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Denver International Airport (KDEN) is one of the busiest hubs in the United States, lying on the plains northeast of Denver, Colorado, and operated by the City and County of Denver. For the simulator pilot it is notable above all for its sheer scale: six enormous hard-surfaced runways, including the longest public-use runway in North America, set within a Class B environment that dwarfs almost any other airport in the default scenery library.
Denver International Airport, known to pilots by its ICAO code KDEN, is a major international airport serving the Denver metropolitan area and the wider Front Range Urban Corridor of Colorado. It is operated by the City and County of Denver and is a hub for United Airlines and an operating base for Frontier Airlines and Southwest Airlines. For a simulator pilot the field is chiefly of interest for its scale and complexity: six long parallel and crossing hard-surfaced runways, a sprawling airport footprint, and a busy Class B terminal environment that offers a demanding contrast to smaller general-aviation fields.
Denver International lies in northeast Denver, Colorado, around 25 miles by road from downtown Denver and is in fact closer to the city of Aurora than to central Denver itself. The airport sits within Class B controlled airspace, reflecting its status as one of the busiest commercial hubs in the country, and any VFR pilot planning to operate in the vicinity should expect to be working under positive ATC control throughout the terminal area.
Denver International has six physical runways, all hard-surfaced and lit, each equipped with an ILS. The longest, 16R/34L, is 16,020 feet long and is the longest public-use runway in North America. The remaining runways are 16L/34R and 17L/35R and 17R/35L, each 12,023 feet long, together with 08/26 at 11,996 feet and 07/25 at 11,984 feet. This combination of length and number of runways allows the airport to run parallel and crossing operations simultaneously, which is reflected in the complexity of arrival and departure routings into the field.
Denver International is a fully ATC-controlled Class B airport with a full suite of services. Published frequencies are Approach 119.3 MHz, ATIS 125.6 MHz, Clearance Delivery 118.75 MHz, Departure 126.1 MHz, Ground 121.85 MHz, Radio 123.65 MHz, Tower 124.3 MHz, and Unicom 122.95 MHz. Every runway is served by an ILS, giving multiple precision approach options into the field regardless of the arrival direction.
As a major Class B hub handling continuous heavy jet traffic, Denver International does not operate an informal VFR joining or circuit pattern in the manner of a general-aviation airfield; all arrivals and departures, including any general-aviation traffic, are integrated into the airport's instrument approach and departure procedures under full ATC control via approach, tower and ground frequencies.
Denver International Airport opened on 28 February 1995, replacing the former Stapleton International Airport, which by the 1960s had become the sixth-busiest airport in the country but suffered from runways set too close together, producing long delays and nationwide disruption in poor weather. Between 1980 and 1983 regional planners investigated sites north and east of Denver for a new airport, and in 1983 Mayor Federico Pena campaigned on a plan to expand Stapleton onto Rocky Mountain Arsenal land, a proposal that met resistance from Adams County over noise concerns. Pena eventually agreed a deal under which Adams County would support Denver's annexation of 54 square miles of the county to build an airport away from established neighbourhoods; voters approved the annexation in 1988. The federal government contributed 500 million dollars toward the project, with the remainder financed by bonds repaid through airline fees, and ground was broken in September 1989. Mayor Wellington Webb inherited the project in 1991, and construction delays, including a strike and problems with the automated baggage system that United Airlines had required as a condition of relocating, pushed the opening back several times from an original target of October 1993 to the eventual opening in early 1995.
Denver International remains one of the busiest airports in the world and the third-busiest in the United States by passenger numbers, serving 26 airlines with nonstop service to some 230 destinations across the Americas, Europe and Asia. It is the largest operating hub for United Airlines and also serves as a major base for Frontier Airlines and Southwest Airlines. The airport's scale, with over 40,000 employees, makes it the largest single employer in the state of Colorado.
