Growing up in Colorado I've been to this airport 50+ times. The more you go the less hectic it seems to you. It's always a surreal experience landing at any other airport in the world and it being so quiet and calm, it's quite fascinating.
Definitely one of the more efficient American airports I've been through, when in a long security line I don't think I stood in one spot for longer than 5 seconds
I’m a Phoenix native, but DIA is one of my favorite airports in the country I just love everything about it… The enormous scale, the distinctive roof of the main terminal, the layout with the concourses connected by underground train, the efficiency of it, the wacky & conversation-starting artwork, etc
Everyone keeps on forgetting about how some of the land was owned by mayor Federico Peña’s former law firm. I know investigators found Peña was far enough removed not to create a conflict but that’s one heck of a coincidence.
It's definitely controversial, but it means they built the airport so it could accommodate those *LONG* runways and also is not a noise pollution problem because the airport is so far away from the center of town.
I've lived in the Denver area all my life, and DIA has been there for all of it. I'm pretty sure it's so big just because that's the best way to build an airport. Compare it to any one of New York's THREE airports and the difference becomes clear.
Denver is convenient for aircraft operations, but much like Dulles, it feels like passenger needs were an afterthought in the terminal design. The bathrooms always have long lines spilling out, the design is ugly and sterile, the trams don't have enough capacity, and the gates are pretty sprawling. The airport lacks seating for people outside of security (sucks if you're waiting for friends coming in on another flight), and the security layout is ridiculous. I don't know if forcing people into a 6-foot-wide hallway is an intentional design, or something temporary, but it's a terrible layout. I'd rather deal with JFK or Logan any day.
I work at Denver international airport for the city of Denver and we are projecting that the airport does 1 million passengers through the airport sometime within the next 10 years.
This is my home airport, and I've been there for what seems like thousands of times, so every video that gets posted about it seems incredibly personal LOL 😂
Denver has probably the best airport in the country. You can fly literally almost anywhere from there being nearly in the middle of nation. You can fly to all those little airports in Montana as well as all the major cities. If you have to travel all over the nation, this is the place to live.
Don't overlook the affect Cargo flights have had. All the major freight carriers have facilities at DEN. It's a hub for DHL, UPS, USPS, FedEx, Amazon, United Cargo, Southwest Cargo, etc. There is a huge number of cargo flights in and out of DEN, more every year.
I can't believe that we got through this entire video and you didn't once mention that the concourses are so far apart you need to take a train to get between them!
Well just about every big airport has a train including Atlanta, San Francisco, Denver, and Seattle. It's more about moving mass amounts of passengers between the concourses and terminal fast. It takes less than 10 minutes to get from the main terminal to concourse C by train while it would take way longer if you walked. There is a pedestrian bridge from the terminal to concourse a. They are talking about adding pedestrian bridges between (a and b) and (b and c). Right now they are replacing the 7-8 trains with new and improved trains and are talking about making each train 1-2 cars longer to move more passengers at once and improved and speed up service. They are also talking about adding more concourses in the near future. Right now they are expanding the current concourses. To walk from one end of concourse b to the other is almost a full mile (0.8 miles to be exact).
@@UpBassPlayeryeah but most airports allow you to walk between concourses but DIA only lets you walk by foot to A gates. You HAVE to take the train to B and C gates which is annoying af especially when it’s busy
Having been to DIA and Hartsfield, the width of the alleys between concourses at DIA substantially larger than at Hartsfield of the United terminal at Chicago-O'Hare. I've been on American flights that could not push back from gates on Concourse T, because of traffic taxiing on the alley between T and A. That can't happen at DIA, because of the increased space. Despite United being headquartered in downtown Chicago, it's adding more seats and flights at DIA than at ORD.
DEN is bigger because it's a "hot & high" airport with unpredictable winds and weather. It needs more runways with more length and directional variety compared to ATL.
The government is subsiding carriers to use this airport. DIA has the cheapest gate fees, cheapest terminal fees, cheapest hanger fees, more slots. Carriers use it as a hub because it saves them lots of money vs any other airport. No one is flying to denver, but all the carriers are using that airport to save money. Kansas city would have made more sense, location wise for a hub like that. It is pretty obvious it was built to conceal a military base. Thus they ensure carriers have the cheapest fees so they will use it.
It is also a mile high. You need runways over 3 miles long so that long-haul flights can take off unrestricted. The entirety of the airport is in Denver, but it's actually closer to Aurora than downtown Denver. It's also why Adams County is nearly cut in two (to place the entirety of the airport in Denver city limits).
Of course UA-cam serves me this video within an hour of me passing thru DIA for the last time for the foreseeable future! It's quite an airport and I'm glad to see them making the much-needed infrastructural changes as traveller numbers continue to grow
One of the critical elements that made it possible for Denver to be a "hub" is that modern airplanes can now take off in the rarified air with more fuel. When we were traveling from Stapleton to Frankfurt yearly the plane (DC10, old 747...) in the 70's and 80's we would have to land in Minneapolis because it didn't have enough fuel to make the full trip. Returning was no problem. In the summer it gets quite toasty in Denver and the air is simply too thin for a full load. That seems to have been fixed now as we can go straight in.
I live about 15 minutes from DIA and after dozens of flights in and out I have it down to a science. Mostly fly Southwest and they have a beautiful new terminal there. With TSA pre check it usually isn’t too bad getting through security. Before I got it there were times when security could take a really long time. For a first timer DIA can be pretty intimidating. Safe travels everyone 😎
Despite the long lines for security at DEN/DIA, they are very efficient and move surprisingly fast. I recently flew DEN to LAX and back. When I got to DEN (via the train from downtown Denver), the line for security was so long it snaked around towards baggage claim. There were at least 300 people ahead of me. Nonetheless, I waited no more than 12 minutes before it was my turn to go through security. A minute or two later I was on the train heading to my concourse. My experience at LAX couldn't have been more different. When I arrived at the terminal for my airline at LAX (after fighting traffic) there were maybe two dozen people ahead of me in the security line. Even so, it took a good 45 minutes for security to get through those 24 people ahead of me! I'll take the long, yet efficient, security lines at DEN over the short, chaotic, and inefficient lines at LAX any day!
