Tomorrow will be the official "ribbon cutting" for both A West and B East extensions.

Also, TK reiterated their intent to serve DEN in their latest investor stuff.

And I saw a random rumor on FlyerTalk that IST would be formally launched this week. Speculation on my part, but could IST launch be part of tomorrow's ribbon cutting???

Either way, I'm excited to finally get to see A West in all it's glory.

mkorpal333 wrote:

Tomorrow will be the official "ribbon cutting" for both A West and B East extensions.

Also, TK reiterated their intent to serve DEN in their latest investor stuff.

And I saw a random rumor on FlyerTalk that IST would be formally launched this week. Speculation on my part, but could IST launch be part of tomorrow's ribbon cutting???

Either way, I'm excited to finally get to see A West in all it's glory.

Maybe they announce IST this week, but zero chance that they launch it this week.

The mile high city with the mile long concourse.

Just flew thru DEN today and checked out B East. I personally like the sterile, white and clean look of the place. Solid surface floors are much better choice than carpet any day. The outside deck is a nice touch along with the outdoor pet relief area.

Not sure why the decorators went with big, leather couches with no arm rests between the seats because the hippies were already sleeping on them. That isn't going to end well. The big, single-seat lounge chairs looked comfy but not the most efficient use of space when seating is always at a premium.

The signage is really sharp.

When will the Concourse Renewal Program that was approved back in 2020 for an additional $560 million begin?

The new A expansion looks nice from all the pictures and press coverage that I've seen today. Can't wait to see it fully fitted out with all the new consessions and forthcoming UA Club. I hope I get a chance to see it when I'm in DEN for the holidays.

Do we have any idea on whether UA is going to prioritize certain flights/destinations out of A vs. B? It would seem natural for the LHR/FRA/MUC/NRT flights to depart out of A now. I could see a case either way for the flights to other domestic hubs to be in A or B (A for a more exclusive feel, or B to be closer to more connecting flights.) I wonder if this also increases the MCT for DEN on UA.

TWA772LR wrote:

intotheair wrote:

It would seem natural for the LHR/FRA/MUC/NRT flights to depart out of A now

Just depends on where the inbound for those outbounds comes in from. This past winter, FRA and LHR inbounds we're towed over from A on most days for their respective TATL departures. Plus intl gates are at a premium in Denver right now. Hopefully the next serious project deals with expanding FIS.

The reason I singled those flights out is that they're pretty much all on 787s, and those 787 flights seem to mostly swap out between international segments at DEN rather than domestic turns. I could be wrong, but it seems like most of the 787s are flying to and from international destinations ex-DEN. There don't seem to be a ton of domestic turns on 787s from DEN. Keeping all the inbound LHR/FRA/MUC/NRT flights and departing LHR/FRA/MUC/NRT on A could be worth it to save the hassle of towing.

On the other hand, pretty much all of the UA 777 flights in and out of DEN are domestic birds going to other hubs or Hawaii, so I could see how those might stick to the center B gates.

TWA772LR wrote:

intotheair wrote:

TWA772LR wrote:

Just depends on where the inbound for those outbounds comes in from. This past winter, FRA and LHR inbounds we're towed over from A on most days for their respective TATL departures. Plus intl gates are at a premium in Denver right now. Hopefully the next serious project deals with expanding FIS.

The reason I singled those flights out is that they're pretty much all on 787s, and those 787 flights seem to mostly swap out between international segments at DEN rather than domestic turns. I could be wrong, but it seems like most of the 787s are flying to and from international destinations ex-DEN. There don't seem to be a ton of domestic turns on 787s from DEN. Keeping all the inbound LHR/FRA/MUC/NRT flights and departing LHR/FRA/MUC/NRT on A could be worth it to save the hassle of towing.

On the other hand, pretty much all of the UA 777 flights in and out of DEN are domestic birds going to other hubs or Hawaii, so I could see how those might stick to the center B gates.

It makes sense and you are right. There are some hub turns on the 787s but they're not that frequent. It's just A gates are so few for widebody and international capable. Are there any new intl WB gates built in the new A expansion? Even NBs would be some relief.

The entire north side of the A expansion is FIS connected WB gates.

