View in browser | Subscribe to Updates May 2015 - Volume 7 - Issue 5 State of DIA Will Be the Evening of June 23 This year’s State of DIA, "Tails and Tales," is on the horizon. Join airport CEO Kim Day at dinner on Tuesday June 23 at the Seawell Grand Ballroom at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts. The evening event will begin at 6 p.m. To register, go online: StateofDIA http://content.govdelivery.com/accounts/CODIA/bulletins/1069430[6/9/2015 12:48:17 PM] WingTips May 2015 Celebrating 20 Years with a Chance to Win $20K http://content.govdelivery.com/accounts/CODIA/bulletins/1069430[6/9/2015 12:48:17 PM] WingTips May 2015 “How do you want your winnings? In twenties or fifties?” You may be asked that question if you win a new Colorado Lottery game. In celebration of DIA’s 20th anniversary this year, the airport partnered with the Colorado Lottery to launch a DIA-themed scratch ticket: “Destination Dollars.” The new scratch game features four tickets with images of DIA’s Jeppesen Terminal, each costing $2. The game’s top prize is $20,000. The tickets are now available at all Colorado Lottery ticket sale locations throughout the state, including a Colorado Lottery kiosk located on Jeppesen Terminal Level 5, in the northwest corner of the atrium (near the north passenger screening checkpoint). The game also has a second-chance drawing that offers the possibility of winning two roundtrip airline tickets on United Airlines or United Express to anywhere in the continental United States, Canada, Mexico, or the Caribbean. Read the drawing details and enter non-winning tickets for a second-chance prize on the Lottery website, www.coloradolottery.com, or via the Colorado Lottery mobile app. Bloomberg: ‘Denver Airport Beats Peers as Its City Ranks near Top for Growth’ Denver International Airport has helped transform Denver over the last 20 years and is financially outperforming many U.S. airports, according to a news article on the Bloomberg Business website. The Bloomberg report, released May 6, found that DEN posted lower borrowing costs than most of its peers last year while generating higher returns, although it operates in a state with the 22nd-largest population. The report also highlights how DEN has become the primary economic engine for Colorado, and discusses the airport’s room to grow and the ongoing Hotel and Transit Center project. Read the entire article here. DIA Breaks Record for Busiest Day in Customs Denver International Airport saw 4,714 international passengers go through U.S. http://content.govdelivery.com/accounts/CODIA/bulletins/1069430[6/9/2015 12:48:17 PM] WingTips May 2015 Customs on March 28, 2015, making it DIA’s busiest international arrival day recorded to date (not counting passengers who were pre-cleared in Canada). March brought a 7-percent increase in international passenger traffic through the facility. United Airlines, Volaris and Southwest Airlines had strong overall international increases, and British Airways began using a Boeing 747-400 for its Denver-to-London service in lieu of the B-777-200. Overall international passenger traffic, however, declined nearly 8 percent, from 229,860 in March 2014 to 212,419 in March 2015. Total March passenger traffic declined by 11,000 passengers out of 4.53 million, a 0.2-percent decrease from the same month last year. http://content.govdelivery.com/accounts/CODIA/bulletins/1069430[6/9/2015 12:48:17 PM] WingTips May 2015 Tour the Panama Canal The adventurer and author Richard Halliburton toured the Panama Canal in 1928 by swimming its length. He was charged a passage fee of 36 cents. His method of experiencing the 50-mile (80 kilometer) waterway might still be possible. But, most people prefer to do it by boat. The 50-mile-long Panama Canal sees boat and ship traffic of every size. Getting to the canal is easy, now that United Airlines has a nonstop flight between Denver and Panama City. Flight 1697 from Denver, leaving at 12:50 p.m., is available five times a week May through November and daily from December through April. By flying to Panama this year, you will still be able to see canal expansion under construction. The canal navigation channels are being widened and deepened, and the project is adding two more sets of locks to the current total of three. The Panama Canal Authority announced April 28 the installation of the 16th and final lock gate. So, your chance to see the mammoth construction project may last only up to December this year—the earliest target date for completion. http://content.govdelivery.com/accounts/CODIA/bulletins/1069430[6/9/2015 12:48:17 PM] WingTips May 2015 The Miraflores Locks--one of three original