Turner West is taking over as manager of Denver International Airport in the midst of political turmoil. Even so, he says his biggest challenge, looking forward, is preparing for growth.
West has worked with Denver’s airport system for 21 years and as co-manager with Vicki Braunagel until her retirement this month. His promotion was announced the day before Denver’s city auditor publicized what he described as an “under- the-table” compensatory time system at the airport.
“It was something that happened here that happened in a lot of organizations,” West said in an interview intended to focus on his vision for the airport. “We have taken appropriate action with the people involved, and we need to move forward, as far as I’m concerned.”
That said, he moved on to the challenge of preparing the city’s 11-year-old airport to handle rapidly growing passenger traffic.
The number of passengers who used DIA in January increased 8.3 percent over the same month a year earlier. Last year, DIA hosted nearly 43.4 million passengers, a 2.6 percent increase over 2004. This year, West expects as much as 8 percent growth.
The airport was built to handle up to 50 million passengers.
“If growth continues,” West said, “we will get there.”
Southwest Airlines, which started flying to Denver in January, is contributing to DIA’s growth.
“I don’t foresee Southwest being physically limited in their ability to operate here,” West said. “We’ve tried to accommodate all airlines.”
He predicts Southwest will probably remain smaller than United in Denver and that Frontier will likely remain the second-largest airline here. The airport is continuing talks with Frontier about its need for additional gates.
West said two gates will be added to the A Concourse regional jet facility.
West also plans to prepare for growth by studying parking capacity and perhaps adding more train cars, he said.
Staff writer Kelly Yamanouchi can be reached at 303-820-1488 or kyamanouchi@ denverpost.com.
