To help accommodate the growth of Southwest Airlines at Denver International Airport, DIA officials have told some carriers they will be switching gates — moves that will shift some airlines from the C concourse to A.
Last week, DIA sent letters to Alaska Airlines, US Airways, AirTran Airways and Midwest Airlines giving them 60 days’ notice of the gate relocations.
DIA is moving Alaska from gate C32 to A53, a gate no longer needed by Frontier Airlines.
US Airways has been asked to vacate gate C29 and move to C32 so Southwest can have three contiguous gates on the west side of the concourse, said Patrick Heck, DIA’s deputy manager for business development.
DIA’s preference is for the move of carriers to be “consensual,” but Heck noted the airport has contract language that allows it to dictate the moves.
On the east side of C, DIA’s planned move of AirTran from C46 to the A concourse will give Southwest full use of seven gates on that side of the concourse, Heck said.
AirTran will share a gate with Midwest, which DIA already has moved from C to A.
Southwest currently operates 84 daily departures from DIA, but with the planned addition of new destinations from Denver over the next four months, it expects to have 95 departures in September and 115 by early November.
“We are working with the airport to accommodate our growth,” said Southwest spokesman Chris Mainz. “We can make 10 gates work with 115 flights.”
Southwest’s growth is coming as other carriers plan to cut flights at DIA. United, Frontier and Continental have announced plans for schedule reductions in the fall.
Frontier, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy earlier this year, is in discussions with DIA about vacating a number of gates it leases on the A concourse, said Frontier spokesman Steve Snyder.
Frontier leases 22 gates on A, but the carrier likely will need fewer because of planned flight reductions.
If DIA gets some gates back from Frontier, it could allow the airport to further delay a costly concourse expansion that is being considered.
Before the stratospheric rise in fuel prices began battering airlines’ bottom lines, DIA was planning a 10-gate expansion for the C concourse — in part to accommodate Southwest’s growth. More recently, DIA chief Kim Day said the airport would make a “go/no-go” decision on that expansion at the end of the summer. The airport estimates the cost of its C concourse expansion at $280 million.
Jeffrey Leib: 303-954-1645 or jleib@denverpost.com
Southwest’s plan for growth at DIA
•Currently uses nine gates on C concourse for 84 daily departures
•Adds seven nonstop flights between Aug. 4 and Nov. 2
•Expects to have 10 gates and 95 daily departures by September and 115 daily departures by November
