If universal sighs of relief are not being heard in the Mile High City these days, there is good reason. The troubles of the sparkling new air hub may have just begun. Critics call it a monument to civic boosterism run amok-and predict it will be as troublesome to run as it was to build. Wary airlines are thinking of taking their business elsewhere, leaving hapless Denverites to foot the bill for their own hubris. “This isn’t a white elephant,” says critic Michael Boyd of Aviation Systems Research Corp., a Denver-based company. “It’s Audrey the Plant: ‘Feed me. Feed me. Feed me’.”
The DIA’s excesses are not hard to see, even from a distance. The artfully peaked terminal looms up like a futuristic tepee city on the 53 square miles of prairie northeast of the city. No simple, square buildings here. The sci-fi theme continues inside, where a high-speed underground train an a four-lane superhighway of moving side walks whisk passengers along to the gates. The DIA provides other travel necessities as well: scores of upscale boutiques, cactus gardens and, of course, a $7.5 million art collection. As for the DIA’s notorious $232 million automated baggage system, it has only been half tamed. The good news is that it now manages to sort luggage rather than shred it. The bad news: it serves only United, and only outbound flights at that. Everyone else gets stuck with old fashioned baggage handlers.
Self-styled urban visionaries the DIA’s supporters missed the big picture while focusing on details. The new airport is a 40minute ride from downtown (compared with 20 minutes for Stapleton, Denver’s serviceable but soon-to-be-mothballed old airport), and there are no hotels for miles around. The planners also ignored warnings about the locale. Critics said the soil was too unstable to support runways; in fact, some have already cracked and had to be injected with industrial-strength glue. The land itself presented a delicate problem: it was sacred ground for the ancestors of local Native American tribes, who protested until given permission to perform purifying rites. Finally, there’s the niggling question of money. The DIA was originally supposed to cost $1.7 billion. But mismanagement, untested technology and unrealistic cost estimates pushed the final price closer to $5 billion.
Ultimately, travelers will have to pay this inflated bill. Trouble is, there may be too few of them. Ten years ago the Federal Aviation Administration predicted that Denver would see 52 million passengers by 1995. The actual figure last year was just 33 million. Such lower-than expected demand has helped drive the DIA’s costs per passenger up to $16.50–significantly higher than the $8 national average, or the $7 previously charged at Stapleton. United Airlines, which will carry about two thirds of the DIA’s traffic, has responded by raising fares by $40. Other airlines are balking, though. American has agreed to a month-to-month lease only. Continental now wants four gates, instead of the 20 that it contracted for. Low-cost Southwest is shunning the DIA completely.
For the cameras, city representatives continue to speak optimistically. Aviation director Jim DeLong insists that the new airport’s “efficiency” will help the airlines make up whatever they lose in higher fees. But behind the scenes, Denver officialdom is getting panicky. Already, Standard & Poor’s has downgraded the city’s airport bonds to junk status. And last week the citv filed suit against Continental for breach of contract. lf Denver can’t scare the airlines into staying put, the city’s taxpayers may be paying for their sleek 21st-century airport well into the next millennium.
After more than a year of costly delays, Colorado’s new, $4.9 billion international airport is set to open Feb.28. At 53 square miles, it will be the largest in North America.
Aircraft will be able to land simultaneously on three parallel runways; 99 aircraft per hour. The absence of crossing runways reduces chance of collision.
With a translucent fiberglass, the terminal houses ticket counters, restaurants, specialty shops.
22 gates for Continental and other airlines.
United’s luggage will be bar-coded and placed in carts automatically routed along with conveyor belts. The system winds for 20 miles beneath terminal and concourses at speeds up to 20 mph–faster than the conventional system the other airlines will use for now.
20 gates for nonhub carriers including American and USAir.
327 feet tall; highest in the country; designed so airport can stay open in severe weather.
45 gates for United Airlines–United’s second largest hub.
$85 million Automated Guideway Transit System runs every two minutes; the one-mile ride from the terminal to Concourse C is expected to take five minutes.
