Relatively Low International Air Traffic at DIA

Denver International Airport (DIA) was the 5th busiest airport in the United States in 2006 based on the number of passengers on non-stop flight segments originating in Denver per data from the Bureau of Transportation Statistics (http://www.transtats.bts.gov/).

Total Passengers on Non-Stop Flights in 2006

by Originating U.S. Airport

However, as I have flown in and out of Denver over the years, I have always noticed how relatively few international flights DIA has compared to other large airports in the United States. According to the DIA website 18 international cities can be reached from DIA via non-stop flights including London, England, Frankfurt and Munich, Germany and numerous cities in Canada and Mexico. (see http://www.flydenver.com/diabiz/info/research/faqs.asp for the complete list). The Munich flight was just launched in March of 2007. Denver is working to initiate direct flight services to Tokyo and Beijing in Asia.

When you look at the BTS data, it turns out that although Denver is the 5th busiest overall airport in the United States and the 4th busiest airport in terms of originating domestic non-stop passengers, it is only the 22nd busiest airport in the United States in terms of originating passengers on international flights.

Domestic Passengers on Non-Stop Flights in 2006

by Originating U.S. Airport

International Passengers on Non-Stop Flights in 2006

by Originating U.S. Airport

Per the two tables immediately above, there is clearly a large drop off from being the 4th busiest airport in terms of domestic non-stop passengers to being only 22nd busiest for international passengers. This large disparity between international and domestic air traffic densities at DIA merits analysis and discussion which I plan to provide in a future blog entry.