TWA772LR wrote:

intotheair wrote:

TWA772LR wrote:

Just depends on where the inbound for those outbounds comes in from. This past winter, FRA and LHR inbounds we're towed over from A on most days for their respective TATL departures. Plus intl gates are at a premium in Denver right now. Hopefully the next serious project deals with expanding FIS.

The reason I singled those flights out is that they're pretty much all on 787s, and those 787 flights seem to mostly swap out between international segments at DEN rather than domestic turns. I could be wrong, but it seems like most of the 787s are flying to and from international destinations ex-DEN. There don't seem to be a ton of domestic turns on 787s from DEN. Keeping all the inbound LHR/FRA/MUC/NRT flights and departing LHR/FRA/MUC/NRT on A could be worth it to save the hassle of towing.

On the other hand, pretty much all of the UA 777 flights in and out of DEN are domestic birds going to other hubs or Hawaii, so I could see how those might stick to the center B gates.

It makes sense and you are right. There are some hub turns on the 787s but they're not that frequent. It's just A gates are so few for widebody and international capable. Are there any new intl WB gates built in the new A expansion? Even NBs would be some relief.

International flight won’t leave A until United builds a Polaris lounge on the Concourse. As far as I am aware, that is not in the plans.

jetskipper wrote:

TWA772LR wrote:

intotheair wrote:

The reason I singled those flights out is that they're pretty much all on 787s, and those 787 flights seem to mostly swap out between international segments at DEN rather than domestic turns. I could be wrong, but it seems like most of the 787s are flying to and from international destinations ex-DEN. There don't seem to be a ton of domestic turns on 787s from DEN. Keeping all the inbound LHR/FRA/MUC/NRT flights and departing LHR/FRA/MUC/NRT on A could be worth it to save the hassle of towing.

On the other hand, pretty much all of the UA 777 flights in and out of DEN are domestic birds going to other hubs or Hawaii, so I could see how those might stick to the center B gates.

It makes sense and you are right. There are some hub turns on the 787s but they're not that frequent. It's just A gates are so few for widebody and international capable. Are there any new intl WB gates built in the new A expansion? Even NBs would be some relief.

International flight won’t leave A until United builds a Polaris lounge on the Concourse. As far as I am aware, that is not in the plans.

A Polaris Lounge is in the long term plans, but it does not mean anything for departing international flights from A.

A few photos from the A West opening yesterday. Domestic flights should start next week with International arrivals starting not to long after that.





A24 will be a temporary Delta gate until next year and American moves to C.

codc10 wrote:

jetskipper wrote:

TWA772LR wrote:

It makes sense and you are right. There are some hub turns on the 787s but they're not that frequent. It's just A gates are so few for widebody and international capable. Are there any new intl WB gates built in the new A expansion? Even NBs would be some relief.

International flight won’t leave A until United builds a Polaris lounge on the Concourse. As far as I am aware, that is not in the plans.

A Polaris Lounge is in the long term plans, but it does not mean anything for departing international flights from A.

No, but for transoceanic flights I feel United would prefer to have Polaris Lounge access available near the departure gate for their most profitable customers.

jetskipper wrote:

codc10 wrote:

jetskipper wrote:

International flight won’t leave A until United builds a Polaris lounge on the Concourse. As far as I am aware, that is not in the plans.

A Polaris Lounge is in the long term plans, but it does not mean anything for departing international flights from A.

No, but for transoceanic flights I feel United would prefer to have Polaris Lounge access available near the departure gate for their most profitable customers.

But there's no Polaris lounge at DEN, so I don't know why that's relevant.

jetskipper wrote:

codc10 wrote:

jetskipper wrote:

International flight won’t leave A until United builds a Polaris lounge on the Concourse. As far as I am aware, that is not in the plans.

A Polaris Lounge is in the long term plans, but it does not mean anything for departing international flights from A.

No, but for transoceanic flights I feel United would prefer to have Polaris Lounge access available near the departure gate for their most profitable customers.

They do currently tend to have the Europe departures at gates closest to the open United Club.

303dk wrote:

jetskipper wrote:

codc10 wrote:

A Polaris Lounge is in the long term plans, but it does not mean anything for departing international flights from A.

