With the success of the Sportaccord convention — an international gathering of the world’s sports federations — here in April, Metro Denver and Colorado added yet another world-class showcase of our community.
Our region and state are now ensconced on the global stage. The Democratic National Convention put a capstone on our vision of Metro Denver being an acknowledged “world city.” As a community, our “century decisions” to build FasTracks, arts complexes, the Anschutz Medical Campus in Aurora, and Denver International Airport ensured our long-term prosperity.
As a senior fellow at the Brookings Institute said at Centennial’s “State of Our City” dinner late last year, our greatest threat now is “complacency.”
But today, only half of the world can reach Denver by air. DIA is our port to the world’s economy. We have nonstop air service to London on both United Airlines and British Airways. Lufthansa takes us to central Europe. Our “Ascent to Asia” program, focusing on Japan for nonstop air service, will complete our global reach. Recent comments by the new president of ANA — the premier Japanese airline — indicate that Denver ranks highly on the company’s list of possible new flights.
Sportaccord’s delegations reminded us that opening new markets and international cultural ties are led by government leaders. For Colorado to expand international trade successfully, we must understand the rules of the global marketplace. Recent trips by elected officials — most recently Gov. Bill Ritter — in pursuit of a new daily flight to Japan should be encouraged by the business community and the public.
Each nonstop international flight generates over $100 million annually in economic impact to our state. When Gov. Ritter led a delegation of Colorado business people to Asia in November, he completed the fourth chapter of a deliberate effort to secure a nonstop flight with ANA. Therefore, many of the delegation members flew business class — for which they were unfairly chastised.
Most of an airline’s profit is made from business-class passengers, while revenue from the back of the plane merely pays the aircraft’s overhead. Demonstrating to ANA that business — and yes, government leaders — would fly in the “front of the plane” was a good business and diplomatic decision and didn’t deserve the media criticism it received at the time.
Colorado is selling to ANA. As with any airline making a decision to deploy its assets, ANA is concerned with Denver’s ability to “fill the front of the plane.” To make a sales call and not fly the airline or not fly in the front of the plane would be like a Microsoft salesman making a sales pitch on an Apple computer.
The media should better explain the complexity and intensity of competition for international flights.
John Beeble is chair of the DIA Leader- ship Committee and the Metro Denver Economic Development Corporation.
