Denver International Airport will be “constantly changing” with $12.8 billion projects for new runways, gates
Once the final Great Hall phase of DIA's $2.1 billion overhaul is finished in 2027, DIA officials said they'll begin more upgrades to handle a projected 120 million travelers a year by 2045.
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Colorado leaders on Thursday celebrated 30 years of growth at Denver International Airport where even as one big project wraps up, travelers will find themselves in near-constant construction in the years ahead.
Once the final Great Hall phase of DIA’s $2.1 billion overhaul is finished in 2027, DIA officials said they’ll begin more upgrades — costing roughly $12.8 billion — to handle a projected 120 million travelers a year by 2045. Airport chief executive Phil Washington reminded about 500 attendees at a 30th anniversary luncheon that DIA, “blessed with 53 square miles of land” will have “room enough” for more than the current six runways. “We have the capacity for 12,” Washington said.
Planning is underway to add a seventh runway before 2035, which would give DIA one of the largest airfields, and an eighth by 2045.
Inside, travelers over the next five years must accommodate an expansion of DIA’s Concourse C, and construction to expand the north side of DIA’s white tent-roofed terminal to hold more gates, new ticketing facilities, security and international baggage claim areas.
DIA’s chief construction and infrastructure officer Jim Starling said the $12.8 billion estimate covers the next 12 years.
“It’s going to be constantly changing,” Denver City Councilman Kevin Flynn concluded after the luncheon, recalling regular construction that travelers faced at Denver’s old Stapleton Airport.
At the luncheon, attendees looked back at city decisions to replace Stapleton with DIA, which opened in 1995 with a capacity of handling 50 million passengers. Gov. Jared Polis hailed DIA as “a key part of Colorado’s economic success.” It employs more than 40,000 workers.
Futurist Crystal Washington delivered the keynote address at the celebration, challenging attendees to reflect on how “the rate of change is increasing” and embrace adaptation.
“The key to being future-forward is not to know everything right now and not being ‘caught-up’,” she said. “It is being open and being imaginative and remembering that technology exists to serve people.”
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