For now yes, but the terminal has been under construction for years and they're working on adding more security checkpoints. It stalled out for a while and it was just a giant maze, but in the last year or so they've finally started making good progress and we should start seeing some of those new checkpoints within the next year or two. But as someone else pointed out, the lines do move quick, they just stretch on forever.
By the replies I've seen stating the regular line in quick, perhaps the next time I check in at DEN I'll go through the regular TSA line. Overall, I like DEN.
It’s insanely big because of what’s underneath it, but we’re apparently not allowed to discuss that because it’s a “conspiracy theory”….just like how cell phones listening to our conversations was a conspiracy theory.
Frontier used to be a Colorado based airline with mid range quality and nice perks (and some really good fresh baked cookies). After they sold off to some whoever from whocares they really took a dive. Now they're just ass with wings. Pay the extra money and fly United.
I worked at DIA when it was being built, I was a heavy equipment operator, the place was in the middle of nowhere! So not to disturb the public with noise, then people built homes right up to it and now complain about the noise, it’s stupid just dumber.
I remember when Cheyenne Wyoming was the Main Airport in the region, an served as United's HQ prior to building Stapleton. I also seem to recall when research was being done as to where to locate the new airport for the Rocky Mountain front range, the recommendation was to build it closer to Cheyenne due to cost. That way it would be more centrally located and could provide easy drive time from Scottsbluff NE, Laramie and Cheyenne Wyoming, Ft Collins, Loveland, Greeley Colorado, and other small town, and eliminate or reduce the need to maintain Airports in those cities. Denver would have use high speed rail to get passengers to and from the cites in the Denver Metro Area, but Pena who was in charge of making decisions for the Federal government at the time, and was from Colorado, forced the issue to build it outside of Denver at a considerable increased cost.
It was built in denver to cover us a new military base. That is it. That is also why the government subsidizes the airport so it has the lowest fees. Airlines save a lot of money using denver vs other airports. They have the lowest gate fees, terminal fees, hanger fees, fuel costs, etc.
Loved in colorado my whole life, 21 years. My uncle took part in construction efforts and my dad has worked here as a flight attendant for about 25 years. Hes met wo many celebrities, including a hero of his, Buzz Aldrin, who is not a fan of autographs, by the way. Its weird that every airport ive flown to doesnt have loghtrails to get across the airport. I thought that was the norm, but no, i was just born near the countries biggest airport and one of the largest in the world.
DIA is the 3rd busiest airport in the country and the 6th busiest in the world. It's on track to have 80 million passengers in 2024. It needs to be big to handle the growth. Pena knew Colorado would grow , and he had the foresight to locate the airport where it had room to grow.
DIA was built before 9/11 designed with pre-9/11 security in mind. The idea was to have an airport hub where people connecting to another flight could take a train to the terminal where there is a large 2 story open mall that would be lined with quality retail and restaurants on two levels. That mall is now filled with nothing but security and a few businesses along the sides. No one with any sense comes to the main terminal between flights where they would have to go back through security...how the world has changed since 9/11.
Feels a bit like a B-grade high school essay. The video manages to present the ideas it sets out to but is hampered by lots of superfluous and somewhat juvenile language that doesn't flow super well or fit this genre. The graphs at the beginning make no sense at all either. I don't feel like I got as much tangible info out of this as I'd expected.
Fun fact the head of the mustang statue fell on the creator killing him making the son finishing the project and it has the largest comercial runway. Another interesting fact is that the Denver airport has about 20 layers under ground used for military purposes
To answer this question "Because they can" lol I guess but I really like the airport. It does take some time to taxi like more than O'Hare and DFW but the airport itself is legit. Concourse B is outstanding and with United being my primary airline it's a decent connection
That symbol far predates the German guy with the tiny moustache. It's long been a symbol of good fortune in Hindu and Buddhist cultures. In fact, the name commonly associated with the symbol is not German, but Sanskrit.
One budding problem is now they are building neighborhoods closer and closer to DIA, and the people that move there have the audacity to lodge noise complaints about all the airtraffic.
Lots of positive comments here. I don't completely agree. The security lines can be really long--usually, but not always, they're shorter if you walk the bridge to Concourse A. As with all airports, the parking isn't convenient, especially in the outer lots and when the weather is bad. The trains to the concourses are pretty good even when mobbed.
DIA currently has six, the longest of which is the longest commercially used runway in North America at 16,000 feet long. The airport is designed to accommodate 11 runways total.
looking at the terminal, it looks more like a bus terminal, have you seen the new Istanbul Airport? Singapore Changi? Dubai International? Qartar Hamad? I doubt DIA would be above them in terms of passenger experience
DEN is my home airport, and I have been to Changi recently. The actual terminals at Changi were fine, but I wouldn't say that they really stand apart compared to any of the more recent airports in the USA. The Jeppesen Terminal and many gate areas at DEN are a mess right now with the construction projects, but the areas that have been completed are generally slightly nicer than the equivalents I saw at Changi. Where Changi absolutely crushes any US airport is the Jewel. You have a real supermarket with normal-ish prices, not the limited selection and high prices you always see in US airport concessions. You have a beautiful greenhouse and waterfall. You have tons of great food options, including Singapore and other Asian cuisine and western cuisine too, with reasonable prices. You have a movie theater! The reality is that DEN probably wouldn't be able to make most of these amenities work because it overwhelmingly serves domestic flights. The Jewel works because many, many people have multi-hour connections in Changi on long-haul international flights, which makes a mall and amenities a natural fit. DEN has a lot of connecting traffic, but it is overwhelmingly shorter connections that are deliberately timed as part of flight banks. That's convenient if you want to get to your destination quicker (few people are going to want a 4 hour connection between domestic flights if they can avoid it) but it limits the sort of airport amenities that make sense financially.
