It was a hair before 7:00 AM, I’d driven
125 miles and flown a thousand more. The
heck just happened? I was asleep in my
bed eight hours ago!
Technology is pretty cool.
As was the case with both MDW and ORD in
2015, I planned for time to do a complete airport walk; this time, I planned
carefully with the hope that we’d land, I’d deplane with time to spare to get
to a great vantage point and catch the sun rise over the plains to the east.
Agh, short-armed it.
Well, we’ve got a schedule to keep. Let’s get right to it.
Denver’s airport, or “DEN” in airport
lingo, is comprised of three concourses and a main terminal. Each of the three concourses and the terminal
are all connected by an underground train, which is good both because DEN is
big and because the train is the only way to get to the other two concourses
from the first.
And that first concourse is where we find
ourselves, right at one end, conveniently.
Concourse B and C have pretty much one main airline that uses them. Concourse A, on the other hand, holds
everybody else.
Each airline has its own little section
in Concourse A, making connections fairly easy along the length of the
concourse. Delta, American, and all
internationally based carriers call this concourse home. The southern side of the concourse serves as
Frontier’s base, making connections theoretically painless. They serve 53 non-stop destinations from DEN
over the course of a given year, if you can believe it, all from eight little
gates. Not bad for a ULCC.
Marching down the concourse, it’s easy to
see where each carrier has staked out their claim, both from the gates,
lounges, and the branding throughout the concourse. The east end has five gates dedicated to
American Airlines service to their major U.S. hubs, representing the smallest
share of gates assigned to a mainline U.S. airline. A staircase takes you down to a tiny addendum
that services local airlines Great Lakes Airlines and PenAir, as well as ULCC
Spirit Airlines.
Frontier and other ULCCs have been the
butt of airline jokes for a while, but Spirit Airlines has to have been the
butt-iest. Frontier’s my first time on a
ULCC, but I’m still interested to give Spirit a try to see if it’s as awful as
people say. I doubt it is, but that’s
just one perspective. Spirit’s branding
and color scheme is bright, flashy, and informal, not at all like the classic
designs of legacy carriers that ferry the majority of travelers across the
U.S.
Great Lakes Airlines is the only
commercial air link between Cheyenne, and several other local airports, and the
outside world. They mostly fly
Beechcraft 1900 9-seaters and a handful of other, larger turboprop planes. Having done this kind of turboprop fly-in
once to get to St. Louis aboard Cape Air, it’s an experience I’d highly
recommend. There’s something neat about
leaving the sticks in a little plane, entering the big city and seeing the
world spread out below, and before you.
Each concourse’s train station meets at a
centralized node at the heart of the concourse.
These nodes really give the airport that open feel I always like in
large hubs. Tall ceilings, lots of
windows, abstract architecture. For now,
we’ll keep moving to the other half.
In 2015, my wife and I landed here to
begin our anniversary trip. Six gates on
the west side of Concourse A handle Delta, which send flights to their main
hubs around the country, including a little hop to LAX, an airport with the
unique distinction of being designated by all three major U.S. carriers as a
hub.
Today, this flight’s going to Seattle,
one of Delta’s newer hubs. I’ve never
been to Washington, but I’ve heard SEA is a nice airport. Many aviation geeks head up to SEA both for
the airport itself as well as the nearby Boeing factory and Payne Field, where
brand-new, liveried jets run their test flights before delivery to their
customers around the world.
Before we move on to the next concourse,
I think it bears mentioning DEN’s innate optimism.
The signage in each concourse’s east wing
points to X## to X99, indicating that there are 99 gates. Well, this isn’t true for any of them, but DEN was built with
expansion in mind. DEN is, itself, an
expansion. Until the mid-90s, Denver’s
air traffic was handled by Stapleton Airport.
When Denver’s needs grew too large, plans to build an airport in the
suburbs of Denver emerged. They bought a lot of
land and built wide. Stapleton was
closed, it’s IATA designation of “DEN” was reassigned to the new airport, and
developments sprung up on the old site of the airport.
Today, all three concourses at DEN can be
spread out west and east without impacting the airfield, meaning that one day,
there might actually be 99 gates. As a
forward-looking airport, they went ahead and put up the signs to indicate the
future.
