Traveling with Ease
As the summer travel season hits its stride, keep in mind these few tips to help you make your flight easy.

• Secure Flight Program – (See the article that follows.)
• Passports – U.S. and Canadian travelers must present a passport or other document that denotes identity and citizenship when entering the United States.

The goal is to facilitate entry for U.S. citizens and legitimate foreign visitors, while strengthening U.S. border security.

This Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative regulation went into effect June 1, 2009. for land and sea travel into the United States. Air travelers have been subject to the regulations since Jan. 23, 2007. For more information visit: www.cbp.gov/travel.

• 3-1-1 for Carry-on Bags
  The Transportation Security Administration still has a ban in effect for carrying liquids, creams, and gels onboard a flight. Exceptions to this rule include medicines and baby food, breast milk or formula (see the TSA Web site for details): http://www.tsa.gov/311

Passengers can pack toiletries in their carry-on bags, as long as these rules are followed:

• 3.4 ounces or less (by volume) bottle (or tube)
• 1 quart-sized, clear, plastic, zip-top bag to hold the 3-oz. containers
• 1 plastic bag per passenger (take it out of your bag and put it in a screening bin as you proceed through security screening)
• If in doubt, put your liquids in checked luggage

For additional travel tips specific to Denver International Airport, please visit: http://www.flydenver.com/guide/tips.

TSA Secure Flight Update
Here’s the most-recent security requirement you need to know before booking a flight:

The Transportation Security Administration initiated the Secure Flight Program to streamline the watch list-matching process and improve the travel experience for all passengers, including those who have been misidentified in the past. This program is done behind the scenes before a boarding pass is ever issued, so small differences in boarding passes and identification should not impact travel. The TSA addresses potential questions and concerns on its Web site at: http://www.tsa.gov/what_we_do/layers/secureflight

The agency reminds travelers that they should ensure that the names they provide when booking travel match the government-issued IDs that they will use when traveling. TSA has built some flexibility into the processes regarding passenger name accuracy, however. For the near future, small differences between a passenger’s ID and a passenger’s reservation information, such as the use of a middle initial instead of a full middle name, should not cause a problem for the passenger.

Passengers should try to have consistent names on their IDs and their tickets, as airlines are incorporating Secure Flight into their booking systems over the coming months.

Is Colorado Bucking a Weakening Travel Market?
As consumers continue to feel the effects of a weak economy, Colorado is faring relatively well as travelers embark on more local trips, seeking deals offered by local parks and resorts hoping to counter a weak market. Additionally, a comparatively strong economy in the West should help support more travel activity in the region.

Matt Inden/Weaver Multimedia Group

A report recently released by Longwoods International shows domestic overnight and day visitors spent $10.9 billion state-wide, a slight decrease from 2007 when there was $11.1 billion in spending. But, visitors spent a record $3.1 billion in Denver last year, even as travel trends weakened nationwide. The total number of overnight visitors to Denver was unchanged from 2007 to 2008, but the Metro Denver Economic Development Corporation notes that the additional visitors to the Democratic National Convention may have bridged any gap left by weak travel.

As Denver travel trends beat the national norm last year, Colorado and most of the west outperformed other parts of the country during this year’s critical July 4 travel period. Initial reports from the Denver-based Mountain Travel Research Program show that some Colorado venues and parks have reported near-record visitor volumes for the weekend, and officials with the Colorado Department of Transportation say traffic counts for the Eisenhower Tunnel over the holiday weekend were the fifth-highest ever.

The most recent Rocky Mountain lodging report shows that Metro Denver hotel occupancy rates rose slightly between April and May, but the May rate remained almost 10 percentage points below May 2008’s occupancy rate. The region’s average room rate declined between April and May, and the average rate for the first five months of 2009 was down 5.8 percent from the average for the same months in 2008 (see chart). This same report shows summer season bookings at a group of resorts in Colorado are down 15 percent from 2008, and average room rates have declined at those resorts.

Innovation and Small Business – An Award-winning Combination
Amore Fiori Flowers & Gift Shop, CofTea Shop, and Vertical Mile Market have given DIA more than great new retail options.

The trio of stores – known collectively as the Terminal Marketplace – has earned the airport an award from the national Airport Minority Advisory Council.

At its 25th annual conference in Baltimore in June, AMAC presented the Airport Innovation Award to DIA for the airport’s Terminal Marketplace initiative for small businesses.

The Marketplace’s three Small Business Enterprise concessions are owned by local entrepreneurs whose businesses are certified as minority- or women-owned.