@@BrianCairns different airports function differently based on their purpose, many airports like DXB, Chang-e, Swiss Airport, etc., all offer a wider customer experience rather than just being a terminal to wait for flights, I've been to LAX, JFK, DFW, it's just not close to having a great appeal to customer experience. Even Narita and Haneda just had so many gimmicks within the aiport to make your day super fun
DEN is my home airport and I fly out of it once every two weeks. I have also been to all the airports you have mentioned in the past year. Changi, DXB , Istanbul and Hamad are a single airline hub and mostly international transit airports. The passenger experience is a significant draw when people decide which airline to fly. I try and connect in Changi just to spend time at the Jewel. That’s not the case with Denver. Denver airport is a functional airport without any frills. It is huge but well laid out. Single terminal and getting between concourses is easy. Try making a tight connection between LAX international terminal and the one from where United operates. Or try taking the train at JFK with a cart full of luggage. You’ll appreciate how well laid out DEN is. The airport has its issues and the construction/ upgrades are addressing it . I also wish it had more direct flights to Asia and start services to Middle East.
It is covering up a government military base below it. That is 100% obvious based on what we know about the construction time. The busiest airport in the US is ATL with 7 sq miles. It is also a busy airport with gate transfers, not with arriving passengers. DIA does not need to exist as no one is actually flying to denver. Everyone is being subsidized to use it as a hub when no one needs to use it. Kansas City would have made way more sense for a hub. Then they put a temporary tent fabric roof on an airport with snow. But the tent roof allows them easily change the configuration underneath without anyone watching. Building this airport was the only way to hide construction of a large underground military base and hide all the deliveries and people arrivals. Satellites have no way of knowing what is for military operations and what is for the airport. The government is literally subsidizing everything at this airport. It is the cheapest for any carrier to use it as a hub, it has the cheapest gate fees, it has the cheapest land fees for hangers, it has the cheapest ticket fees for passenger transfers, it has the cheapest terminal fees, it has way more slots for aircraft and more gates than it could ever need. Any other military project is out in the open for satellites to view. This base cannot be seen or analyzed by satellites.
There is, we just aren't invited. They, to this day, are "constructing" and removing dirt. In the next twenty years they predict the airport will be out dated and defunct. Then they will build a new one. Leaving DIA as a cargo hub? Military? Anyone who knows knows they are still "constructing."
I would rather go to DFW than DEN because smaller flights in CO always end 5 miles out on the expanded jetways. Southwest Airlines is not a budget airline; it costs just as much as the others but offers less. With the delusion, you got a deal because you get to fight for a seat.
I hate when DIA is referred as Denver Airport. As a former local, it’s DIA or Denver International. I’ve flown in and out of DIA many times growing up and boarded out of every concourse. I gotta say, the best experience I had was on Concourse A flying with Frontier back in the 2000s. You didn’t need to go through the long TSA line and board the underground train. Concourse A where Frontier was had its own bridge and security. It’s probably different now.
I love the airport. But one problem with it (and many US airports too), is the fact that the Terminal Building itself is actually too small compared to the land of the airport occupies. US airports seem to be more catered to aircraft movements than passenger movements. The Jeppesen Terminal (while large by US standards) is quite small compared to Terminals in Asia and the Middle East. I flew through KDEN in 2012 and even back then, the security area appeared so cramped. And for such an airport, there are no Check-in Islands that are perpendicular to the terminal entrance and the Check-in area has low ceilings. Hopefully the 2045 upgrade will address this
Okay, this has to be something spit out by some kind of content mill, right? American style English language voice, but the English language data card at the beginning is using hat appears to be Indian/metric measurements? (I can't think of anywhere else that uses lakh.) I wonder if it was a largely AI generated script? Or was it generated by hand, shipped for a voice over and/or AI voiced, and churned out to capture ad revenue? What's the model here? Whatever it is, it would explain why the title card is so odd. "Why is Denver Airport so big?" is bad English. It should be "Denver's Airport" or "the Denver Airport" (which is still odd) or "Denver International Airport". It would also explain other linguistic quirks: "thrice" closely followed by "nine-times" is not a natural sentence composition. The comparison of DIA's 53 square miles to Kind Fahd's 6 stories is nonsensical. The use of a metric/metres based info card up front with a square-miles area is unnatural. The stats/graphs shown are to be unrelated to the voice over. The first one is the 2022 busiest airports by passengers normalized to Hartsfield-Jackson and entirely unrelated to size, and unsorted with entirely unlabeled axes. This data was published by the New York/New Jersey Port Authority in 2023. The second chart is obviously modified from a template that used a Monday-aligned week (the US largely uses Sunday-aligned weeks -that is listing days Sunday-Saturday on a calendar) and is similarly unlabeled and unsorted. The fact the video uses "DIA" is interesting too, though. It's various airport codes use "DEN" - DIA is a colloquialism. But, any script written by a fluent English writer wouldn't phrase sentences the way this video does. And the subtext on the "in this video we'll" section is not actually summarizing information in a correct manner, suggesting some kind of generated content is being copy-pasted or otherwise clipped from search engine snippets or similar. "Remember the old Stapleton International Airport" sounds like a local-news report doing an anniversary retrospective shortly after DIA opens. It's not appropriate language for the audience of this video, which has to be assumed to be non-local viewers who don't know anything about Stapleton. Add that to "The high altitude hovering over above about" is bad - though unfortunately common - grammar. But "5,400 feet" makes no sense. Denver is the mile-high city. Anyone using imperial units would cite the Airport as being "about a mile above sea level", which suggests a metric-first writer (for whom the number "5,280" is meaningless.) 5,400 feet. And, given that we're shown snowy/winter conditions in a section about long runways, that suggest a non-technical writer. The length of the runways is more important in Summer, when soaring temps cause the air to thin out, making take-offs much harder. And, the "residential areas" photo is from ~1900, not relevant, and clearly just stock footage. And, again, naming mistakes. "Adam County" instead of "Adams County" accompanied by a video clip (and audio) which is 25 years too late to be related to the Denver-Adams County land transfer deal used to create DIA. In fact, the man speaking in the clip is Erik Hansen, and Adams County Commissioner from 2010-2018. And then, the airport opening in '95 is tied to its current position as the third busiest airport in the US. Just, first quarter of the video, and it's one uncanny-valley-esque thing after another. I can't unsee it now. What's the motive here. What's the purpose? Where's the con or the catch or the grift?
