DIA and LGA: A Study in Airport Contrasts

"DIA is Getting More Crowded" reads the top headline in today's Denver Post business section. The article goes on to explain that Denver International Airport, built to handle 50 million passengers a year (but designed with a capacity for significant expansion), last year counted 47.3 million. Of these, some 41 percent were connecting passengers, who generally don't leave their concourse.

The opening sentence for this front page story is, "Denver International Airport seems more crowded all the time." I'm here to tell you that there's crowded and there's crowded. DIA might might be racking up numbers, but LGA felt really mobbed -- and really old and tacky.

Commercial air service at LGA began in 1939. Its Central Terminal Building was built in 1964, expanded in 1967 and again in 1972 and was most recently "modernized" in 2000. The expansion and especially the modernization are not immediately obvious. The terminal is still crowded. And as airports go, it's still a dump. When I arrived on a recentl rainy day, the roof on my arrival concourse was leaking, as it had been when I arrived there on a rainy day about two years ago. The clever catchment system seems ready to roll out in any downpour. It might have been positioned in the same spot as the last time I was there in the rain.

The concourses are narrow, the waiting areas are crowded, the security lines slow-moving because they have to funnel into the crowded concourses and the restrooms inadequate. And did I mention the delays? LGA, which surrounded on two sides by water, has two runways. DIA has six. We were late in taking off from DIA because there were delays at LGA. A week later, my flight left LGA on time, because I'm sure ground controllers couldn't wait to get rid of another aircraft.

DIA might have 47.3 million passengers a year, but to me, it seems like fewer. LGA has about 25 million, and every time I fly to or from there, it seems that most of them are at the airport the same day I am.