Denver Airport’s Vision 100 comes to life through strategic plan

In the autumn of 2021, Denver International Airport (DEN) CEO Phil Washington announced Vision 100, a plan to ensure that the airport will have the capacity and infrastructure to support 100 million annual passengers within the next eight to 10 years.

After months of intensive research, including the consideration of community, employee, and stakeholder feedback and suggestions, DEN has developed a new strategic plan based on Vision 100, which was officially launched on 17 February 2022.

“We are excited to announce our new strategic plan that is based on the foundations of Vision 100 and will prepare us for the future,” commented DEN CEO, Phil Washington. “DEN is the state’s primary economic engine and by developing a plan, tracking our progress, measuring our success and investing in the airport, we can ensure this economic engine will continue to thrive by creating more business, job and education opportunities while connecting more people across the globe.”

This strategic plan will guide the airport’s work over the next three to five years and is based on four pillars (below) and four guiding principles.

• Powering our People: Including DEN team members and community members who want to be part of DEN today or in the future. Ultimately, we want Denver to become the place that businesses and governments around the world look to recruit and hire aviation talent
• Growing our Infrastructure: Investing and growing DEN’s facility to ensure the airport can accommodate 100 million annual passengers
• Maintaining What We Have: The airport is turning 27 years old this month and is experiencing a great deal of wear and tear due to increasing passenger volumes
• Expanding our Global Connections: Solidify Denver and DEN’s place on the world map and create more business and tourism opportunities.

Under each pillar are three strategic objectives and corresponding metrics. These objectives will serve as our goals for the next three to five years. Some of the objectives include:

• Building a Centre of Excellence and Equity in Aviation to provide career opportunities for the community
• Completing the Gate Expansion programme and other major infrastructure projects to accommodate the growing airlines at DEN
• Growing DEN’s domestic network and looking for opportunities to expand to disconnected locations
• Developing the infrastructure of DEN’s real estate development around the airport that will create business opportunities and fuel our economy.

As we work to achieve these strategic objectives, DEN’s work will be informed by four guiding principles:

• Sustainability: Our goal is to become the greenest airport in the world
• Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion: We are better when everyone has a seat at the table and when we respect and listen to all viewpoints
• Customer Experience: This is our core business, and we have to exceed the needs and desires of travelers
• Our Stakeholders: DEN is bigger than just us. Many individuals, businesses and entities depend on our success including our airline partners, concessionaires, neighbours, businesses, local and federal agencies, elected official, travel, and tourism partners, our employees and travellers.