Six months after its grand opening, pricey Denver
International Airport continues to shake up air travel around the
West (HCN, 1/23/95). First, the cost of building and doing business
at the mega-airport helped persuade Continental Airlines to all but
abandon the Rocky Mountains. Now, blaming the same unprofitable
dynamics, the commuter airline, GP Express, is also abandoning the
Denver hub and the region. By September, Colorado’s West Slope and
Wyoming will be left with only one connection, to the Denver hub –
United Express – which “could drive up airfares and cost the
(rural) tourism industry millions of dollars,” reports the Denver
Post. Fares at the Denver hub have already risen 40 percent on
average from a year ago, with United Airlines now operating like a
monopoly there. Travelers looking to save money are flying through
other hubs or driving, and the Denver hub’s passenger flow is down
at least 5 percent from a year ago, when Denver operated the old
but affordable Stapleton Airport. Competing hubs such as Colorado
Springs (traffic in June was up nearly 70 percent from June a year
ago) and Salt Lake City (up 6 percent) are enjoying the shift of
air travelers. The Colorado ski-resort town, Telluride, where
15,000 visitors last season flew in by GP Express, could lose $15
million next season if another airline doesn’t fill the niche. As
resort spokesman Mike Shimkonis put it, “We’re controlled by two
factors: air service and the weather, neither of which we have any
control over.”
*Ray
Ring
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Denver vs. the West.
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