No, but for transoceanic flights I feel United would prefer to have Polaris Lounge access available near the departure gate for their most profitable customers.

They do currently tend to have the Europe departures at gates closest to the open United Club.

well, there is only 4 gates that can handle it, so its currently limited.

Some of the new A West gates have comically bad design. Chairs and/or tables/counters drilled into the floor a few feet in front of gate podiums or getting out into the cue areas to board. Seriously. Speculation that construction was so rushed so the Mayor could hold to his ribbon-cutting that crews just threw down furniture without any care. Maybe only way to explain otherwise brain dead design.

jerrydj wrote:

Some of the new A West gates have comically bad design. Chairs and/or tables/counters drilled into the floor a few feet in front of gate podiums or getting out into the cue areas to board. Seriously. Speculation that construction was so rushed so the Mayor could hold to his ribbon-cutting that crews just threw down furniture without any care. Maybe only way to explain otherwise brain dead design.

The picture upthread of A24 shows how terribly designed the furniture is. Who puts a charging table five feet in front of the gate podium???

alasizon wrote:

jerrydj wrote:

Some of the new A West gates have comically bad design. Chairs and/or tables/counters drilled into the floor a few feet in front of gate podiums or getting out into the cue areas to board. Seriously. Speculation that construction was so rushed so the Mayor could hold to his ribbon-cutting that crews just threw down furniture without any care. Maybe only way to explain otherwise brain dead design.

The picture upthread of A24 shows how terribly designed the furniture is. Who puts a charging table five feet in front of the gate podium???

I imagine that it is because the gate was not designed for Delta, and United is using new gate layouts in DEN. Once the gate is turned over to UA the layout will probably make more sense.

atlflyer wrote:

When will the Concourse Renewal Program that was approved back in 2020 for an additional $560 million begin?

I too am wondering this. The old main concourses need a serious update these days

ChetManly24 wrote:

atlflyer wrote:

When will the Concourse Renewal Program that was approved back in 2020 for an additional $560 million begin?

I too am wondering this. The old main concourses need a serious update these days

Yes and no. The center cores are generally in good shape other than the restrooms. The other concourse areas need floor, lighting, restrooms at minimum. The FIS area is really bad too and could benefit from a full re-think of the traffic flow. They should also look at adding restrooms into the international baggage claim.

DEN looking to triple Customer Facility Charge

https://www.9news.com/amp/article/trave ... cb92852e85

If it actually goes towards a consolidated rental car facility, I’m all for it as the current rental car situation is a disaster.

DEN2021 wrote:

DEN looking to triple Customer Facility Charge

https://www.9news.com/amp/article/trave ... cb92852e85

If it actually goes towards a consolidated rental car facility, I’m all for it as the current rental car situation is a disaster.

This is not towards a consolidated facility, that could be a future increase based on the airport press release.
https://www.flydenver.com/sites/default ... 0CFC_0.pdf
All press releases: https://www.flydenver.com/about/media_c ... s_releases

"One project DEN is currently evaluating is a future consolidated rental car facility (ConRAC). Most other large U.S. airports have moved to a ConRAC for increased customer service, efficiency and sustainability as transport to the facility could be consolidated either through shuttles or another form of transportation. A ConRAC would allow DEN to better adapt to changing market shares within the rental car industry as space would be flexible and easier to size up or down. Additionally, it would enhance the customer experience by becoming a one-stop-shop for rental cars. Once a determination is made as to whether DEN plans to move ahead on a ConRAC project at some point in the future, any further adjustment to the CFC rate will be evaluated."

Looks like DEN-NRT is being pushed back to March 3 and will be 3x weekly instead of daily.

https://www.aeroroutes.com/eng/221119-ua1q23jp

I passed through DEN for Thanksgiving and thought I'd share my insights and perhaps some pictures and things that were overlooked with the original coverage of the opening of the new A gates.

The whole thing looks nice, but I can't help but think that it all feels really soulless. It's nice to see new gates, but the all-white, the lack of concessions (for now), and the boarded-up white walls hiding the concessions and club spaces just makes the whole thing feel really...blank. It's strictly about new gate space at this point, and all the bells and whistles will come later. I also was hoping from looking at all the sketches and preview pictures that the outdoor deck would be bigger than the one on B, but that doesn't appear to be the case.

