Last 12 months was Denver International Airport’s busiest on file.
While airline shares have but to totally get better to pre-pandemic ranges, passengers have returned in droves — and thousands and thousands of them are flying by the Colorado hub.
“We will finish 2023 a lot increased than our forecast at about 78 million passengers yearly,” stated Phil Washington, CEO of the Denver International Airport. “So this has been large development.”
The airport, generally known as DIA to Colorado locals, opened in 1995. It was initially constructed to deal with 50 million passengers per 12 months, however now that quantity is anticipated to succeed in greater than 100 million folks per 12 months by 2027, in keeping with DIA estimates.
OAG, a worldwide journey knowledge supplier, stated Denver went from the twenty first busiest airport in the world in 2019 to the sixth in 2023.
United Airlines is Denver’s largest operator with 46.7% market share, adopted by Southwest at 30.7% and Frontier Airlines at 9.7%, in keeping with DIA.
The midcontinent airport has turn out to be United’s busiest hub. It just lately invested practically $1 billion in Denver so as to add extra gates, flights and locations, and opened the largest lounge in its community.
“About 60% of our clients are connecting from different locations. Forty % of our clients are native Denver, and it is a quick rising metropolis,” stated Jonna McGrath, vice chairman of Denver Airport operations for United Airlines. “We wish to develop earlier than 2030 to about 650 flights a day.”
CNBC bought a behind-the-scenes have a look at United’s Denver operations and explored how the airport and the airline plan to maintain up with demand.