Interesting how poor the international connections are to Europe and Asia. I've lived half my life in the Indo Pacific region, never flew from Denver despite that I go all over the US when I fly back.
The simple answer is, Denver’s previous airport was quickly surrounded by urban sprawl and was far too small for the size of the city. Because of this, they chose to build a new airport out in the middle of bumfuck no where, with a ton of space, enough to make an airport that would easily have enough capacity for decades to come.
Might want to check your geography, Denver is far from being in the central US. For instance, Denver to LA is a 2hr - 15min trip, while a flight from Denver to NY is 4hr and 10 min, not exactly a center starting point for either destination. Where as Dallas, which is far more centrally located in the US (but more south) a flight to NY is 3 hrs and 30 min and a flight to LA is 3 hrs - now that more like a central location and most likely why it outranks Denver in passenger volume.
It's not perfectly centrally located east-west, but to actually be "central" you have to be so in every direction so I wouldn't say Dallas is any better than Denver, it's just off in a different direction. Also, did some quick math and as long as you're going the same direction (because of winds, eastbound flights are shorter so you can't compare eastbound to westbound flights), the LA to NYC trip (not including layover) is still slightly faster through Denver (2h22 + 3h45 = 6h07) than Dallas (3h10 + 3h29 = 6h39). What I really think makes DFW outrank Denver slightly by passenger traffic is the size of the metro areas (8m vs 3m) and the age. DFW was built at a time when air travel was expanding much faster, giving it an instant leg up over Denver which opened 20 years later. Even now, Denver is still growing faster year over year than either DFW or Atlanta, and if people greatly preferred connecting through DFW because it's more central east-west I don't think that would be the case.
This video seems clueless about the embarrassing opening of DIA with a non-functioning baggage claim system, and the endless Great Hall re-construction that has plagued DIA passengers since 2018. Two contractors have come and gone, and the airport authority is currently “managing” the rebuild on its own. The Great Hall was supposed to be finished and running by 2022. It is now scheduled for completion by the end of 2027. Just in time for the same people to be planning the addition of 4 new terminals to be completed by 2045.
Blucifer (aka Blue Mustang) is one of the best things about DIA! It's a massive (32 feet tall), yet beautiful sculpture. And a definite conversation starter. Did you know the sculptor was killed when the massive head section fell on him? His children ended up completing the sculpture in his honor.
The city or the airport? Either one is one of the fastest growing right now - hard to call that a "nothing place" because they both clearly have something special.
Growing up in Colorado I've been to this airport 50+ times. The more you go the less hectic it seems to you. It's always a surreal experience landing at any other airport in the world and it being so quiet and calm, it's quite fascinating.
As someone who also grew up (and still lives in) Colorado, I can agree
This is true
Same
Definitely one of the more efficient American airports I've been through, when in a long security line I don't think I stood in one spot for longer than 5 seconds
I also grew up here and still live here, I totally agree
CO born and raised. All hail Blucifer
Hail the mighty Blucifer
I’m a Phoenix native, but DIA is one of my favorite airports in the country
I just love everything about it… The enormous scale, the distinctive roof of the main terminal, the layout with the concourses connected by underground train, the efficiency of it, the wacky & conversation-starting artwork, etc
Everyone keeps on forgetting about how some of the land was owned by mayor Federico Peña’s former law firm. I know investigators found Peña was far enough removed not to create a conflict but that’s one heck of a coincidence.
It's definitely controversial, but it means they built the airport so it could accommodate those *LONG* runways and also is not a noise pollution problem because the airport is so far away from the center of town.
@JimAllen-Persona dia’s baggage system is a laughing stock 😂
Exactly!
Wait, is that why the road to the airport is called east Peña
@@Somali_Salamander Yes indeed
As big as it is, it has one good feature: by the time you get to baggage claim, your baggage is waiting for you (or nearly there).
That’s actually not good when people steel luggage, especially now with crime rates on the rise in the USA
@@ytzpilot I thought crime was going down?
@@peterhindes56 crime rate is going down, but its still high
@@peterhindes56it’s Colorado and is a democrat state crime isn’t stopping
@@Honeylungs720 you're off your rocker.
I've lived in the Denver area all my life, and DIA has been there for all of it. I'm pretty sure it's so big just because that's the best way to build an airport. Compare it to any one of New York's THREE airports and the difference becomes clear.
I really miss Stapleton. It was so much better.
Denver is convenient for aircraft operations, but much like Dulles, it feels like passenger needs were an afterthought in the terminal design.
The bathrooms always have long lines spilling out, the design is ugly and sterile, the trams don't have enough capacity, and the gates are pretty sprawling. The airport lacks seating for people outside of security (sucks if you're waiting for friends coming in on another flight), and the security layout is ridiculous. I don't know if forcing people into a 6-foot-wide hallway is an intentional design, or something temporary, but it's a terrible layout.
I'd rather deal with JFK or Logan any day.
With so many runaways there is very rarely a wait to take off or land.
@@GeoMeridium Are we going to the same airport?
I work at Denver international airport for the city of Denver and we are projecting that the airport does 1 million passengers through the airport sometime within the next 10 years.
It did about 78 million people in 2023 making it the 6th busiest airport in the world.
@@robertmustell your right I ment to say 100 million not one.
I bet half of them are lizard people too!
Yes, the Lizard People.
@@vanzell1912Searching for them is a great way to spend time between connections.
This is my home airport, and I've been there for what seems like thousands of times, so every video that gets posted about it seems incredibly personal LOL 😂
The airport has an... interesting shape
Shaped like that due to wind. Denver gets some really nasty wind those 40-60 mile per hour gusts will get you
@@pacmanlives I don't think that's what he means
My Argentine grandpa is curious about the shape as well, because he keeps raising his hand every time they show an aerial shot of the airport
Yeah, it looks like a peace symbol used in Buddhism
@@eliotgarcia21 He knows what he means, lol, he's explaining why it has that shape.
