Why is Denver’s Airport So Busy?
When you think of “American cities with major airports,” places like Los Angeles, Miami, New York, and Chicago would probably come to mind. But, there’s an airport busier than all of those somewhere you might not expect - Denver.
That’s right, the metro of 3 million people - that’s smaller than places like Minneapolis and Tampa - is home to the fourth busiest airport in the United States, after Atlanta, Los Angeles, and Dallas-Fort Worth. This puts it in 6th place globally, outpaced by Dubai, London, and Tokyo.
This begs the question - why? Denver is a pretty populated area, with a substantial amount of business and tourism, but both of those measures are far higher in places like Las Vegas, Boston, and Chicago. The answer lies in it’s location.
Denver is positioned at the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, 300 miles West of the center of the Contiguous United States. This makes it perfect for connecting travel, which 44.6% of the 82 million passengers do. Coastal airports, like New York and Los Angeles have more long haul connections, rather than regional hops (though they definitely exist). Within the Rocky Mountain/Great Plains region, Denver (alongside Chicago, farther East) is the de facto hub airport. Denver holds 26 unique EAS routes, as well as dozens of regional flights outside of the Essential Air Service. It’s the easiest hub from where you can connect to some of America’s most popular ski destinations, like Vail, Aspen, and Jackson Hole.
Denver really has the corner on this market. The nearest sizable hub to KDEN is in Salt Lake CIty, on the other side of the Rockies. It’s a Delta stronghold, but nowhere near as big as Denver. To the south in this general part of the country there’s Dallas and Phoenix, both American hubs, but those are both over 500 miles away. To the North and East, you have Minneapolis (another Delta fortress) and Chicago (home to major operations for United and American), but those are even farther.
DEN’s connection market isn’t just limited to the region, however. Its central location in the US makes it a prime spot for flying between smaller cities on both sides of the nation. For example, if you want to get from Reno to Providence or Fresno to Myrtle Beach, you could easily do that through Denver. It’s for this reason that Southwest and Frontier have such major operations in Denver. Neither of those airlines is particularly focused on local travel, or regional hops (though they certainly do operate within those markets, like Southwest’s flights to Colorado City or Frontier’s to Vail). Instead, they aim to connect passengers from all over through the central hub of Denver.