DIA and the Denver Office of Economic Development worked together to provide a unique airport opportunity for small businesses. After requesting proposals from interested entrepreneurs, DIA selected three businesses and invested $1.5 million for the initial build-out of their concession spaces on Level 5 in the Jeppesen Terminal atrium. DIA’s investment relieved the small retailers of significant start-up costs, and the OED provided technical assistance throughout the start-up process.

These spaces will act as incubators for small and local businesses so that they can grow and aspire toward moving up into one of the larger airport concession spaces in the future. AMAC also honored DIA contractor AECOM for achieving 38-percent Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE) participation for its work at the airport during the last five years. The contract goal is 25 percent.

AMAC is the only national, non-profit trade association dedicated to promoting the full participation of minority-owned, women-owned, and disadvantaged business enterprises in airport contracting. AMAC is also dedicated to including minorities and women in airport employment.

(left to right) Tamela Lee, director of Small Business Opportunity for Denver’s Office of Economic Development, Patrick Heck, DIA deputy manager for Revenue Development, and Sharon Hill, of DIA’s Small Business Opportunity Office accept AMAC’s award for airport innovation.

Antonov 124 Ruslan – Workhorse for the Atlas V
The Antonov An-124 Ruslan aircraft is an odd, but routine, sight at Denver International Airport.

The An-124 is a Russian-Ukrainian heavy long-haul freighter equipped with four by-pass engines and is intended to carry unique and oversized cargo. Until the Antonov 225 went into production, the An-124 was the largest airplane built in the world.

Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company, with facilities near Denver, contracts the An-124 to transport its Atlas V space-launch vehicle from Denver to Cape Canaveral. Due to the massive size of the Atlas V, two flights are required to transfer a complete vehicle (one for the Atlas V main booster and another for the Centaur upper stage).

The Antonov 124 can fly at any geographical latitude—day or night—in normal or difficult meteorological conditions with prescribed operating limits.

FOD Squad
Trash, small rocks, pieces of metal and wood, and other debris are all on the watch list for the “safety walk” – a comprehensive look at the runway safety area mandated by FAA regulations. These items are examples of foreign object debris (FOD) that DIA employee volunteers, aka the FOD Squad, look for and pick up along runways and taxiways. Removing FOD ensures no aircraft will ingest this material into an engine or be damaged in any other way by these potentially hazardous items. The volunteers also look for and mark shallow trenches, sand build-up, or other ground variations that interfere with a smooth surface within the safety area alongside runways and taxiways.

Annually, the airport alternates closing each of DIA’s six runways for a couple of hours while volunteer crews walk alongside thousands of feet of concrete in search of FOD and other safety hazards. The concrete surfaces themselves are inspected at least three times a day by airport Operations personnel, and airfield Maintenance workers clean airfield ramps once a day, and the runways and taxiways as needed. Operations does a special inspection of the runways and taxiways after a storm.

By joining a FOD Squad, employee volunteers have a chance to experience a part of the airport they might not otherwise get to visit.

So, if on your next departure or arrival, you see people walking alongside a runway or taxiway, be sure to wave at them. They are DIA’s employee volunteers who are helping to ensure your safety.

LAST CHANCE TO SUBSCRIBE!
This is your last chance to subscribe to DIA’s monthly newsletter, WingTips. The airport’s Public Relations and Marketing Division has been distributing WingTips unsolicited to build a subscriber base. After the July issue, however, we will send WingTips only to readers who have subscribed. The subscription process is easy. Simply follow this link and supply your e-mail address, plus your city and state (we want to know where our readers live). That’s it. You can unsubscribe anytime you want (but, why would you when you can have current news about DIA?).

Day Trips Propel Colorado to 50.6 Million Domestic Visitors in 2008
Colorado welcomed a total of 50.6 million domestic visitors in 2008, a 2-percent increase over total visitation in 2007 according to The Colorado Travel Year Study 2008, a profile of Colorado’s visitors by research firm Longwoods International. Colorado also had 23.2 million day trips, an increase of 8 percent over the number of day trips taken in 2007 (21.5 million trips).

Air Service News

Adding Alliance
Beginning August 1, Great Lakes Airlines will again serve Alliance, Neb. (AIA), nonstop with four daily flights between Alliance and Denver. Alliance is part of the U.S. government’s Essential Air Service program and was formerly served from Denver through Scottsbluff, Neb. (BFF).

Vail Reopens
After its closure for runway extension in May 2009, Vail’s Eagle Airport (EGE) will reopen September 1. United Express will again operate eight daily flights between Denver and Vail after the reopening.

Airline Ticket Sales – Is the Decline Slowing?
Airline ticket sales have seen nothing but red this year. Sales in May were down almost 30 percent from May 2008, according to Airlines Reporting Corporation, which tracks ticket sales monthly.