I remember watching the parade of equipment when it opened.
Denver has probably the best airport in the country. You can fly literally almost anywhere from there being nearly in the middle of nation.
You can fly to all those little airports in Montana as well as all the major cities. If you have to travel all over the nation, this is the place to live.
Don't overlook the affect Cargo flights have had. All the major freight carriers have facilities at DEN. It's a hub for DHL, UPS, USPS, FedEx, Amazon, United Cargo, Southwest Cargo, etc. There is a huge number of cargo flights in and out of DEN, more every year.
I can't believe that we got through this entire video and you didn't once mention that the concourses are so far apart you need to take a train to get between them!
Well just about every big airport has a train including Atlanta, San Francisco, Denver, and Seattle. It's more about moving mass amounts of passengers between the concourses and terminal fast. It takes less than 10 minutes to get from the main terminal to concourse C by train while it would take way longer if you walked. There is a pedestrian bridge from the terminal to concourse a. They are talking about adding pedestrian bridges between (a and b) and (b and c). Right now they are replacing the 7-8 trains with new and improved trains and are talking about making each train 1-2 cars longer to move more passengers at once and improved and speed up service. They are also talking about adding more concourses in the near future. Right now they are expanding the current concourses. To walk from one end of concourse b to the other is almost a full mile (0.8 miles to be exact).
@@UpBassPlayeryeah but most airports allow you to walk between concourses but DIA only lets you walk by foot to A gates. You HAVE to take the train to B and C gates which is annoying af especially when it’s busy
@@crippleabatteries5031Yes, because it's big!
Atlanta Airport is the busiest in the world but only 7.5 sq mi - about 1/7th Denver. It's not even in the top 10 in size.
Having been to DIA and Hartsfield, the width of the alleys between concourses at DIA substantially larger than at Hartsfield of the United terminal at Chicago-O'Hare.
I've been on American flights that could not push back from gates on Concourse T, because of traffic taxiing on the alley between T and A.
That can't happen at DIA, because of the increased space.
Despite United being headquartered in downtown Chicago, it's adding more seats and flights at DIA than at ORD.
DEN is bigger because it's a "hot & high" airport with unpredictable winds and weather. It needs more runways with more length and directional variety compared to ATL.
The government is subsiding carriers to use this airport. DIA has the cheapest gate fees, cheapest terminal fees, cheapest hanger fees, more slots. Carriers use it as a hub because it saves them lots of money vs any other airport. No one is flying to denver, but all the carriers are using that airport to save money. Kansas city would have made more sense, location wise for a hub like that.
It is pretty obvious it was built to conceal a military base. Thus they ensure carriers have the cheapest fees so they will use it.
It is also a mile high. You need runways over 3 miles long so that long-haul flights can take off unrestricted. The entirety of the airport is in Denver, but it's actually closer to Aurora than downtown Denver. It's also why Adams County is nearly cut in two (to place the entirety of the airport in Denver city limits).
Of course UA-cam serves me this video within an hour of me passing thru DIA for the last time for the foreseeable future! It's quite an airport and I'm glad to see them making the much-needed infrastructural changes as traveller numbers continue to grow
53 sq mi is also larger than San Francisco, which is 49 sq mi.
One of the critical elements that made it possible for Denver to be a "hub" is that modern airplanes can now take off in the rarified air with more fuel. When we were traveling from Stapleton to Frankfurt yearly the plane (DC10, old 747...) in the 70's and 80's we would have to land in Minneapolis because it didn't have enough fuel to make the full trip. Returning was no problem. In the summer it gets quite toasty in Denver and the air is simply too thin for a full load. That seems to have been fixed now as we can go straight in.
I live about 15 minutes from DIA and after dozens of flights in and out I have it down to a science. Mostly fly Southwest and they have a beautiful new terminal there. With TSA pre check it usually isn’t too bad getting through security. Before I got it there were times when security could take a really long time. For a first timer DIA can be pretty intimidating. Safe travels everyone 😎
One thing about DEN. Get TSA Precheck. Regular TSA check line is long.
And plan to be there a solid 2 hours before your flight
Despite the long lines for security at DEN/DIA, they are very efficient and move surprisingly fast. I recently flew DEN to LAX and back. When I got to DEN (via the train from downtown Denver), the line for security was so long it snaked around towards baggage claim. There were at least 300 people ahead of me. Nonetheless, I waited no more than 12 minutes before it was my turn to go through security. A minute or two later I was on the train heading to my concourse.
My experience at LAX couldn't have been more different. When I arrived at the terminal for my airline at LAX (after fighting traffic) there were maybe two dozen people ahead of me in the security line. Even so, it took a good 45 minutes for security to get through those 24 people ahead of me!
I'll take the long, yet efficient, security lines at DEN over the short, chaotic, and inefficient lines at LAX any day!
For now yes, but the terminal has been under construction for years and they're working on adding more security checkpoints. It stalled out for a while and it was just a giant maze, but in the last year or so they've finally started making good progress and we should start seeing some of those new checkpoints within the next year or two. But as someone else pointed out, the lines do move quick, they just stretch on forever.
By the replies I've seen stating the regular line in quick, perhaps the next time I check in at DEN I'll go through the regular TSA line.
Overall, I like DEN.
@@WW-hr1hd You're right. I've been at DEN with long TSA lines but they keep it moving. Very efficient.
It’s insanely big because of what’s underneath it, but we’re apparently not allowed to discuss that because it’s a “conspiracy theory”….just like how cell phones listening to our conversations was a conspiracy theory.
Frontier used to be a Colorado based airline with mid range quality and nice perks (and some really good fresh baked cookies). After they sold off to some whoever from whocares they really took a dive. Now they're just ass with wings. Pay the extra money and fly United.
that pin at 0:16 seems a bit off...
