Capacity on the Rise at Denver International Airport

Available seat capacity from Denver International Airport (DEN) rose in 2014 for the first time in four years as growth from established carriers Frontier Airlines, Southwest Airlines and United Airlines and relative newcomers Icelandair, Spirit Airlines and Volaris helped boost the offering from the United States fifth and the world's 16th largest airport.

According to data from OAG Schedules Analyser, overall departure seat capacity from DEN increased 0.9 per cent from 30.79 million annual seats in 2013 to 31.05 million seats last year. This return to growth followed declines of 0.9 per cent in 2011, 0.6 per cent in 2012 and 2.4 per cent in 2013.

The data shows that seven new destinations were added to the DEN network during 2014: Chihuahua (CUU), Jamestown (JMS), Lafayette Regional Apt (LFT) and Sun Valley (SUN) and the resumption of flights to Guadalajara (GDL), Palm Beach International (PBI) and Sioux City (SUX) (the latter all previously last flown on a regular basis in 2008).

Alongside the new routes there have also been rises in capacity on many existing routes from DEN during 2014. The most notable among the top 20 destinations served from the airport last year being Houston George Bush Intercontinental (IAH) which was up 8.3 per cent, Phoenix Sky Harbor International (PHX), up 7.7 per cent and Chicago O’Hare International, up 4.7 per cent.

In the chart, below, we highlight the largest destinations from DEN based on annual departure capacity over the past ten years.

Data provided by OAG

Richard Maslen

Richard Maslen has travelled across the globe to report on developments in the aviation sector as airlines and airports have continued to evolve and…