First opening its doors on February 28, 1995, Denver International Airport is located 24.4 miles northeast of the heart of Denver, the capital of Colorado. According to the DIA Press Kit, Denver International Airport was ranked the fifth busiest airport in the United States, and the tenth busiest airport worldwide. The high magnitude of travelers amounts to an average of 137,445 passengers every day, requiring the airport to employ a total of 31,000 people at the time of publication.
Whether drawn by Colorado's Rocky Mountains or laying over in Denver before catching a connecting flight to another destination, DIA travelers use the airport for a variety of reasons. According to the airport's statistics at the time of publication, more than 25 million DIA travelers each year begin or end their trip in Denver. In comparison, only 2 million passengers annually fly from Denver to an international location outside of the United States, totaling approximately 4 percent of the airport's total passenger traffic.
Among the most iconic images at DIA is the peaked roof of the Jepessen Terminal, designed by Fentress Bradburn Architects. The airport's design was meant to bring to mind the snow-covered Rocky Mountains rising beyond, in addition to an homage to the Native Americans who found shelter in tepees throughout Colorado and the Great Plains history. DIA was uniquely constructed with space to expand. As of the time of publication, the airport encompassed 53 square miles of land, allowing it the space to build six more runways, an additional terminal, and two more concourses in the future.
DIA's user-friendly design makes it an especially convenient airport to navigate for DIA travelers. Prior to flying through DIA airport, DIA travelers may want to know that at the time of publication the airport had 95 gates with loading gates used by commercial airlines, and 62 gates used for regional aircraft. All of these gates can be found in one of the three concourses, titled Concourse A, B, and C. Seventeen commercial airlines fly out of DIA, utilizing the six runways.
