Message From CEO Phillip A. Washington: Quarter Three Vision 100 Report

Earlier this year, we introduced Vision 100, our strategic plan designed to ensure that DEN is prepared to serve 100 million annual passengers in the next eight to 10 years. When we announced this plan, we promised to deliver regular updates on our progress. I’m happy to report that in the third quarter of 2022, we continued to meet important goals tied to each of our four Vision 100 pillars, and I’m excited to share some of the highlights of our work.

Third Quarter Progress in Vision 100

Powering Our People – This pillar is all about you, the people who work at DEN, and community members who want to be part of DEN today or in the future.

Related to the development of our Workforce Leadership Strategy, we received data from the 2022 Employee Survey and quickly began assembling briefings for the Senior Leadership team, the Employee Engagement Committee and the Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Accessibility (EDIA) committee on the data. In all of these briefings, we focused on the development of DEN-wide initiatives based directly on the results of feedback from our employees.

We completed the programming phase and entered the concept phase in the design of the Center of Excellence and Equity in Aviation (CEEA).

Interns from our Career Pathways Program graduated in August, the first group to do so since the beginning of COVID-19 pandemic. What’s more, nine of the interns from this group extended their internships. We also launched programming in the top three tiers of Career Pathways:

• Your Flight Plan: We launched DEN 101 with more than 250 employees trained to date.
• Ascent to Leadership: We launched the Airport Management Professional Accreditation Program (AMPAP) Training Certification program, with 12 DEN employees pursuing their certification.
• Elevated Leadership: We launched an effort to identify elements of senior leadership competency and have developed a Senior Leadership Social Contract that you’ll hear more about soon.

Growing Our Infrastructure – This pillar focuses on building the new facilities/expanding infrastructure needed to serve 100 million annual passengers.

We made significant progress to complete our current capacity building projects:

• Great Hall Project: We completed enabling work and relocated airline check-in operations from the north end of the terminal to the south end. We also continued discussions with TSA representatives regarding a DEN-preferred security lane vendor for the new checkpoints being constructed on level six.
• In the Gate Expansion Program, we accomplished the following:
  • We progressed significantly on construction expanding B-East and A-West (both projects were completed and opened in the fourth quarter).
  • Southwest Airline personnel began moving into their new C-East operational spaces in the new mezzanines.
  • We began significant construction of the water line and jet fuel civil engineering work to support the A-East ground-load facility expansion.
  • The delta sierra temporary de-icing pad is in full construction, and Southwest’s trash collection facility was moved to a temporary location.
  • Work on the American Airline Club and back-of-house space continues, with a move to C West planned for early next year.
• We completed the Southwest Airlines oversize bag drop in POD 2, part of the larger effort to construct a new baggage handling system. We also continued pretesting for the new Individual Carrier System (ICS) to move bags more efficiently.
• We continue to develop and expand our updated master plan.
• In our efforts to develop a comprehensive plan for DEN Real Estate district development, we accomplished the following:
  • We formulated a rolling request for offers (RFO) process to increase developer interest and streamline submitting offers to DEN (the rolling RFO has since been released).
  • We completed a study evaluating creative organizational structures and financing techniques for DEN Real Estate and began implementation of certain recommendations.
  • We initiated design and cost estimation of infrastructure necessary to start the development at the Second Creek District and South Campus area.
  • We increased coordination meetings with other city departments to preserve DEN’s property rights and development plans.
  • We completed a comprehensive land grading analysis for the Districts at DEN.
  • We negotiated three leases on DEN land.

Maintaining What We Have – This pillar focuses on taking care of our 27-year-old airport and managing the wear and tear caused by increasing passenger traffic.

• We worked to complete the Concourse Renewal Program. United Airlines finalized contracts and permits for Concourse B hold room renewals, and we expect construction to begin in the fourth quarter.
• We continued to revise our Strategic Asset Management Plan. The discovery conferences are complete, and we’ve distributed an updated, annotated outline. With this information in hand, can work with our consultants to assist in the formatting and composition of the concept-of-operations document.
• We continued to develop an innovative, science-based target for greenhouse gas emissions.

Expanding Our Global Connections – This pillar focuses on taking advantage of DEN’s mid-continental location and vast land holdings to grow our air service network and cargo operations. In the third quarter, we accomplished the following:

• Within our goal to develop further air cargo opportunities, we finalized the first phase of our work with the consultant and will present the summary to senior leadership in Q4.
• To expand the air network to Africa and other disconnected destinations, we conducted a survey of the Denver community regarding Air Service to Africa and shared the results with the Africa Air Service Committee.
• To grow our domestic air network, we announced that Delta Air Lines added new service between Denver and Boston Logan on July 11, joining JetBlue, United and Southwest on the route.

These are just the highlights of our accomplishments over the third quarter. I’m so proud of what we have achieved so far, and I’m encouraged by what this progress means for our future. We have set the bar high, and it is clear that everyone is stepping up to help us reach Vision 100.

Thank you for your commitment to Vision 100. I can’t wait to see our accomplishments next quarter and for the rest of the year! Keep up the great work!

Sincerely,

Phillip A. Washington
DEN CEO