Yea the voice also said thrice the size in the video 😂
I live right next to it. It’s not too off
I worked at DIA when it was being built, I was a heavy equipment operator, the place was in the middle of nowhere! So not to disturb the public with noise, then people built homes right up to it and now complain about the noise, it’s stupid just dumber.
I remember when Cheyenne Wyoming was the Main Airport in the region, an served as United's HQ prior to building Stapleton. I also seem to recall when research was being done as to where to locate the new airport for the Rocky Mountain front range, the recommendation was to build it closer to Cheyenne due to cost. That way it would be more centrally located and could provide easy drive time from Scottsbluff NE, Laramie and Cheyenne Wyoming, Ft Collins, Loveland, Greeley Colorado, and other small town, and eliminate or reduce the need to maintain Airports in those cities. Denver would have use high speed rail to get passengers to and from the cites in the Denver Metro Area, but Pena who was in charge of making decisions for the Federal government at the time, and was from Colorado, forced the issue to build it outside of Denver at a considerable increased cost.
It was built in denver to cover us a new military base. That is it. That is also why the government subsidizes the airport so it has the lowest fees. Airlines save a lot of money using denver vs other airports. They have the lowest gate fees, terminal fees, hanger fees, fuel costs, etc.
Loved in colorado my whole life, 21 years. My uncle took part in construction efforts and my dad has worked here as a flight attendant for about 25 years. Hes met wo many celebrities, including a hero of his, Buzz Aldrin, who is not a fan of autographs, by the way. Its weird that every airport ive flown to doesnt have loghtrails to get across the airport. I thought that was the norm, but no, i was just born near the countries biggest airport and one of the largest in the world.
Because there are so many angry spirits it must keep contained.
DIA is the 3rd busiest airport in the country and the 6th busiest in the world. It's on track to have 80 million passengers in 2024. It needs to be big to handle the growth. Pena knew Colorado would grow , and he had the foresight to locate the airport where it had room to grow.
Went there this month and oh boy its even has a subway train
Great Video, no idea how you got only 1k subscribers
Thanks for the kind words!
I always questioned why other airports didint have the metro thing lol
now i realise its just cause dia is so damn huge
Just landed at DIA yesterday and noticed the brand new floor is already cracking. Yikes!
DIA was built before 9/11 designed with pre-9/11 security in mind. The idea was to have an airport hub where people connecting to another flight could take a train to the terminal where there is a large 2 story open mall that would be lined with quality retail and restaurants on two levels. That mall is now filled with nothing but security and a few businesses along the sides. No one with any sense comes to the main terminal between flights where they would have to go back through security...how the world has changed since 9/11.
Fun fact: Denver is the backup US capitol. Enormous infrastructure lies beneath the airport.
I’ve been under multiple times and I don’t believe the theory anymore
It's the second Capitol because I believe the number of federal employees in the region is second only to the DC area.
We know why it's so big because there's aliens underneath and they need a big base :)
All your base are belong to us!
Did an AI or a very inexperienced human write this? 😴
It felt like propaganda for the airport at times to be honest
I couldn’t make it past the weird nonsensical charts at the beginning.
He’s started 2 months ago let him learn dude.
Feels a bit like a B-grade high school essay. The video manages to present the ideas it sets out to but is hampered by lots of superfluous and somewhat juvenile language that doesn't flow super well or fit this genre. The graphs at the beginning make no sense at all either. I don't feel like I got as much tangible info out of this as I'd expected.
Fun fact the head of the mustang statue fell on the creator killing him making the son finishing the project and it has the largest comercial runway. Another interesting fact is that the Denver airport has about 20 layers under ground used for military purposes
To answer this question "Because they can" lol I guess but I really like the airport. It does take some time to taxi like more than O'Hare and DFW but the airport itself is legit. Concourse B is outstanding and with United being my primary airline it's a decent connection
Looks like a logo that a German man liked
There are tons of conspiracy theories about DEN.
It is the most effective way to lay out the runways.
That symbol far predates the German guy with the tiny moustache. It's long been a symbol of good fortune in Hindu and Buddhist cultures. In fact, the name commonly associated with the symbol is not German, but Sanskrit.
he's austrian
One budding problem is now they are building neighborhoods closer and closer to DIA, and the people that move there have the audacity to lodge noise complaints about all the airtraffic.
Word !
Lots of positive comments here. I don't completely agree. The security lines can be really long--usually, but not always, they're shorter if you walk the bridge to Concourse A. As with all airports, the parking isn't convenient, especially in the outer lots and when the weather is bad. The trains to the concourses are pretty good even when mobbed.
dfw and ord have the most runways at 7 and 8 respectively which are both aa hubs
ORD is also a United hub (Chicago is where United has its HQ) as is DEN.
Terminal B (which is the one for United) is long but has a good layout.
DIA currently has six, the longest of which is the longest commercially used runway in North America at 16,000 feet long. The airport is designed to accommodate 11 runways total.
looking at the terminal, it looks more like a bus terminal, have you seen the new Istanbul Airport? Singapore Changi? Dubai International? Qartar Hamad? I doubt DIA would be above them in terms of passenger experience
DEN is my home airport, and I have been to Changi recently.
The actual terminals at Changi were fine, but I wouldn't say that they really stand apart compared to any of the more recent airports in the USA. The Jeppesen Terminal and many gate areas at DEN are a mess right now with the construction projects, but the areas that have been completed are generally slightly nicer than the equivalents I saw at Changi.
Where Changi absolutely crushes any US airport is the Jewel. You have a real supermarket with normal-ish prices, not the limited selection and high prices you always see in US airport concessions. You have a beautiful greenhouse and waterfall. You have tons of great food options, including Singapore and other Asian cuisine and western cuisine too, with reasonable prices. You have a movie theater!
The reality is that DEN probably wouldn't be able to make most of these amenities work because it overwhelmingly serves domestic flights. The Jewel works because many, many people have multi-hour connections in Changi on long-haul international flights, which makes a mall and amenities a natural fit. DEN has a lot of connecting traffic, but it is overwhelmingly shorter connections that are deliberately timed as part of flight banks. That's convenient if you want to get to your destination quicker (few people are going to want a 4 hour connection between domestic flights if they can avoid it) but it limits the sort of airport amenities that make sense financially.