sets of locks that operate on the Panama Canal Enjoying the canal’s current path by taking a daylong cruise may be one of the more interesting boat trips you will ever take. For one thing, you’ll start in the Pacific Ocean and end up in the Atlantic. From Panama City, along the way, you will see the draining and flooding of three lock sets as your cruiser changes elevation so that it can continue its voyage. You’ll pass through the Gaillard Cut, which bisects the Continental Divide, and into Lago Gatún, a huge lake created by the Gatún Dam across the Chagres River. The trip will end on the Atlantic side, and from there a bus will carry you back to Panama City. Giant lock gates are brought by barge to the construction site for new Panama Canal locks. http://content.govdelivery.com/accounts/CODIA/bulletins/1069430[6/9/2015 12:48:17 PM] WingTips May 2015 Two new sets of locks are part of the canal expansion program, expected to be completed late 2015 or first quarter 2016. During your canal passage you probably will see giant ocean liners and container ships—maybe even a military boat, submarine or an oil tanker. You may glimpse tropical creatures as you enjoy the landscape itself. Many touring companies offer Panama Canal day trips (you’ll spend 10 hours), but half-day excursions also are available. If you don’t want to traverse the canal, you can drive from Panama City to the canal museum at the Miraflores Locks. From Colón, on the Atlantic side of Panama, it’s easy to visit the Gatún Locks, the Gatún Dam and the Atlantic Observation Center, which has covered decks for viewing the lake and especially the canal’s new construction. A theater shows video presentations in English, and you’ll find a café and, of course, a gift shop. Lonely Planet says that visitors there can walk a short rainforest trail for up-close and not-so-personal encounters with sloths and monkeys. Other canal options are kayaking or fishing or staying on a three-story houseboat lodge moored on the lake. Tours of indigenous villages close to the canal or a boat ride to and hike around Barro Colorado Island are available. Barrao Colorado is surrounded by Lago Gatún and is the location for the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute research station. Information about canal activities can be found at the official website of the Republic of Panama: www.visitpanama.com or at travel websites like Lonely Planet’s: www.lonelyplanet.com. Follow this link for more information about the canal expansion. Great Men and Women of Aviation Thomas Sopwith Spectators lining the shores of Staten Island and Bay Ridge in 1911 cheered when they spied a plane emerging from the mist. http://content.govdelivery.com/accounts/CODIA/bulletins/1069430[6/9/2015 12:48:17 PM] WingTips May 2015 The aircraft was heading out to sea, trying to catch the new White Star Line ship Olympic, which was leaving New York Harbor for the first time. The Olympic, Titanic’s sister ship, passed the Narrows and sailed toward the Atlantic. The spectators had gathered to see the Olympic and also to watch the biplane, piloted by Englishman Thomas Octave Murdoch Sopwith, fly above the ship as a salute to the liner’s maiden return voyage to England. Seeing the world’s largest passenger ship was a rare, exciting event. But, so, too, was seeing a plane. The date was June 1911, and sightings of aircraft were infrequent. Aviation —a fledgling endeavor—was as thrilling then as seeing today’s images of the universe’s remotest galaxies. “We were about 1,000 feet up,” Sopwith told the New York Times. “I could feel the warm air rising from the funnels of the liner, and it bothered me just a bit—not enough to cause me real concern, however. “I was particularly glad to accomplish the flight, for I had been prevented from greeting the Olympic on her arrival and I did not want her first trip to America to be completed without extending my congratulations to her Captain.” Sopwith—an early aviator—taught himself to fly in 1910 when he was 22, and he soon set records in England, winning the Baron de Forrest prize for the longest flight from England to Europe, reaching Tirlemont, Belgium, in three hours from Eastchurch. He toured the United States, performing at aviation meets, where the public could watch pioneer aviators try new flying stunts, or set distance, altitude or time records—often in newly designed aircraft. Sopwith was at a meet sponsored by the Aero Club of New York on Long Island when he rendezvoused with the Olympic. While at this meet, he also raced an electric train (losing), flew to Theodore Roosevelt’s house in Oyster Bay, and took President Taft’s brother up for a flight.