Whether or not you'll like the new Denver International Airport (DIA) depends on what seat you're sitting in.
If you're in the captain's seat, you'll love it. If you're in a passenger seat, it may not be your cup of tea."It's friendlier to pilots than passengers," said Vanguard Airlines Capt. Bob Link after a recent flight from Salt Lake City to Colorado's capital.
Pilots like its instrument landing systems that allow simultaneous approaches to three runways, virtually eliminating the weather-caused delays for which Stapleton was famous.
They appreciate the spacious layout of its runways and taxiways. "There's plenty of room to maneuver," said a United pilot who spoke to this reporter while riding on the airport's subway.
State-of-the-art de-icing equipment will increase the airport's wintertime efficiency. And a surface movement guidance system will help aviators move safely between concourses and runways when visibility is poor.
But what's in store for you, the passenger?
Here's what this reporter found out after visiting DIA and interviewing passengers, pilots and airport officials.
If you're connecting to a flight that leaves from the same concourse, DIA is a cinch, no sweat.
You might break into a sweat, however, if you're making a tight connection to a flight that leaves from another concourse; if you fly Delta to Denver arriving at Concourse C and connect to Frontier in Concourse A, for example.
If Denver is your destination, you'll be surprised at how much time it takes to reach the main terminal where you pick up your bags, hail a cab or rent a car.
And then you must drive 23 miles to downtown.
At DIA, size is an issue. Because it's so big (the terminal alone is 1.5 million square feet and the distance from Concourse C to the terminal is 1.1 miles), it will take you longer to get from Point A to Point B than it would at most other airports.
That fact was not lost on passengers this reporter spoke to.
"It's too spread apart," said a man from Dallas. "They need to decide who they're building it for. I thought Dallas-Fort Worth was bad."
Edward J. Jackson, a World War II veteran from North Smithfield, R.I., who flew to Denver for a military reunion, found it confusing. "I saw more people go this way than that way so I followed them. I think everybody was as confused as I was."
The antidote? Allow yourself plenty of time. Charles J. Cannon, manager of public relations for the airport, suggests that departing passengers arrive at DIA one hour before their flight. If you haven't been to the airport before, give yourself an hour and a half.
Despite its size, the airport has a logical layout. You can walk to Concourse A from the terminal across the world's largest pedestrian bridge. But the train is the only way to reach concourses B and C.
Car rental counters and baggage claims are on Level 5 of the main terminal. Ticket and check-in counters are on Level 6.
If you're renting a car, and many people do since the cab fare to downtown is a hefty $40, you must wait for a van to shuttle you to car lots far off in the distance.
Finding your way through the airport's interior is a breeze compared to the maze of roads you'll confront outside. (Rental car customers are spared this confusion because rental car lots are located beyond the problem.)
Approaching the airport from Denver, Pena Boulevard, which connects I-70 with the airport, divides into east and west and three levels on each side. The top level is for departing passengers. The middle level is for taxis and shuttles. The bottom level is for arriving passengers.
You must first decide which side of the building your airline is located on and then proceed to the appropriate level.
Problems continue to plague DIA.
- The subway system is crowded during peak hours. Sometimes passengers must wait for the next train. (They come along every 90 seconds.) "We've ordered six more cars that should be ready next summer," said Cannon, the airport's public affairs manager.
Trains occasionally stop running, if only for a few seconds. "The longest train stop we've had was nine minutes," he said.
- Parking garages are crowded. To alleviate the problem, the airport will turn surface lots adjacent to the parking structures into long-term parking and charge a reduced rate.
- The granite flooring in the main terminal has some surface cracks.
- Surface cracks have appeared on approximately 200 (out of 136,000) runway panels. According to Cannon, a paving machine malfunctioned, leaving out tie bars in those panels. The contractor is making repairs at night.
- The Teflon-coated fiberglass roof of the main terminal leaks where caulking around Plexiglas windows in the masts has cracked. The roof was designed to suggest the Rocky Mountains, but people have likened it to a circus tent or a grove of teepees.
- At a few gates that lack Jetways, passengers must descend stairs onto the tarmac and walk to the concourse. Jetways from Stapleton are being modified to fit around huge concrete blocks near the gates that don't have them.
- An 85-year-old Michigan man recently lost his life in a freak accident. He was sitting on a luggage carousel designed for skis when it started moving, pinning him between the carousel and a wall. He later died at a Denver hospital.
The ill-fated automated baggage system, which captured headlines around the country before the airport opened in February, is used only by United Airlines for outbound bags. It functions well, according to a United spokesman, and gets little publicity now that the airport is up and running. The airline uses the traditional tug and cart system for transfers and inbound luggage.
How does DIA compare with Stapleton?
Its landing fees are among the most expensive in the country, while Stapleton was one of the cheapest.
United Airlines, which has 285 departures a day and accounts for 68 percent of the airport's traffic, passed the higher costs along to passengers. "We filed a fare increase after the airport opened," said John Philp, United's director of public affairs. "We can't eat it."
Connecting passengers, on the other hand, don't pay much for the airport, according to Philp.
Richard Grant, director of communications for the Denver Metro Convention & Visitors Bureau, admits the airport is way out in the country. But the trade-off is sixes.
"At Stapleton, you could arrive a few minutes before your flight but then you'd have to wait an hour for your plane to take off. At DIA, you arrive an hour early and your flight takes off on time."