|
Aviation & Flight InformationDenver's European connection
by:
Alain Mengus
DENVER'S EUROPEAN CONNECTION
DIA is an unusual US airport, as it is one of the largest in the country, but amazingly it is well behind smaller airports for its international
traffic. The City Hall and the aerodrome authorities have been trying to build a booming strategy of international development since the early 1990s.
Denver International Aerodrome (DIA) opened on 28 Feb 1995, replacement the old forced Stapelton airport. The goal was clear: ensuring the development of the local market and economy by providing room for expansion to airline carrier such as United Airlines. It had since become one of the busiest airports of the nation. But despite this success, the city had yet to secure any non-stop service to Europe, which would-be boost the airport's traffic, and was important to for the city of Capital of colorado and the whole Rocky Mountains region to gain a global reputation and recognition.
During the early 1990s, no European airline was present at DIA, and Continental Airlines had born
its Honolulu-Denver-London way departure Denver's travelers with the only resolution of a 1st connection before reaching the Old Continent. Europe's largest single market, London, was evidently the prime target of DIA. Despite initial contacts in 1990s, it's not until 01 Gregorian calendar month 1998 that British Airways landed at Capital of colorado for the 1st time. The traffic would-be have been satisfying with two yearly peak periods with sport season in the Rocky Mountains (March), and the summer holidays (July and August). United Airlines, Denver's dominant carrier with a 70+% market share intended to launch European flights from its Capital of colorado hub, and it proclaimed it would-be launch a flight to London in Apr 2000. But the airline was not granted rights, and had to look elsewhere in Europe: a link to Frankfurt, the main base of UA's European partner Lufthansa was almond-eyed by several airlines and extremely
supported by the aerodrome authorities, proposing up to US$1 million in advertising incentives. Lufthansa initiated a daily service on 25 March 2001, receiving the US$1 million in marketing incentives and a US$700,000 landing fees waiver.
Denver aerodrome is well-known for being an "hot'n'high" airfield, which has led to several technical problems for the operators, since the lift capacity of the airplanes is decreased. Airplanes either need to reduce their fare-paying payload -- and lose revenue -- or accelerate to a high speed -- which requires longer runways. In Denver's case, no runway was long enough for the heavy airplanes taking-off bound for Europe. The 1st idea the management found was to implant the lights placed at the end of the runway into the ground to lengthen the existing runways (nearly 90ft gained). This has already diminished the technical restrictions, but a new 16,000ft runway is under construction and wish be among the longest on earth for commercial use.
DIA hopes that these 1st links to Europe wish show the way to another carriers, notably Air France from Paris, to place the aerodrome in the US' top airports and do Capital of colorado a much attractive place to do business.
Just about THE AUTHOR
Alain Mengus has contributed to various aviation publications and his the webmaster of AirTransportBiz.com/ He lives in Paris, France.
| |
