Ever since October 1993, the date it was supposed to open, the new Denver International Airport has been the butt of many jokes. The airport had become an expensive white elephant - $3 billion over budget - that couldn't function because it couldn't handle passenger luggage. Baggage was often damaged or "eaten" by the automated system during early tests.
Some of the humor originated in Salt Lake City, which shares a natural rivalry with its Rocky Mountain neighbor. But it wasn't funny in Denver where a faulty automated baggage system, cost overruns, investigations into faulty construction and probes of airport bond sales were seen as a nightmare.However, the jeers and tears turned to cheers this week when the airport finally opened and easily handled large crowds and heavy air traffic, despite fog, snow and ice that would have badly disrupted operations at the old Stapleton International Airport.
In fact, the bad weather turned out to be a demonstration of the new airport's capabilities. Its five runways, including three that can handle simultaneous instrument landings - a first in the United States - kept traffic moving. Air traffic controllers averaged 66 landings an hour and had 92 an hour at one point. If the traffic had been at Stapleton, the landing rate would have been 32 an hour with delays of 30 to 50 minutes.
The success of the Denver facility is good news for Utahns, since air traffic tie-ups in in Denver can have an impact on flights in Salt Lake City and connections to routes across the country.
America's air traffic system is a vast grid of major airports that all depend on each other to maintain crowded flight schedules and timetables. A problem of delays at any airport can affect all the others. Because of frequent weather problems, Denver had gotten something of a reputation as a bottleneck in the network - one of the justifications for building the new airport.
The successful Denver opening was not totally without problems. The old bugaboo of luggage handling affected a few flights, although most passengers had their luggage within 20 minutes. But a breakdown of two main baggage lines caused passengers on three flights to experience delays of an hour or more.
Even if everything works perfectly, some passengers may still be less than happy. The airport's high operating costs have added $40 to each Denver roundtrip ticket. And getting to and from the airport is more expensive since the facility is three times as far from downtown Denver as Stapleton.
In contrast, the current steady and significant growth at the Salt Lake International Airport can be handled at the present site far into any foreseeable future. Expansion plans are on target and there is plenty of room for additional runways and extensive new facilities as needed.
Given Denver's problems in building a new airport, Salt Lake travelers can be grateful that their own airport facilities are so well situated and well financed.