@@BrianCairns different airports function differently based on their purpose, many airports like DXB, Chang-e, Swiss Airport, etc., all offer a wider customer experience rather than just being a terminal to wait for flights, I've been to LAX, JFK, DFW, it's just not close to having a great appeal to customer experience. Even Narita and Haneda just had so many gimmicks within the aiport to make your day super fun
singapore airport has good hotels like the crowne plaza and ambassador transit hotel
and bangalore airport has a lot of life which is like singapore changi
DEN is my home airport and I fly out of it once every two weeks. I have also been to all the airports you have mentioned in the past year.
Changi, DXB , Istanbul and Hamad are a single airline hub and mostly international transit airports. The passenger experience is a significant draw when people decide which airline to fly. I try and connect in Changi just to spend time at the Jewel. That’s not the case with Denver. Denver airport is a functional airport without any frills. It is huge but well laid out. Single terminal and getting between concourses is easy. Try making a tight connection between LAX international terminal and the one from where United operates. Or try taking the train at JFK with a cart full of luggage. You’ll appreciate how well laid out DEN is.
The airport has its issues and the construction/ upgrades are addressing it . I also wish it had more direct flights to Asia and start services to Middle East.
The only downside to DIA is the tram. There is no alternative if the tram stops working
I know there's always something weird every time I hear the words "conspiracy theory" 🤔🤔🤔
I have lived in Denver all my life
As someone who lives in Colorado, it’s like a fucking maze ✋😭
The Horse's Name is Blucifer
It's actually over 50 square miles, not just 20
It is covering up a government military base below it. That is 100% obvious based on what we know about the construction time. The busiest airport in the US is ATL with 7 sq miles.
It is also a busy airport with gate transfers, not with arriving passengers. DIA does not need to exist as no one is actually flying to denver. Everyone is being subsidized to use it as a hub when no one needs to use it. Kansas City would have made way more sense for a hub. Then they put a temporary tent fabric roof on an airport with snow. But the tent roof allows them easily change the configuration underneath without anyone watching.
Building this airport was the only way to hide construction of a large underground military base and hide all the deliveries and people arrivals. Satellites have no way of knowing what is for military operations and what is for the airport.
The government is literally subsidizing everything at this airport. It is the cheapest for any carrier to use it as a hub, it has the cheapest gate fees, it has the cheapest land fees for hangers, it has the cheapest ticket fees for passenger transfers, it has the cheapest terminal fees, it has way more slots for aircraft and more gates than it could ever need.
Any other military project is out in the open for satellites to view. This base cannot be seen or analyzed by satellites.
Didn’t mention the underground tunnels.. that’s where the rich can flee to when the apocalypse begins 😵💀
Nothing there, hate to tell ya that
There is, we just aren't invited. They, to this day, are "constructing" and removing dirt. In the next twenty years they predict the airport will be out dated and defunct. Then they will build a new one. Leaving DIA as a cargo hub? Military? Anyone who knows knows they are still "constructing."
@@DimensionalPlane I helped build the damn place, nothing there
Only if the Aliens and Lizard People let them in!😁😁😜
You did not mention the ski industry
I would rather go to DFW than DEN because smaller flights in CO always end 5 miles out on the expanded jetways. Southwest Airlines is not a budget airline; it costs just as much as the others but offers less. With the delusion, you got a deal because you get to fight for a seat.
I get two checked bags for free, zero change fees, no extra charge for “premium” economy, beverage service and snack included. To each their own.
I hate when DIA is referred as Denver Airport. As a former local, it’s DIA or Denver International. I’ve flown in and out of DIA many times growing up and boarded out of every concourse. I gotta say, the best experience I had was on Concourse A flying with Frontier back in the 2000s. You didn’t need to go through the long TSA line and board the underground train. Concourse A where Frontier was had its own bridge and security. It’s probably different now.
They still have the security on the bridge, not as many people know about it
@@BeastBro45 nice
I go through that security area all the time. I like it because I’m almost always in the front of the line when I first get there
I though it was kinda small cause I live in a area with no city 100 miles away from us
Those big airport are not the most pleasant and confortable places to be.
I give the airport a Nein out of Ten
I love the airport. But one problem with it (and many US airports too), is the fact that the Terminal Building itself is actually too small compared to the land of the airport occupies. US airports seem to be more catered to aircraft movements than passenger movements. The Jeppesen Terminal (while large by US standards) is quite small compared to Terminals in Asia and the Middle East.
I flew through KDEN in 2012 and even back then, the security area appeared so cramped. And for such an airport, there are no Check-in Islands that are perpendicular to the terminal entrance and the Check-in area has low ceilings. Hopefully the 2045 upgrade will address this
Okay, this has to be something spit out by some kind of content mill, right? American style English language voice, but the English language data card at the beginning is using hat appears to be Indian/metric measurements? (I can't think of anywhere else that uses lakh.)
I wonder if it was a largely AI generated script? Or was it generated by hand, shipped for a voice over and/or AI voiced, and churned out to capture ad revenue? What's the model here? Whatever it is, it would explain why the title card is so odd.
"Why is Denver Airport so big?" is bad English. It should be "Denver's Airport" or "the Denver Airport" (which is still odd) or "Denver International Airport".
It would also explain other linguistic quirks: "thrice" closely followed by "nine-times" is not a natural sentence composition. The comparison of DIA's 53 square miles to Kind Fahd's 6 stories is nonsensical. The use of a metric/metres based info card up front with a square-miles area is unnatural.
The stats/graphs shown are to be unrelated to the voice over. The first one is the 2022 busiest airports by passengers normalized to Hartsfield-Jackson and entirely unrelated to size, and unsorted with entirely unlabeled axes. This data was published by the New York/New Jersey Port Authority in 2023. The second chart is obviously modified from a template that used a Monday-aligned week (the US largely uses Sunday-aligned weeks -that is listing days Sunday-Saturday on a calendar) and is similarly unlabeled and unsorted.
