Denver Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Briefing on DEN Workplan, May 6, 2026
Denver Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Briefing on DEN Workplan, May 6, 2026
The Transportation and Infrastructure Committee met on May 6, 2026, at 1:30 PM in the City & County Building, room 391, with Chair Shontel Lewis presiding. The committee received a briefing on the Denver International Airport (DEN) 2026 Workplan and considered six consent items. Four members were present (Alvidrez, Kashmann, Lewis, Romero Campbell) and four were absent (Flynn, Gilmore, Hinds, Sandoval).
Consent Calendar
- 26-0585: Dedicates a City-owned parcel as Public Right-of-Way (North Yates Street) in Council District 3. Approved by consent.
- 26-0586: Dedicates two City-owned parcels as Public Right-of-Way (West 10th Avenue and a public alley) in Council District 3. Approved by consent.
- 26-0589: Amends a contract with Perkins Eastman Architects, D.P.C., adding $3,157,676 for a new total of $11,018,638 and extending the end date to June 3, 2028, for Loretto Heights Parking Garage and Arrival Plaza design and construction administration in Council District 2. Approved by consent.
- 26-0591: Amends the Master Operator Agreement with McKinstry Essention, LLC, adding $5,340,000 for a new total of $52,100,000 and updating Exhibit H for Renewable Denver Community Solar I, citywide. Approved by consent.
- 26-0594: Amends a contract with AMES CONSTRUCTION, INC., adding $14,409,718.85 for a new total of $16,118,863.06 and adding 377 days for a new end date of November 27, 2027, for Buchtel and Colorado Improvements project construction services in Council District 6. Approved by consent.
- 26-0599: Approves a Master Purchase Order with Camfil USA, Inc. for $5,000,000 over two years with three one-year options to provide HVAC filters and kits for DEN in Council District 11. Approved by consent.
Briefing: Denver International Airport 2026 Workplan
Phillip A. Washington, DEN CEO, and his team presented the airport's annual workplan, highlighting Vision 100 (targeting 100 million annual passengers by ~2032) and Operation 2045 (targeting 120 million annual passengers by the airport's 50th anniversary). Key points included:
- DEN handled 82.4 million passengers in 2025, far exceeding its original design capacity of 50 million. The airport contributes $47.2 billion annually to the local economy and hosts 1,200 companies with 43,000 employees.
- The Great Hall program (budget $2.1 billion) is ahead of schedule and under budget, expected to finish by late 2027 (six months early). It includes the Global Gateway, Welcome Home Colorado area, and the Living Room.
- Peña Boulevard improvements are in the NEPA process, with public scoping ongoing; environmental approval expected by Q2 2028.
- A consolidated rental car facility (CONRAC) is in pre-construction planning with 16,000–18,000 spaces; a separate transportation system (e.g., automated people mover) will connect it to the terminal. Lessons from other airports include keeping the CONRAC and transport as separate projects and planning for EV capability rather than all-electric.
- C-West expansion is the last concourse expansion possible; a small business is leading the project with a large contractor as sub under a mentor-protégé agreement.
- North Terminal expansion (blue-roofed facility, construction 2028–2033) will add airline counters and security, with walkable concourses (25 gates each) to reduce reliance on the train.
- Baggage handling system upgrades are ongoing with TSA grant funding for screening machines and conveyor recapitalization, expected to take at least five years.
- The Automated Guideway Transit System (AGTS) fleet is being expanded (26 new cars delivered), with remaining fleet replacement, power distribution upgrades, and maintenance facility expansion.
- Asset management includes condition assessments every five years; 70 miles of underground piping inspected to date.
- Alternative energy RFI closed March 31, 2026, with 38 submissions from global firms covering battery storage, solar, small modular reactors, geothermal, etc. DEN aims to be the world's first zero-emission airport.
