MileHighColorado

The article said domestic locations new and increased frequency not international which I found disappointing.

Kmxu

For some medium size cities on the east coast, the frequency will be doubled. RIC has two flights a day now (E175 and A319), but ORF has only one flight a day. So, it is likely to see another frequency for ORF.

pseudoswede

Where I live, it's ~23 miles by car to downtown Denver going north on I-25. There have been times when traffic on I-25 is so bad, Google tells me it's significantly faster to take E-470 all the way "to Kansas", then I-70 into downtown--almost 39 miles.

On weekends, especially if there is a Broncos game, taking the spur to avoid driving through downtown saves a ton of time if I need to be on the north side of the metro area.

EWR764

UA will use common-use gates on A during the summer peak for domestic narrowbody flights, and has regional departures from A.

The A-West expansion has international 'swing' gates on the north side of the building, which can handle widebodies. UA will have preferential use of most of these.

findark

I think I may have derailed the conversation too much here, but does any of that actually cause traffic on Pena Blvd? E-470 to I-70 I guess? Regardless, clearly I do not frequent Denver all that often

pseudoswede

Gotcha. Yes, traffic entering/exiting from/to E-470 does not add/subtract much to Pena Blvd's already existing heavy traffic.

RobotDoctor

I live in Fort Collins and it's about an hour from my house to DIA if traffic is moving. Stapleton was just less than an hour from Fort Collins without traffic. However, when considering rush hour on the short I-270 spur that I usually hit to get to Quebec St. I almost always had to face, DIA is much more convenient to me. The problem with DIA, and Denver for that matter, was the lack if implementing a decent train system decades ago when they should have done that. The reliance of buses was a poor decision, especially with a highway routing system as abysmal as Denver (and Colorado) has. Had a efficient train system been in place when DIA opened then the complaints as to how far DIA is from downtown Denver would have ceased years ago. Also keep in mind that with Stapleton and the design (much like San Francisco), any weather issue would likely cause the airport to reduce traffic as one east/west and one north/south runway to close leaving the airport at 50% capacity. I cannot begin to count the number of weather delays I had flying into and from Stapleton. Certainly much more than the weather issues I face flying in and out of DIA.

Also keep in mind when DFW opened up people complained how far out that was from Dallas and Love Field. Now that suburbia and commercial properties have enveloped DFW nobody really complains anymore. Wasn't that the original belief DIA would eventually grow up as? Be that as it may DIA has never had the residential and commercial growth that was originally promoted but it still is a terrific airport. With regard to the terminal construction, that's a relatively new, and completely (IMO) idiotic, thing. DIA was opened 22 years before this reconstruction project began. The overall concept is ridiculous, especially for those commuting from the trains from Denver and those staying at the Westin. All security will now be from the north end of the terminal at level 6. Baggage areas will be secured from the middle area which will be airport retail after clearing security. I wonder how many people will actively shop there? I suppose a lot of tourists leaving so there may be business but I doubt most residents of Colorado will be doing any shopping here. So the jury is still out whether the new construction project for the terminal will be worth it.

Zeug

I'm on the north end of Colorado Springs. 20 min to COS, but find I can't always get the connection I need and end up driving to DEN 50% of the time. Don't even get me started on I-25! My only rule is never leave home without google maps up and running. Many times, 83 to E-470 has been faster. Now that a lot of traffic has figured that out, I sometimes end up running up 105 and saving time coming back across 470.

tods27

This is good to know. I'll have to go back and look at the plans for the A-west expansion.

tods27

This document is old (looks about 10 years ago), but page 19 shows at least one runway expansion possibility. https://www.flydenver.com/sites/defa...anBrochure.pdf I'm not sure they have room to get to 16, but this shows 12.

It's funny if you read that document that they claim a need for a 7th runway in the 2015-2020 timeframe. The same document also shows the location of additional concourses that were part of the master plan.

Bonehead

All I see is new residential and commercial construction peripheral to DIA. Wait a few years and it will look like DFW.

LIH

A strong +1. I was LAX-based in the Jeff era and suddenly they kept trying to push me through IAH to get to places northeast. I remember a consistent pricing differential by which the DEN and ORD connections were $100 more. To this day I am still trying to knock IAH off my "top 10" airports visited list at ~65 touches without ever having needed to go to Houston for anything. I am glad to see UA stepping up at DEN.

DenverBrian

Or a few decades. While DFW was placed between two large cities, DEN was placed between one large city and...the rest of the Great Plains.

In 25 years of development, what you have so far is the hotel cluster at Tower Road, the monster Gaylord, and a bit of residential south of that. Not much, really.

COSPILOT

I think we are getting sidetracked with traffic and distance from city center.

I'm excited to see UA expand at DEN, to me this is all good. I'm doing a better job at checking which concourse my BP says, after decades of knowing it was alway B and nothing else.

Bonehead

Just wait...the Tower Rd corridor north of 88th is being developed, and I expect commercial/residential development to infect the E470/Pena corridor as well.

Yeah, might take more than a few years, but given the Denver metro's population growth it's just a matter of time before the Watkins-Keenesburg megalopolis becomes a reality