When Denver International Airport CEO Phil Washington announced the Vision 100 plan in 2021, he expected the airport to reach 100 million annual passengers by 2032.

Now, with a significant spike in Denver-based travel — with 36.5 million passengers in the first half of 2023, a 13.6% increase from the first half of 2022, to be exact — that 100-million milestone looks to become the annual norm by 2027.

The retooling and expansion needed to keep up with that demand is being pushed along the track.

“We’re on this accelerated timeline to keep up with the growth,” Washington said in a quarterly media briefing Wednesday. This timeline includes the Great Hall Project, a rebuilding of facilities like restrooms, new check-in areas and a new security checkpoint.

Washington harkened it to renovating a house while you are still living in it. 

The new west security checkpoint will open on Feb. 6 of next year, promising to help speed up wait times and get up to 250 people through each lane every hour using new technology like remote luggage scanners.

The creation of a new checkpoint will shut down the other side, though. Once the west check point opens, the airport will shut down the north side to create the east checkpoint — a copy of the new western version. 

Washington said the opening of one will help make up for the closing of the other, keeping wait times the same, if not faster, than before.

“We see a huge improvement on the horizon and we ask that the public bear with us as we retrofit the airport. I’ve been around a lot of construction sites. This is a construction site. … The alternative is to do nothing and have people stacked up in this airport with outdated facilities.”

The Great Hall Project was estimated to be done by 2028, but Washington said work is ahead of schedule.

Operation 2045 

DIA isn’t stopping with its Vision 100 plan, though. The airport is already looking to the far future and the next milestone — 120 million passengers annually. 

Washington announced the genesis of Operation 2045 during the briefing. Researchers believe the airport will reach 120 million annual passengers by 2045, the 50th birthday of the airport.

“We feel that it is important for us to begin to lay the foundation for the infrastructure that is needed to accommodate 120-plus million at this airport in 2045,” Washington said.

The plan involves four new concourses that will allow for 25 new gates per concourse — 100 new gates in total. The operation also involves a new processing area on the southside of the airport and a consolidated car rental area.

The new concourses will be built in phases. Two will be built on the north end and two on the south. Eleven more gates will also be added to Concourse C in the future. 

Regarding transportation to the new concourses, Washington stated they will be walkable. That does not mean the trains will be neglected, though.

“One of the big vulnerabilities of the airport is the train,” Washington said. While he noted the train is operational 99.5% of the time, he said it’s “chaos” when it does go down. 

New cars will begin to come in throughout next year and will be added to the existing train, from four to six. These new cars will add capacity and reliability. He also said that the platforms may be retrofitted once annual passengers gets over 100 million.

The airport asked for ideas from the private sector — like engineering firms and startups — on backup concourse transportation in 2022. Washington notes that those ideas have been looked over and pondered, but creating a backup that stretches from concourse A to C — whether a gondola or moving walkway — is pricey.

Regardless, with Denver being the third-busiest airport in the country, Washington and crew know that improvements to infrastructure need to be made. 

“When I hear people say you’re not preparing the airport for future years, yes, we are,” Washington said.