Low fares appear to have revived a leisure-travel market, resulting in Denver International Airport’s busiest month on record.
A record 5,109,342 passengers passed through DIA in July, up 2.2 percent from the 5 million travelers who used the airport during the same month last year.
The report issued Wednesday notes that July’s figures break a six-month trend of declining passenger totals.
It is only the second time since DIA opened in February 1995 that monthly traffic exceeded the 5 million mark. The previous record was July 2008.
“We’ve been seeing our numbers drop since last October, and it is refreshing to see them headed in a different direction,” DIA aviation manager Kim Day said.
Robert Polk, chief executive of Polk Majestic Travel Group of Denver, said he hasn’t seen a big uptick in business traffic.
“But there is no question that the low airfares and hotel rates and rental-car rates have certainly stimulated the leisure market,” Polk said.
Of DIA’s three largest airlines, United had 10.8 percent more passengers in July than a year ago; Frontier was down 8 percent; and Southwest was up 48.1 percent.
Slightly more DIA passengers caught connecting flights and fewer originated flights here or chose Denver as a destination in July than a year ago.
Day said the report is encouraging and a reflection of how strong the Denver air-travel market is, “although we still anticipate finishing 2009 down overall.”
For the first seven months of the year, DIA’s passenger traffic totaled 29.4 million. Despite the new monthly record, the year-to-date total is still down 3.6 percent from the 30.55 million passengers recorded in the first seven months of 2008.
DIA set an annual record of 51.2 million passengers last year.
Ann Schrader: 303-954-1967 or aschrader@denverpost.com
