300 million loan to the FasTracks renovation of Union Station.

The proposed fiscal year 2011 grants of $40 million each to the East Corridor line to Denver International Airport and the Gold Line to Arvada-Wheat Ridge come under the Federal Transit Administration’s New Full Funding Grant Agreement Funding Recommendations.

It is a good sign that the agency intends to follow up with full grant agreements for the two lines. The $1.233 billion East Corridor financing plan anticipates $850.44 million New Starts grant, while the $517 million Gold Line plan includes a $180 million New Starts grant.

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

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.