After decades of passenger traffic growth at Denver International Airport, the surge has stalled this year, slowing progress toward Denver’s 100 million travelers-a-year target.
DIA officials blamed economic uncertainty and “geopolitics” for a decrease in 2025, compared with 2024, by 0.4%.
But DIA recently snagged first place among U.S. airports for nonstop domestic destinations — travelers can fly to 197 — and continues to set records for international traffic.
This “connectivity”, some analysts say, will be the ultimate measure of the airport’s success.
Denver’s passenger traffic target has become “a stupid goal” for measuring airport value, said Mike Boyd, a Colorado-based aviation industry consultant, because passenger metrics depend largely on whether airlines offer good deals — largely beyond DIA’s control.
“The real issue is how many points you can access from an airport. How many international flights can you access from here?” Boyd said, adding that new nonstop flights from Denver to Morocco, Poland, and Spain would make sense. “The traditional thinking has been that ‘more passengers are better.’ But, in the real world of air transportation, what matters for travelers is access.”
The numbers
DIA’s passenger traffic in 2025 decreased to 54.9 million through the end of August, down from 55.2 million during that period in 2024, airport data show. If the dropoff continues, it’ll mark a turnaround after DIA’s annual total in 2024 hit a record 82.4 million passengers, which was a 5.8% increase over the number in 2023, airport data shows.
Compared with 2019, DIA’s annual traffic increased by 19% from 69 million to 82.4 million — raising hopes for regional economic development as other U.S. airports struggled to pull out of pandemic-driven declines. DIA this year ranked third-busiest in the United States and sixth-busiest in the world behind Atlanta (108 million), Dubai (92.3 million), Dallas/Fort Worth (87.8 million), Tokyo (85.9 million), and London (83.8 million). City leaders have seized on the 100 million target as a beacon for job growth and business investment.
The reversal so far this year coincides with the Trump administration’s imposition of tariffs, the current political rhetoric and other actions that created “uncertainty,” said Laura Jackson, DIA’s vice president for air service development and aviation research. “It really impacted demand, especially in the economy class cabins. People were just uncertain about their incomes and revenue streams, so they were holding back on making purchases,” Jackson said.
Meanwhile, DIA in June became the leading U.S. airport for nonstop connections to U.S. destinations, hitting 197, after airlines added 12 new domestic routes in 2025, according to airport officials. Travelers at DIA’s closest rival airports, Dallas-Ft. Worth and Chicago O’Hare can fly nonstop to 195 U.S. destinations.
International routes
DIA also saw continued growth of nonstop international air traffic, which set records this year and, through August, was up by 6.2% compared with the same period in 2024, airport data show. DIA offers nonstop flights to 35 destinations in 19 countries.
International travelers make up 6% of the overall passenger traffic at DIA. Airlines over the past year added new non-stop flights from Denver to Istanbul, Turkey, Dublin, Ireland, and Rome, Italy — routes where the carriers recorded increasing passenger traffic. DIA officials who negotiate with airlines said they expect to see more new nonstop international options soon for travelers headed to Punta Cana, Dominican Republic (starting Oct. 26); Mexico City, and Ireland.
The overall decline in traffic so far this year “does not change our long-term trajectory to reach 100 million passengers. We are still on track to meet that,” Jackson said. “And we have global ambitions. We have a lot of destinations on our list of where we’d like to see expansion in the next decade or so.”
International travelers likely will account for 10% of passenger traffic, she said. “We’re not setting any limits on what we can achieve.”
$2.1 billion overhaul continues
DIA’s airport refurbishment and expansion projects won’t slow down, officials said. They’re planning to construct a seventh runway on DIA’s 53-square-mile area. Only the King Fahd International Airport in Saudi Arabia spans more land (299 square miles).
The projects have brought increased screening lanes where Transportation Security Administration crews can process 240 travelers per hour, up from 140, and a showpiece Great Hall featuring a massive sculptural “cottonwood tree,” improved dining, a meditation room where travelers can seek silence, and lobbies with couches and pads where children can play — part of $2.1 billion overhaul to be able to handle as many as 120 million travelers by 2045. DIA opened in 1995, built to handle a maximum of 50 million travelers.
Yet DIA trails other major airports in passenger satisfaction, according to recent annual JD Power North America surveys. These rank airports based on passenger perceptions of airport staff, food, and ease in moving around.
“We know and understand that our passengers are experiencing construction fatigue, especially amid the construction of the Great Hall,” airport officials said in a statement this week. “The good news is that this passenger-facing construction is nearing an end, at which point we expect our satisfaction scores to rebound because the completion of that project will significantly enhance the passenger experience.”
Getting there from Denver
Looming challenges include traffic jams delaying access to DIA from metro Denver. City officials and developers have taken advantage of Peña Boulevard, the main route to the airport, to facilitate new housing in the surrounding area — worsening jams.
Drive time along the 11 miles of Peña Boulevard from Interstate 70 to DIA has tripled from eight minutes to 24 minutes and unpredictably exceeds half an hour when drivers crash. I-70 often clogs, too, sending DIA-bound drivers, guided by smartphones, on circuitous routes through Denver and Aurora.
Denver’s proposed widening of Peña depends on a federal environmental review.
“This is a priority. We know Peña is the lifeline for the airport. We’re going to do everything we can to accelerate the study,” DIA spokeswoman Stacey Stegman said, adding that expanded rail transit to the airport hasn’t been ruled out.
“We’re definitely feeling the impact of that development along Peña. We have to make sure emergency vehicles can get through and respond to emergencies in those communities. We know it is frustrating for people that the traffic does not move faster.”
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