I'm guessing this will be the UA Club right around Gate A25:



A peek above the construction wall, and it looks like it'll be quite the space:



I'm guessing the other big core is going to be either a big restaurant space or perhaps another club. I don't really understand what this area is at the very far end. There's a stairway and a pedestrian bridge above the main concourse leading up to more space on the second level. It's all roped off for now. I'm guessing maybe they'll put more restaurants up there?



New meets old. I wonder if they'll get rid of that overhang when they remodel the old gates. Speaking of, it looked like one of the DL gates was being remodeled and was heavily walled off, but still operational (not pictured.)



I understand that they probably wanted to get these new gates online ASAP rather than waiting for the concessions to be done, but this is really a poor passenger experience, and a sad sign like this is no remedy.



Also, looks like they're making good progress on the new security. Speaking of, if you get dropped off on the departures level on the west side near the north end near the old BA/LH counters, it's not an easy walk down to the north security anymore. You have to walk back all the way around Terminal East through the Southwest check-in. If you have TSA Pre and are looking to use North Security, I almost think it might be better to get dropped off exclusively on the east side these days.

intotheair wrote:

I passed through DEN for Thanksgiving and thought I'd share my insights and perhaps some pictures and things that were overlooked with the original coverage of the opening of the new A gates.

The whole thing looks nice, but I can't help but think that it all feels really soulless. It's nice to see new gates, but the all-white, the lack of concessions (for now), and the boarded-up white walls hiding the concessions and club spaces just makes the whole thing feel really...blank. It's strictly about new gate space at this point, and all the bells and whistles will come later. I also was hoping from looking at all the sketches and preview pictures that the outdoor deck would be bigger than the one on B, but that doesn't appear to be the case.

I'm guessing this will be the UA Club right around Gate A25:



A peek above the construction wall, and it looks like it'll be quite the space:



I'm guessing the other big core is going to be either a big restaurant space or perhaps another club. I don't really understand what this area is at the very far end. There's a stairway and a pedestrian bridge above the main concourse leading up to more space on the second level. It's all roped off for now. I'm guessing maybe they'll put more restaurants up there?



New meets old. I wonder if they'll get rid of that overhang when they remodel the old gates. Speaking of, it looked like one of the DL gates was being remodeled and was heavily walled off, but still operational (not pictured.)



I understand that they probably wanted to get these new gates online ASAP rather than waiting for the concessions to be done, but this is really a poor passenger experience, and a sad sign like this is no remedy.



Also, looks like they're making good progress on the new security. Speaking of, if you get dropped off on the departures level on the west side near the north end near the old BA/LH counters, it's not an easy walk down to the north security anymore. You have to walk back all the way around Terminal East through the Southwest check-in. If you have TSA Pre and are looking to use North Security, I almost think it might be better to get dropped off exclusively on the east side these days.

The concessions as a whole is a complete failure in my opinion. In B West which opened 2 years ago they have still not even started construction. From recent experience with concessions being built out they take at least 12-18 months. This means that B West will be nearly 4 years old before the concessions open, which is a bad passenger experience but also lost revenue for the airport. C and B East are in the same boat with zero progress on the new concessions, but the airport keeps saying they will be open in just a few months, I will be surprised if they are even all open by the end of next year.

As far as getting to North from the UA counters it is much easier to use the escalators to go downstair then you can easily walk to North that way skipping the east side.

GAP (Grupo Aeroportuario del Pacifico) and SECTUR MORELIA, they intend to open the route MLM-DEN-MLM and other

In addition, Aramburo Barrios stressed that it is intended to open new routes, traffic from Atlanta, Portland, Salt Lake City, Philadelphia, Seattle, Releigh-Durham and Denver to Morelia (MLM)

https://ultranoticias.com.mx/theme-feat ... rutas.html

DEN1895 wrote:

The concessions as a whole is a complete failure in my opinion. In B West which opened 2 years ago they have still not even started construction. From recent experience with concessions being built out they take at least 12-18 months. This means that B West will be nearly 4 years old before the concessions open, which is a bad passenger experience but also lost revenue for the airport. C and B East are in the same boat with zero progress on the new concessions, but the airport keeps saying they will be open in just a few months, I will be surprised if they are even all open by the end of next year.

