DENVER — When Dave LaPorte found out he’d be stepping in as interim CEO of Denver International Airport, he didn’t have a lot of runway to prepare.
“About 32 seconds,” he joked. “Literally, it was very quick. In reality, it was about two weeks, I guess, between the time that I got the mayor's call and then took over for Phil [Washington] as he was leaving.”
LaPorte was Chief Operations Officer and has been with the airport since 2012, after working for Southwest Airlines for nearly two decades.
He sat down with Denver7’s Ryan Fish for his first interview since taking over for Washington, who retired at the beginning of August.
“Phil Washington was a great leader, but it's really the team here that makes this place operate, and just very grateful to be a part of this team,” LaPorte said.
Aside from his aviation and operations experience, LaPorte wants to be known for being “very invested in” the airport’s employees.
“Want to make sure that we are providing a great space for them to work,” he explained. “My theory is that if we take care of our employees, they will in turn take care of our customers.”
Watch Ryan Fish's full interview in the video player below
Growing for the future
The airport already sees more than 82 million of those customers every year, and is growing to handle more than 100 million by the early to mid 2030s, LaPorte says. The airport’s Vision 100 plan charts the course for those upgrades.
LaPorte discussed some of those projects, including renovating original concourse spaces and restrooms starting early next year. Concourse C and the north part of the terminal building are also set for expansions—the latter including a bigger customs area, new check-in counters, security checkpoints and baggage carousels. LaPorte says those improvements will likely take seven to eight years.
Construction fatigue
But LaPorte has another focus in the more immediate future.
“The number one thing we need to do is finish the Great Hall project,” he said. “Our customers are fatigued from the from the construction. We have to finish that project strong. It will be done around the end of next year… before the end of 2027.”
LaPorte says the Great Hall’s final phase is projected to come in under its $1.3 billion budget.
“We need to finish that up, again, because our customers are just tired of the construction, right?” LaPorte added. “Every day they come in and they experience a new construction wall or some a different path to get to where they want to go.”
Long-awaited pedestrian tunnels
Flyers will be happy to see construction for another project: long-awaited pedestrian walkways to the concourses as a way to bypass the airport’s trains.
PREVIOUS COVERAGE: Denver International Airport announces plans to start work on pedestrian walkways connecting concourses
LaPorte says it will be an airline-funded project, led by United Airlines. He says “the train has served us very well” and has “carried millions of people over the years at a very high reliability,” but also acknowledges “when the train does go down, it just creates chaos.”
“We have a very short time to react to something like that, and it's a single point of failure,” he said. “And redundancy is important… I would expect that you'll see renderings maybe in the first quarter of next year, when the design gets more developed, and then we'll see construction start next year. And that will probably take about two years to complete that project.”
Painful Peña Boulevard traffic
There’s not only increased traffic at the airport, but also getting to the airport. Peña Boulevard remains a hot topic, as airport commuters and neighbors in Green Valley Ranch see daily slowdowns.
PREVIOUS COVERAGE: Drivers asked to weigh in on proposed Peña Boulevard traffic improvements
“That is something that is top of mind for us,” LaPorte said. “I do think that we are going to need a combination of things, right? We have to maximize the public transit as much as we can. I do think that we will probably have to add lanes.”
LaPorte says the airport will likely announce a “preferred alternative” for the highway by the end of this year.
Extended audition
That’s also the timeline for Mayor Mike Johnston to name a new permanent Airport CEO.
“There's a great possibility that a new CEO will be here in a few months, and may have a different way of doing things,” LaPorte acknowledged. “So, change has to be incremental and measured, I think, when you're in an interim role.”
He says he’s not fixated on landing the permanent job.
“It is not on my mind because I am focused on being the interim CEO here right now, and I want to do as good of a job as I can in that role.
“I do want to double down and and get back to our basics, take care of our customers.”
