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Page 18B— COLORADO REAL ESTATE JOURNAL — June 17-June 30, 2015
B y 2022, China will
have more than 630
million middle-class
citizens, spending $3.4 trillion
annually according to Dominic
Martin for The Diplomat. As
China opens its doors for out-
of-country travel by its citizens,
airlines are gearing up for
one of the greatest tourist
waves ever recorded. Bigger
airplanes, greater attention to
the “customer experience,” new
signage to direct international
passengers, and increased
language fluency from airline
personnel will be engaged in
the coming competition for new
flyers.
Each year, Denver
International Airport executes
a strategic marketing plan
focusing on particular airlines
that, in DIA’s estimation, are
a good fit to provide service.
When evaluating new service
from DIA, here are a few facts
and myths to consider:
1. China doesn’t fit into
Colorado’s current economic
strategy, despite the fact
that DIA also don’t have a
nonstop flight to Shanghai
or Beijing. Colorado is not
a major manufacturing state
and doesn’t have a seaport for
exports. While many Chinese
will soon enter the middle class,
economically, we are better off
pursuing them as tourists than
as investors.
2. Coloradans want
nonstop flights to Paris.
So does the Metro Denver
EDC. The problem remains
that developing business
relationships with French
companies has been a challenge
over the past 30 years. Our
inability to establish strong
business ties with France didn’t
stop concerns about the lack of
nonstop flight to Paris. So, when
Icelandair announced plans to
open a new flight from Denver,
our region saw opportunity.
Icelandair flies to Reykjavik
daily, but also connects to 18
European locations, including
Paris.
3. Hub-to-hub flights work
best for passengers and air
carriers alike. The Star Alliance,
of which United Airlines is
a member, helps member
airlines maximize schedules,
share revenue, and increase
efficiencies. DIA’s attraction
efforts pursue Star Alliance
members as the first choice
for new routes. DIA is a
great connecting hub for all
airlines, but particularly so for
nonstop international flights.
Forty percent of DIA traffic
is comprised of origin and
destination passengers.
4. DIA focuses its energy
on existing carriers: British
Airways’ success at DIA, along
with United, Lufthansa,
Icelandair, Air Canada,
Frontier, and Volaris. British
Airways, a member of the One
World Alliance, is particularly
important because the UK is
Colorado’s largest international
flight market. United is
crucial because its Tokyo flight
connects Colorado to Asia.
5. Lufthansa’s Frankfurt flight
is one of the airline’s most
profitable routes, with Colorado
passengers connecting across
Central Europe through this
important gateway. A nonstop
flight to Munich failed when oil
prices reached $140 a barrel a
decade ago, but DIA continues
its efforts to reinstate this flight.
But why does our region
still pursue new international
flights? Because we have
been doing it from the very
beginning of Denver City. In the
1800s, if a city didn’t have a port
– a river or an ocean – it was
destined to be a second-tier city.
The absence of a port gave
rise to the Denver Board
of Trade’s creation, raising
$300,000 to build a rail spur
to Cheyenne, Wyoming,
connecting the Front Range to
the Transcontinental Railroad,
and securing the region’s
economic future for over 150
years.
Since that auspicious
beginning, the Denver Metro
Chamber of Commerce and
its economic development
affiliates such as the Metro
Denver Economic Development
Corp. have pursued ports.
The minutes of one Chamber
board meeting in the early
1900s alluded to connecting
the Atlantic and Pacific oceans
through Denver with a rail link
to Galveston, Texas, at the Gulf
of Mexico. In the 20th century,
Phil Anschutz’s purchase of
the ATSF and Southern Pacific
railroads finally accomplished
this long-sought goal,
connecting the two oceans with
one continuous rail line.
In the 1930s, Denver Mayor
Ben Stapleton saw commercial
aviation as our port. Ridiculed
for his purchase of land from
his cousin at Rattlesnake Gulch,
Stapleton was exonerated in
the 1970s when Stapleton
International became one of the
10 busiest airports in the nation.
DIA originally was planned
as a connecting hub. Planners
estimated that 40 percent of
passengers would be origination
and destination (O&D) with
60 percent connecting through
DIA. But DIA’s impact on the
region’s economy turned that
projection, literally, 180 degrees.
Access to the entire nation, and
eventually the globe, grew the
Colorado economy dramatically
in the 1990s, resulting in
DIA becoming a 60 percent
O&D market and 40 percent
connecting passengers.
As we celebrate DIA’s 20th
anniversary, we realize that
while we take great pride in our
beloved airport, soon to connect
to downtown by rail, that we are
part of an ongoing narrative
of reaching to new markets by
creating our own ports. With
capacity for 12 runways (DIA
has six runways today), our
future as a great port appears
safe for another century, and
ready to receive a whole new
group of global tourists eager
to spend time in our beautiful
state. And, with Lockheed
Martin and United Launch
Alliance’s successful launch of
Orion last December, we seem
to be positioning ourselves
to play a significant role for
another port – Mars.
MetroDenver EconomicDevelopmentCorp.
Tom Clark
CEO, Metro Denver Economic
Development Corporation