Council members asked about wayfinding during construction, the impact of Spirit Airlines' closure (no impact, as it stopped serving DEN years ago), security throughput improvements (30% increase per lane per hour), the timeline for a direct flight to Africa (Ethiopian Airlines to Addis Ababa possible within 2–3 years, likely with a technical stop), and small business inclusion in contracting (applied in C-West RFP).
Key Outcomes
- The briefing was received; no vote was taken on the workplan.
- All six consent calendar items were approved by consent.
- The meeting adjourned following the consent vote.
Meeting Transcript
19 different countries. We are home to about 1,200 different companies that work at Denver with more than 43,000 employees. And as you know, Den is the largest economic engine and contributes 47.2 billion dollars annually to the local economy. Our vision reflects our aspiration to emerge as the nation's preeminent aviation thought leader. Our mission underscores that we rely upon our people to accomplish our goals. We value our people a lot. And our near-term strategic plan is called Vision 100. And that is part of an overall larger strategy called Operation 2045. Operation 2045 is really the second phase of our strategic plan. Vision 100 will get us up to 100 million passengers annually. And operation 2045, we expect about 120 million passengers annually, and that just happens to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the airport. Vision 100 includes four different pillars. Secondly, we are growing our infrastructure to be able to accommodate those loads that I spoke of. The third pillar is maintaining what we have and finally expanding our global connections. And one of our goals is to get a nonstop flight to the continent of Africa. I do want to point out the upper orange or red bar up at the top. Those are our four guiding principles, and they really talk about how we guide our work or we behave while we're at work. We value sustainability, sustainability and resiliency, equity, diversity, inclusion, and accessibility, operational excellence, and enhancing the customer experience. And of course, safety falls into operational excellence. Safety is a high priority for it. Uh shows really a timeline of what Vision 100 and Operation 2045 look like and how they work together. So you'll see that we expect to be at about 100 million passengers in roughly 2032. And again in 2045, we expect to be at about 120 million passengers annually. Again, I mentioned we had 82.4 million annual passengers last year. And when you put that into perspective, it's really remarkable because the airport was originally built for 50 million annual passengers. Last year we did 82.4 million passengers. So we're very, very busy as you all know. The Great Hall is kind of our our um our main focus right now to accommodate that growth. Some successes within that program. The West Security Checkpoint opened in February of 2024, and I'm going to show you a little bit of what a six success that was. And uh we really we reached the 50% completion mark in August of last year, 2025. In January of this year, we opened the Center of Equity and Excellence in Aviation with a ribbon cutting ceremony, and that again was on January 7th of this year. There are some new air service developments along with the one that I just spoke of. Viva Aerobus inaugurated nonstop service to Monterey, Mexico. Air Lingus began nonstop service to Dublin. Breeze Airways began service to Providence, Rhode Island, and Turkish Airlines began nonstop service to Istanbul. We're very proud of those, all of those routes. And again, I mentioned the 47.2 billion dollars contributed annually to our economy. I mentioned the new uh security checkpoints. And this graph uh does a study that CDOT did for us and shows that we are you know a significant economic contributor to this region. ACI, Airport Council International is our trade group, one of our trade groups, and they conduct quarterly customer satisfaction surveys. Uh, and we subscribe to that and uh along with many other airports. Um, customers will rate their experience uh on a five-point scale at each of those airports. And this what this graph shows is that our security checkpoint scores uh were not great. If you remember the congestion that we had in the terminal, uh we had very long security lines, and then in quarter one, we opened up that West Security Checkpoint, and you can see an immediate increase uh on that blue line. Um, and again, this is customer satisfaction, but uh almost immediately we saw an increase in customer satisfaction. Um we got a similar bump when we opened the e-security checkpoint. Uh so our customers are telling us that they really appreciate the work that we've done, and uh we have increased about 18% uh over what our scores were prior to the opening of that checkpoint. Um that was the West security checkpoint. When we opened the East Security Checkpoint, we got another 12% bump uh in that score.
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