Denver International Airport set a new record for its busiest April after 4.38 million passengers traveled through its terminals.
The April performance caps eight consecutive months of record-setting passenger traffic at DIA.
The airport has experienced , but operations, or the number of takeoffs and landings, have been mostly flat, airport spokeswoman Stacey Stegman said.
That’s in part because airlines are using larger aircraft that can hold more people per flight, which means aircraft movements haven’t been growing as fast as the number of travelers served.
So don’t expect a seventh runway in the near future. Although DIA has money set aside in its capital improvement project fund for the environmental work that would precede a new runway, airport spokesman Heath Montgomery said that process is likely at least five years out.
DIA expects to see 55 million passengers before the end of the year, Montgomery said. That’s roughly one-third the airport’s long-term full capacity.
The airport’s long-term build-out could include up to 12 runways and terminal capacity to accommodate 150 million to 175 million travelers, Montgomery said. Previous projections were that DIA could serve 100 million people at full build-out.
Technology has made the difference. In January 2010, DIA was the first commercial airport in the country to design a total comprehensive plan for area navigation, or RNAV, .
The technology, which was first implemented in 2012, makes for a more efficient route and tighter flight pattern during descent. It saves an average of 4 1/2 miles of flight distance per aircraft and 380 pounds of fuel per flight, Montgomery said. For airports, it can mean increased efficiency of existing infrastructure and a reduced noise footprint.
This year, DIA has added several new flights to its schedules. In mid-March, the airport added Frontier flights to Philadelphia and Charlotte, N,C., and a Virgin America flight to San Francisco. In early April, it added a United flight to Richmond, Va., which was a new destination, and Hartford, Conn.
Since then, DIA has also added the following flights, which were not included in from April’s :
- May 4: Sun Country, a new carrier, to Minneapolis
- May 11: Lufthansa to Munich, a new international destination
- May 13: Frontier to San Antonio
- May 31: Frontier to Columbus, Ohio
- June 1: Delta to Los Angeles
- June 4: Air Canada to Montreal, a new international destination
- June 11: Southwest to Charleston, South Carolina; Norfolk, Virginia; and Buffalo, New York, all new destinations
- June 16: Frontier to Pittsburgh
- June 22: Frontier to Washington/Dulles
Denver has the third-largest domestic network in the United States behind Atlanta and Chicago but has a lower percentage of international traffic, Stegman said.
Based on total passenger traffic, DIA is the sixth-busiest airport in the U.S. and 19th in the world, according to preliminary 2015 Airport Council Rankings.