The fact the video uses "DIA" is interesting too, though. It's various airport codes use "DEN" - DIA is a colloquialism. But, any script written by a fluent English writer wouldn't phrase sentences the way this video does. And the subtext on the "in this video we'll" section is not actually summarizing information in a correct manner, suggesting some kind of generated content is being copy-pasted or otherwise clipped from search engine snippets or similar.
"Remember the old Stapleton International Airport" sounds like a local-news report doing an anniversary retrospective shortly after DIA opens. It's not appropriate language for the audience of this video, which has to be assumed to be non-local viewers who don't know anything about Stapleton. Add that to "The high altitude hovering over above about" is bad - though unfortunately common - grammar. But "5,400 feet" makes no sense. Denver is the mile-high city. Anyone using imperial units would cite the Airport as being "about a mile above sea level", which suggests a metric-first writer (for whom the number "5,280" is meaningless.) 5,400 feet. And, given that we're shown snowy/winter conditions in a section about long runways, that suggest a non-technical writer. The length of the runways is more important in Summer, when soaring temps cause the air to thin out, making take-offs much harder.
And, the "residential areas" photo is from ~1900, not relevant, and clearly just stock footage. And, again, naming mistakes. "Adam County" instead of "Adams County" accompanied by a video clip (and audio) which is 25 years too late to be related to the Denver-Adams County land transfer deal used to create DIA. In fact, the man speaking in the clip is Erik Hansen, and Adams County Commissioner from 2010-2018. And then, the airport opening in '95 is tied to its current position as the third busiest airport in the US.
Just, first quarter of the video, and it's one uncanny-valley-esque thing after another. I can't unsee it now. What's the motive here. What's the purpose? Where's the con or the catch or the grift?
google maps is your friend...
Interesting how poor the international connections are to Europe and Asia. I've lived half my life in the Indo Pacific region, never flew from Denver despite that I go all over the US when I fly back.
The simple answer is, Denver’s previous airport was quickly surrounded by urban sprawl and was far too small for the size of the city. Because of this, they chose to build a new airport out in the middle of bumfuck no where, with a ton of space, enough to make an airport that would easily have enough capacity for decades to come.
the AI generated voice is quite jarring
It’s a real human voice
@@PragmaNetwork no it aint
Take your meds@@bendybus5165
ur a bot
I always avoid Denver due to the turbulence. Absolutely terrible every time. No thank you!
Might want to check your geography, Denver is far from being in the central US. For instance, Denver to LA is a 2hr - 15min trip, while a flight from Denver to NY is 4hr and 10 min, not exactly a center starting point for either destination. Where as Dallas, which is far more centrally located in the US (but more south) a flight to NY is 3 hrs and 30 min and a flight to LA is 3 hrs - now that more like a central location and most likely why it outranks Denver in passenger volume.
It's not perfectly centrally located east-west, but to actually be "central" you have to be so in every direction so I wouldn't say Dallas is any better than Denver, it's just off in a different direction.
Also, did some quick math and as long as you're going the same direction (because of winds, eastbound flights are shorter so you can't compare eastbound to westbound flights), the LA to NYC trip (not including layover) is still slightly faster through Denver (2h22 + 3h45 = 6h07) than Dallas (3h10 + 3h29 = 6h39).
What I really think makes DFW outrank Denver slightly by passenger traffic is the size of the metro areas (8m vs 3m) and the age. DFW was built at a time when air travel was expanding much faster, giving it an instant leg up over Denver which opened 20 years later.
Even now, Denver is still growing faster year over year than either DFW or Atlanta, and if people greatly preferred connecting through DFW because it's more central east-west I don't think that would be the case.
It is the largest city between Minneapolis/St. Paul and any area in California (and the only top 20 market between them).
This video seems clueless about the embarrassing opening of DIA with a non-functioning baggage claim system, and the endless Great Hall re-construction that has plagued DIA passengers since 2018. Two contractors have come and gone, and the airport authority is currently “managing” the rebuild on its own. The Great Hall was supposed to be finished and running by 2022. It is now scheduled for completion by the end of 2027.
Just in time for the same people to be planning the addition of 4 new terminals to be completed by 2045.
Do your research man! The Blue Stallion is the mascot of the Denver Broncos. Duh...
It looks like a swastika
Why do the Denver airport runways look like kanye wests band logo?
The airport has to match the ego of the Denver people, that and crime and homelessness.
Then don't visit the city. We have plenty of other visitors who enjoy coming here. I enjoy living here and have for over 34 years.
Is this video sponsored by United Airlines? Or the Denver Chamber of Commerce? Or some travel agency? LOL
If that imagige is correct then that n/s runway is at least 15 miles long. Made up images....blocked
Ok, you explained it. DEN is not DIA.
Nope you're wrong. DEN is the airport code, and DIA is just the acronym for Denver International Airport, both refer to the same place.
Much easier to skip Denver and fly non-stop coast to coast. It will eventually lose passengers and flights.
Going between two mid size cities like San Diego to Huntsville, or Sacramento to Philadelphia... good luck getting there without a connection.
Underground NWO prison...
This place fn sucked
They should lose that demonic horse.
Blucifer (aka Blue Mustang) is one of the best things about DIA! It's a massive (32 feet tall), yet beautiful sculpture. And a definite conversation starter. Did you know the sculptor was killed when the massive head section fell on him? His children ended up completing the sculpture in his honor.
Nope.
ALL HAIL LORD BLUCIFER!
Nah, Blucy is a staple of DIA. She ain't going anywhere, lol.
Why does it look like the Nazi Germany Sign💀☠️
Thats what i was was thinking too💀
Who cares about Denver?
It's a nothing place.
The city or the airport?
Either one is one of the fastest growing right now - hard to call that a "nothing place" because they both clearly have something special.
It's probably more affordable than California.
Denver is the largest in the u.s. ..Dallas is 2nd Chicago is 3rd by size.