I suppose at least on the upside, a lot of the new A extension is walled off in the concession areas. Perhaps there's work going on in there? They announced all kinds of splashy restaurant names from what I remember. Hopefully we see some of that soon. I guess I should also give credit that the UA mini club in B-East opened on day one, but it looks like there are some vacant concession spaces elsewhere in B-East too.

I wonder how much this decision to have almost no concessions open when the concourse expansions opened was motivated by politics. I can't help but think that there must have been some pressure to rush opening all these concourse expansions "on time" after the whole blunder of the Great Hall Project. It's a contrast, for example, to EWR's new terminal, which has been delayed for some time but appears to be on track to be fully functional when it opens next week.

One other thing I just thought of: why is there no art anywhere? I thought it was city law that a certain percentage of the budget of all public works projects had to be set aside for artwork. One of the things I loved about DEN when it opened was all the different works of art, sculptures, and exhibitions dotted all over the terminal and concourse. Sure, a handful of them attracted some minor but vocal controversy, but it still made the airport an interesting place. There's nothing at all to look at with the sterile white everywhere in the new areas. You could plop these new gates as-is into any city and they would belong.

intotheair wrote:

You could plop these new gates as-is into any city and they would belong.

I’ve been saying that since the first part of the new checkin area opened. It’s cold, bland, and completely anonymous - quite the departure from the “we must make this distinctively Colorado” original airport design that I personally love. I don’t speak for everyone, but I know that I would’ve rather they updated the original design for today’s reality than made it into another white-walled glass and steel structure.
I also would’ve just settled for things to be clean. I was in the bathrooms in the C extension today and it was predictably filthy and already has broken faucets and soap dispensers. I wish I could say I’m surprised, but it is one of the most mismanaged airports in the US from a facilities perspective. It has been for years.

GerRodriguez wrote:

GAP (Grupo Aeroportuario del Pacifico) and SECTUR MORELIA, they intend to open the route MLM-DEN-MLM and other

In addition, Aramburo Barrios stressed that it is intended to open new routes, traffic from Atlanta, Portland, Salt Lake City, Philadelphia, Seattle, Releigh-Durham and Denver to Morelia (MLM)

https://ultranoticias.com.mx/theme-feat ... rutas.html

That’s an airport wish list, like many others, wouldn’t read to much into it

intotheair wrote:

DEN1895 wrote:

The concessions as a whole is a complete failure in my opinion. In B West which opened 2 years ago they have still not even started construction. From recent experience with concessions being built out they take at least 12-18 months. This means that B West will be nearly 4 years old before the concessions open, which is a bad passenger experience but also lost revenue for the airport. C and B East are in the same boat with zero progress on the new concessions, but the airport keeps saying they will be open in just a few months, I will be surprised if they are even all open by the end of next year.

I suppose at least on the upside, a lot of the new A extension is walled off in the concession areas. Perhaps there's work going on in there? They announced all kinds of splashy restaurant names from what I remember. Hopefully we see some of that soon. I guess I should also give credit that the UA mini club in B-East opened on day one, but it looks like there are some vacant concession spaces elsewhere in B-East too.

I wonder how much this decision to have almost no concessions open when the concourse expansions opened was motivated by politics. I can't help but think that there must have been some pressure to rush opening all these concourse expansions "on time" after the whole blunder of the Great Hall Project. It's a contrast, for example, to EWR's new terminal, which has been delayed for some time but appears to be on track to be fully functional when it opens next week.

One other thing I just thought of: why is there no art anywhere? I thought it was city law that a certain percentage of the budget of all public works projects had to be set aside for artwork. One of the things I loved about DEN when it opened was all the different works of art, sculptures, and exhibitions dotted all over the terminal and concourse. Sure, a handful of them attracted some minor but vocal controversy, but it still made the airport an interesting place. There's nothing at all to look at with the sterile white everywhere in the new areas. You could plop these new gates as-is into any city and they would belong.

