Planning a visit to Denver? Park your car at the nearest offsite airport parking lot and prepare for an adventure that will start when you step into the Denver International Airport, the eleventh busiest airport in the world serving over 52 million passengers a year.
Mention Denver International Airport (DIA) to any longtime Coloradan and reactions will run from pride to anger. Since its inception and building in the mid-nineties, DIA has been both a point of controversy and an impressive example of modern technology.
A New Location
In the 1990s the city of Denver decided to close the old Stapleton International Airport and build a better, bigger world-class airport. The city decided to build the airport on the plains east of Denver.
Stapleton International Airport (the previous airport) was a good airport that had been built 65 years before but it had outlived its usefulness. The runways were too few and too small for the types of flights that were needed to make Denver truly a player on the international travel stage. Besides, Denver had grown by leaps and bounds and the airport was now in the middle of the city, surrounded by many residential areas, and it caused a lot of noise.
The new location is 25 miles from the city and seemingly in the middle of nowhere. There is plenty of room for expansion, with DIA anticipating the ability to eventually serve over 100 million travelers a year. Denver residents, however, continue to be unhappy with the location.
Design
At first glance, DIA looks like a bunch of white tents parked on the plains. The design by Curtis W. Fentress is intended to mirror the front range of the Rockies which provide a magnificent panorama to the west. The roof is made of Teflon-coated fiberglass and supported by a system of cables similar to the ones used on the Brooklyn Bridge.
Entrance to DIA is through the Jeppesen Terminal, named after aviation safety pioneer Elrey Jeppesen. The open, airy hall contains a food court with sit-down restaurant, as well as various shops. All security screening is done in the terminal and then subway trains whisk passengers to the concourses for their flights. Arriving passengers take the same trains into the terminal where baggage claim, ground transportation, and passenger pickup are easily accessible. Though it seems somewhat inconvenient when a tired traveler arrives, the system has been lauded as one of the most efficient in the world.
