Is DEN the Superior Hub?
We've come a long way from Spirit of the Red Horse
There’s a lot of industry back and forth about which airline hub is the best (or worst), and that conversation tends to center around the big three “Headquarters” hubs of Atlanta (ATL), Dallas-Ft. Forth (DFW) and Chicago O’Hare (ORD), served by Delta, American and United respectively.
While I have very strong thoughts on all three, another hub has been catching my eye with its new looks, just like a high school girl in a movie who has ditched the glasses and the baggy clothes. That airport would be the secret home of the illuminati itself,¹ Denver International Airport (DEN). (It’s also a home to Frontier, Southwest and United.)
I have a long history with DEN going back to its opening year of 1995, when I changed planes there on my way to college. Until recently, I found it be a reliably “meh” experience, with the exception of the first-class audio branding of its inter-terminal train system.
Sure, DEN was easy to navigate and has handled weather well. But, the food and retail options were limited, and the United lounges were getting increasingly dated and crowded each year. Unless you liked perusing Western artwork and waiting in a long line for a table at Elway’s, DEN often left a lot to be desired.²
But all that has changed in recent years. There are three things that have stuck out to me during this glow-up.
Destinations
DEN used to be a fairly standard mid-continent hub with flights to big cities around the country and a strong regional network in the Rockies and Southwest. Now, when I walk down the concourse, I am blown away by the cities being served nonstop.
Savannah?
Syracuse?
Montego Bay?!?
That’s not even to mention the tremendous international flying increase that has taken place during this time. You used to be able to catch a Lufthansa or British Airways plane on the ground if you were lucky. Now, everyone is lined up on the international concourse. Who had Edelweiss parked next to Turkish on their bingo card?
Obviously much of this flying can be attributed to the growth of the city itself, but it also reflects how important the hub has become to its main carriers.
Eating, Shopping and Lounging
Yes, you can still grab a dreamcatcher on your layover. But now, you have a much wider variety of places to spend your money. There has obviously been a concerted effort to improve the food and drink options on the concourses. DEN has done a good job featuring local brands like Dazbog Coffee,³ while still hosting the staples (aka Starbucks) that travelers expect when they are making their way through an airport.
The United lounges, long the butt of jokes by UA frequent flyers, have been completely redone. The three(!) locations are well-designed and have custom artwork, ample seating, good food and bathrooms with completely enclosed toilet rooms.⁴
There’s also a Capital One Lounge, a Chase Sapphire Lounge and an AMEX Platinum lounge for those folks that want to wait an hour to access it.
Room to Grow
The joke for a long time was that DEN was the best airport in Nebraska. Its 23-mile distance from downtown seemed like an eternity, especially compared to the old Stapleton airport.
I remember going to Denver twenty years ago to help conduct focus groups, and there was a whole lot of nothing surrounding the airport when you made your drive into town. In fact, the focus group participants spent a lot of time complaining about said 23-mile distance.
Now, the city has officially reached the gates. Heck, there’s a Gaylord Resort down the street. But thanks to forward-looking planning, the airport still has a ton of space to branch out for future expansion with minimal passenger and local resident inconvenience. There are very few major airports in the US that have that ability. (We’ll talk about you later, LAX.) There might even be enough room at DEN to build a new airline headquarters⁵ . . .
There aren’t many travelers who take the connecting hub into account when booking their flight. More people should. As of today, when given the option, I’m choosing DEN. Long live the Red Horse.
Notes
It’s obligatory that any blog post about DEN must mention the conspiracies surrounding it; kudos to the team at the airport for leaning into it over the years
No disrespect to Executive Shine, easily the best (and busiest) airport shoe shine location(s) in the US; they’re masters of a long-lost art and have been a DEN stalwart for a long time
Anytime I see a name like “Dazbog” in an airport, I just assume that’s a local brand
We’re still figuring things out here at Al on the Airlines, but we can guarantee that no one will beat our airport bathroom coverage
A major US airline owns significant property adjacent to DEN — stranger things have happened