I wonder how much of the delay in concessions is just getting people interested. I heard there was already a shortage of workers willing to drive to DIA to work at a McDonald's, and now they need to open dozens more concessions? They could be promising things that are out of the airport's control.

cosyr wrote:

intotheair wrote:

DEN1895 wrote:

The concessions as a whole is a complete failure in my opinion. In B West which opened 2 years ago they have still not even started construction. From recent experience with concessions being built out they take at least 12-18 months. This means that B West will be nearly 4 years old before the concessions open, which is a bad passenger experience but also lost revenue for the airport. C and B East are in the same boat with zero progress on the new concessions, but the airport keeps saying they will be open in just a few months, I will be surprised if they are even all open by the end of next year.

I suppose at least on the upside, a lot of the new A extension is walled off in the concession areas. Perhaps there's work going on in there? They announced all kinds of splashy restaurant names from what I remember. Hopefully we see some of that soon. I guess I should also give credit that the UA mini club in B-East opened on day one, but it looks like there are some vacant concession spaces elsewhere in B-East too.

I wonder how much this decision to have almost no concessions open when the concourse expansions opened was motivated by politics. I can't help but think that there must have been some pressure to rush opening all these concourse expansions "on time" after the whole blunder of the Great Hall Project. It's a contrast, for example, to EWR's new terminal, which has been delayed for some time but appears to be on track to be fully functional when it opens next week.

One other thing I just thought of: why is there no art anywhere? I thought it was city law that a certain percentage of the budget of all public works projects had to be set aside for artwork. One of the things I loved about DEN when it opened was all the different works of art, sculptures, and exhibitions dotted all over the terminal and concourse. Sure, a handful of them attracted some minor but vocal controversy, but it still made the airport an interesting place. There's nothing at all to look at with the sterile white everywhere in the new areas. You could plop these new gates as-is into any city and they would belong.

I wonder how much of the delay in concessions is just getting people interested. I heard there was already a shortage of workers willing to drive to DIA to work at a McDonald's, and now they need to open dozens more concessions? They could be promising things that are out of the airport's control.

DIA and a lot of the vendors at DIA are having trouble with staffing right now. I'm sure staffing is a contributing factor in opening delays but doubt its the only reason.

panam330 wrote:

intotheair wrote:

You could plop these new gates as-is into any city and they would belong.

I’ve been saying that since the first part of the new checkin area opened. It’s cold, bland, and completely anonymous

It matches the rest of Denver (and I work in downtown Denver)

SEA wrote:

panam330 wrote:

intotheair wrote:

You could plop these new gates as-is into any city and they would belong.

I’ve been saying that since the first part of the new checkin area opened. It’s cold, bland, and completely anonymous

It matches the rest of Denver (and I work in downtown Denver)

I’ve lived here for the majority of the past 15 years. Downtown is as bland as they come, but there are some unique pockets in the rest of the city. As identifiable structures in Denver go, the Jepp’s tents are a high note - which speaks volumes.

intotheair wrote:

DEN1895 wrote:

The concessions as a whole is a complete failure in my opinion. In B West which opened 2 years ago they have still not even started construction. From recent experience with concessions being built out they take at least 12-18 months. This means that B West will be nearly 4 years old before the concessions open, which is a bad passenger experience but also lost revenue for the airport. C and B East are in the same boat with zero progress on the new concessions, but the airport keeps saying they will be open in just a few months, I will be surprised if they are even all open by the end of next year.

I suppose at least on the upside, a lot of the new A extension is walled off in the concession areas. Perhaps there's work going on in there? They announced all kinds of splashy restaurant names from what I remember. Hopefully we see some of that soon. I guess I should also give credit that the UA mini club in B-East opened on day one, but it looks like there are some vacant concession spaces elsewhere in B-East too.

I wonder how much this decision to have almost no concessions open when the concourse expansions opened was motivated by politics. I can't help but think that there must have been some pressure to rush opening all these concourse expansions "on time" after the whole blunder of the Great Hall Project. It's a contrast, for example, to EWR's new terminal, which has been delayed for some time but appears to be on track to be fully functional when it opens next week.

One other thing I just thought of: why is there no art anywhere? I thought it was city law that a certain percentage of the budget of all public works projects had to be set aside for artwork. One of the things I loved about DEN when it opened was all the different works of art, sculptures, and exhibitions dotted all over the terminal and concourse. Sure, a handful of them attracted some minor but vocal controversy, but it still made the airport an interesting place. There's nothing at all to look at with the sterile white everywhere in the new areas. You could plop these new gates as-is into any city and they would belong.