Replacing the sign each time there was an
extension couldn’t be terribly expensive, so I like that they advertise
inevitable expansion to be plainly seen by transiting passengers. The same is true coming the other direction,
too. There is no gate A1. In fact, A26, across the hall from the gate
in the last picture, is the westernmost gate in the concourse. After seeing so many airports seemingly
surprised by their popularity and scratching their heads figuring out how to
meet it, it’s nice to know one airport is systematically prepared for growth.
Let’s zip down the line to Concourse B,
Denver’s biggest and busiest. To do
that, let’s head down a pair of escalators at A’s central node, hop on one of
the trains that swing by about every two minutes, and ride!
While Concourse A has a long way to go to
hit 99 gates, Concourse B is pretty close.
Longer on either side than either A or C, B has about 70 gates and has
been expanded twice. Unlike Concourse A,
Concourse B is all one airline: United Airlines. The now-defunct Continental Airlines was
merged with United several years ago, and since then, every other tenant of the
concourse moved elsewhere, usually as part of a merger themselves. Now, United holds all of the gates, making
connections easier.
From the central node, we’ll head west to
the older part of the concourse first.
This part of the concourse hosts United’s
larger flights, especially on the southern (left) side. Long-haul flights to United’s far-flung
destinations like Tokyo, Hawaii, and, occasionally, Costa Rica leave from these
larger gates. The other mainline United
flights leave from here, either between other hubs or larger, regional
destinations. Many times, though, it’s
fairly empty here.
This isn’t a bad thing; I love a big,
empty, quiet space while I travel, too.
The western end of the concourse features a lovely view of the
Rockies. In fact, most views from DEN
feature either the flat expanse of the High Plains and/or a view of the Front
Range. When you’re here, you can’t
forget where you are.
I listen to lyricless music while I walk
through airports, usually what would be defined as electronic, techno, or
ambient music. I carefully craft
playlists to fit certain moods of travel, whether it’s high-paced, high-rhythm
music while I’m charging across a terminal to make a tight connection, or
slow-paced, mood music that I feel reflects the joy and excitement of
travel. When I’m in these quieter parts
of the airport, I can actually hear what’s coming out of my earbuds, and it
puts me at ease. Sometimes, even with a structured
schedule, I’ll sit down and take a break, listening to the smooth, ambient
music I’ve selected, feeling my heartbeat, the weight of my bag on my shoulder,
the dryness in my mouth from the low humidity of an airplane cabin, and imagine
all the unseen places of the world that are just a flight away.
A quick glance at my phone tells me I need
to keep moving. I pull myself up from my
solitary seat, reposition my camera bag, and head east.
Beth and I flew out of B46 in 2015 on our
way home. That particular flight went to
Chicago, where I’d been months before on my Chicago walk. Today, they’re off to San Francisco, a city
that’s high on my list for a walk. One
day soon.
Concourse B’s easternmost sections are
somewhat temporary additions to accommodate United Express, their regional
affiliate, and the formidable amounts of traffic they provide to Denver.
The first extension, which peels off the
northern edge of the concourse’s eastern terminus, is a narrow corridor that,
for lack of a better description, is like walking through a shipping container. You board through the corridor, then file
down to the actual gate, without a jetway, and walk planeside to board.
Modern airline passengers in the U.S.
don’t actually board planeside much anymore.
The first time I did it was back in Comair’s heyday in the 90s; our
family was connecting in Cincinnati, so we flew from Louisville to Cincinnati,
a two-hour drive at most, in a flight time that was filed as seventeen
minutes. By far the shortest flight I’ve
ever been on, that little connector will always be memorable.
You can’t get back there unless you’re
actually flying, but even if I could, I’m not sure I’d have enough elbow room
to hold up a camera. This would be for
low-volume routes like, you know, to Gillette, WY; Medford, OR; or Minot, ND.
The southern extension, on the other
hand, is pretty unique.
At the end of the Concourse B, you hang a
right, go down a corridor, and head down an escalator to a tarmac-level
extension with small, regional jets on either side. The jetways convey passengers at ground
level, but it also provides a unique view of the airfield in general, including
some neat parked jets.
This B757 heads between Denver and
Reykjavik, Iceland daily, if you can believe it, departing here in the late
afternoon. Iceland has grown over the
last few years as an exciting, accessible destination for young,
budget-friendly travelers. Put another
way, my generation. I’ve been hoping to
get to Iceland for a while, but it’s on the back burner behind some other destinations. Still, won’t see this livery in Louisville.
