It is now official – 2010 was the busiest year ever for Denver International Airport.
For the first time in DIA’s 16-year history, passenger numbers exceeded 52 million in 2010. The previous record was set in 2008, which was the first year more than 50 million passengers traveled through. But then the recession hit, and the airline industry suffered. Strong numbers last year indicate a continued recovery.
“It’s really an indicator of how we’re doing as a region and how well the aviation industry is doing. During the last couple of years we saw lower number which we saw as a big indicator of the recession, and now we seem to be climbing out of that,” says DIA Spokeswoman Jenny Schiavone.
In addition to all-time traffic records, there were other benchmarks reached in 2010 as well.
“We also had our busiest holiday travel season on record,” says Schiavone, “but we do typically see busier weeks during the summer travel months, especially June and July, they tend to be busier than even the holiday travel season in Denver.”
Indeed, the busiest day of all 2010 was June 1, which was also the busiest single day in airport history with 177,792 passengers reported. Denver International Airport is the 10th busiest airport in the world, and the 5th busiest in the U.S.