I don't believe that any of it came down to politics, just poor planning by the Concessions group at the airport. All of the contracts went to City Council over a year ago. The only area that does not have a concession under contract is B East as they gave part of the area up to the UA club. The airport should have started the contract process back in 2019 when all the expansions were under construction. Every other airport that has new terminal or concourse openings in this year have all had concession under construction by the time they are open. As I mentioned B West shows how poorly things are going, physically there has been nothing stopping the construction from starting. A West was the most rushed out of the 4 projects as there are still many areas of the concourse that are not finished. The current concession areas are being used by the construction crews to finish the actual building. Besides B West, the other 3 expansion area were technically late from the timeline set when construction started.

As far as the art there is still the requirement that 1% of the budget must be spent on artwork, but the process just recently started. This will be the same for the concourse expansions and the Great Hall which should hopefully add some interest into the structures. So far only the piece for B East has been announced so far, and comically it is not in the expansion but rather in the existing concourse near the entrance to the expansion. Based off how long things seem to take, maybe all the artwork will be installed before the end of the decade.

panam330 wrote:

intotheair wrote:

You could plop these new gates as-is into any city and they would belong.

I’ve been saying that since the first part of the new checkin area opened. It’s cold, bland, and completely anonymous - quite the departure from the “we must make this distinctively Colorado” original airport design that I personally love. I don’t speak for everyone, but I know that I would’ve rather they updated the original design for today’s reality than made it into another white-walled glass and steel structure.
I also would’ve just settled for things to be clean. I was in the bathrooms in the C extension today and it was predictably filthy and already has broken faucets and soap dispensers. I wish I could say I’m surprised, but it is one of the most mismanaged airports in the US from a facilities perspective. It has been for years.

Yeah, I'm surprised that I've arrived at the same reaction as you. To be fair, I think a lot of the design decisions they made were objectively good. Making the concourses wider, the clerestory, and the additional windows in the holdrooms were all good decisions. I think it's also good that the exteriors match the existing structures pretty well. I even think the gleaming white and the new yellow signage look sharp. It's just that there's absolutely nothing else to look at, and the lack of concessions is an even more glaring omission now that all the expansions have opened.

It's almost as much of a screw-up if instead, they didn't have operational restrooms yet and told everybody to just hoof it and go back to the existing concourses if they needed to find a bathroom. Strictly adding more gates and nothing else immediately doesn't really do anything to improve the passenger experience.

I was looking at a map of DIA, and looking at the space to the North of the terminals. Is trust area intentionally held in reserve for an additional terminal should future growth warrant it?

NameOmitted wrote:

I was looking at a map of DIA, and looking at the space to the North of the terminals. Is trust area intentionally held in reserve for an additional terminal should future growth warrant it?

I assume you mean the areas north of Concourses A/B/C - yes, as I recall the original airport plan allows for a theoretical Concourse D with no issues. Concourse E would require moving hangars. Whether the tunnel was extended that far, I don't remember. I'm sure someone here knows more.

This is from the master plan from a few years ago contrasting the original plan for the airport and what the airport now prefers to do. You can make out existing structures, including the train tunnel, in dark grey. I believe the train maintenance facility is currently just short of about where Concourse D would be.



The original plan was simple: terminal expansion to the south, concourse (gate) expansion to the north through additional Concourses D and E. Now, the preferred plan is to still expand the terminal to the south (yes, it can be done, even with the hotel as it currently stands), but to build new concourses east and west of the terminal. However, that still wouldn't prevent them from building Concourses D and E should they find some way of making it work with a significantly upgraded train system.

Thank you both.

Flew out of C this morning (12/28). Noticed that the area between C38 and C32 is walled off and demo work is happening. Could tell it is in the demo phase from the noise as well as large pieces being moved out.

ytib wrote:

Flew out of C this morning (12/28). Noticed that the area between C38 and C32 is walled off and demo work is happening. Could tell it is in the demo phase from the noise as well as large pieces being moved out.

Those gates will become AA's new gates when they move to C Con.

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