To be honest, the extension reminded me
of STL’s main terminal; it was plain, utilitarian, and well-laid out, if not
terribly interesting.
I stopped for a second, charging my flashing
camera battery and enjoying another energy bar.
I was a tiny bit ahead of schedule, so I could stand to pause and give
myself and my camera some juice.
Concourse C wouldn’t take long.
After a few minutes, I packed up, emptied
my camera bag of trash, and then made my way to the last concourse.
Concourse C is another single-tenant
concourse, this time run by Southwest Airlines.
This has become more common around the country, as Southwest’s business
model is different from legacy carriers, it makes sense to have a specific
space to cater to their unique system.
Fittingly, this concourse has a plane
suspended above it. Unfittingly, it has
bizarre architecture around its train station, one that I’ve seen several times
before and still am unable to totally understand.
This concourse is open and quiet as well,
but closer to the gates, things pick up.
In my opinion, Southwest-centered
airports or concourses have a specific feel to them that’s distinct from normal
airports. BWI, MDW, and even SDF’s
Southwest concourse have a unique aura.
They always seem to have good food options, a unique design, and little
touches to distinguish them from other carriers. I’m not sure how much say Southwest has on
that, but it feels like there’s some, at least.
It could also be the clientele, who are usually families, younger
travelers, and tourists that grant Southwest-oriented areas a bit of flair.
Concourse C is abridged compared to the
others, with only one section on its eastern side and two to the west. A quick walkthrough is enough to check it off
the list before boarding the people mover back to Concourse A. While the train goes all the way back to the
landside terminal and out into the world, I wanted to disembark in Concourse A
for the walk across the pedestrian bridge.
After hopping off at concourse A, I went
up three escalators to the upper mezzanine, following the signs to the bridge.
To the east and west, you can see
Frontier’s staked claim. Unlike seeing a
row of Southwest planes, Frontier’s Airbuses each sport unique livery.
No sign of Courtney the Cougar; N702FR
must have left for greener pastures while I was walking.
This pedestrian bridge, which connects
Concourse A to the main terminal, is somewhat unique, allowing planes to pass safely
underneath it while onlookers watch. It
provides wonderful views of the Rockies, as most western-facing windows in the
airport do.
That about wraps it up airside. After walking past the large “no re-entry”
signs on the south side of the bridge, we get to perhaps the most visually
recognizable building in all of Colorado: the Jeppesen Terminal.
The landside terminal is named for Elrey
Jeppesen, famous Colorado-born aviation and navigation pioneer. The roof’s design is designed to emulate the
Rocky Mountains as well as the traditional homes of Native Americans from the
High Plains: tipis. The cavernous
terminal has tons of food options and a museum to Jeppesen, among other things,
but we’ve got a train to catch.
Moreover, there’s a couple more things to see outside before we head
out.
Denver has recently built an all-new
transportation complex outside the airport, complete with a fancy new Westin
hotel. The hotel’s modern architecture
blends with the seemingly avant-garde stylings of the airport itself.
Denver’s airport is huge, and someone’s
gotta keep all those windows clean. That
guy right there. Just that guy. Well, no, probably not just him.
There’s an escalator that takes you down
to the transit center, where the brand-new train station awaits.
When Beth and I were here in October
2015, this train station didn’t exist.
Now, less than a year later, you can take a train, without transfers,
directly from the airport to downtown Denver.
Not a moment too soon!
The cost of the ticket is steep by city
transit standards, $9.00, but it still beats a bus or heaven forbid a cab. DEN is enormous, and for it to be so big, it
has to be a long way from the city. As
the crow flies, I’m standing about 18 miles from Downtown, and on the flat
plains of Colorado, you can really feel that distance.
I’ve got my ticket in hand, and the train
that arrives here only goes one way, so it’s just a matter of waiting for the
next one which, as it turns out, was pulling up now.
I took a seat on the now empty train and
pulled out my journal, taking all the notes I’d need to make this post. Forty minutes later, I’d be at historic Union
Station and ready to commence my walk for real.
I love airports and all, but I travel for more than just travel’s
sake. Let’s explore Denver!
Until then, keep going!