Denver International Airport Sees Continued Passenger Traffic Recovery

Denver International Airport (DEN) today published passenger traffic data for June 2021. For the first half of 2021, DEN served 24,701,027 passengers, a decline of 25% as compared to the first half of 2019. This also represents a 55% increase over the first half of 2020 which saw the airport’s lowest passenger volumes of the COVID–19 pandemic.

DEN’s passenger traffic recovery ranks among the top as compared to peer large–hub airports, buoyed by both strong demand for travel to and from Denver as well as a high volume of connecting passengers. In the first quarter of 2021, Denver ranked as the second–largest U.S. airport in terms of domestic travel demand, up from a fourth–place ranking in the first quarter of 2019. Connecting passengers made up 42.3% of DEN’s total passengers in the first half of 2021, a nearly seven–point increase over the same period in 2019.

“The acceleration of DEN’s recovery in the first half of the year is welcome news after the steep decline in passenger traffic in 2020,” said DEN CEO Phil Washington. “Due to DEN’s strong financial position, we have been able to keep costs down for our airlines, which has meant the addition of new routes and airlines even during the pandemic. As we move forward, we will continue to focus on our recovery and planning for the future so DEN can remain the state’s primary economic engine.”

In the first half of 2021, DEN ranked as the largest station for three airlines – Frontier, Southwest and United. DEN welcomed Southern Airways Express in June and Air France in July as the airport’s newest airline partners.

DEN’s air service network continues to not only recover, but also grow. In the first half of 2021, carriers added four new domestic destinations, and announced plans for future service to an additional two new domestic destinations in the coming months. Only six domestic destinations operated prior to COVID have not returned to DEN’s air service network. In addition, carriers have added competitive service to nearly 20 domestic markets. To close out the first half of the year, DEN’s domestic network included nonstop flights to 183 destinations in 45 states, and ranked as the second–largest domestic air service network in the U.S.

International passenger traffic and air service is also recovering, but at a slower rate due to ongoing border closures and travel restrictions. In the first half of 2021, DEN’s international passenger traffic declined by 54% compared to 2019. However, driven by strong demand for leisure and visiting friends and relatives (VFR) travel, some carriers have seen growth over 2019; notably Aeromexico, Frontier and Volaris have served more international passengers in the first half of 2021 than the first half of 2019. By the end of June 2021, 17 international routes had been restored to DEN’s air service network following a period last year of 75 days (April 2 – June 15, 2020) with no international flights. The five carriers that have not yet resumed DEN service but intend to do so – British Airways, Cayman Airways, Copa Airlines, Edelweiss and WestJet – all serve international destinations.

The supply of seats offered by airlines at DEN in the third quarter of 2021 is higher than what was offered in the third quarter of 2019 by nearly 2%. The month of July saw strong volume through DEN’s TSA checkpoints, totaling over two million for the first time since Oct. 2019. Throughput through TSA checkpoints is a leading indicator of total passenger traffic.