Essay on Denver International Airport - Case Study

1. What did the union do to prepare for negotiations? What additional sources of information might it have used? What were the union's primary objectives?

The Denver International Airport project consists of designing and constructing a new airport, based upon a

There were a number of threats which are the following: expensive for the airlines due to delays; economic free-fall in 1987, airlines are likely to limit operations below the level for which the airport was designed – fewer flights and passengers increase the cost per passenger thus encouraging airlines to route connecting traffic through alternative and competitive hubs; the new mayor who was elected inherited the project with no commitment to it by the major airlines; City of Denver invited reporters to observe the first test of the baggage system without notifying BAE.

Airline travel is arguably safer than that of car travel, with not only less risk for in motion issues and collisions of any sort, but not issues about missing the turn off. Airline travel issues do not usually persist during travel, yet can sometimes happen before the take-off even begins. The issue with Airline travel is not travel hazards, but instead travel protocols often carried out by the airline companies. United Airlines specifically has gone through too many CEO switches and un-transparent business ethics leading to customer complaints and needs to reevaluate business ethics.

There is NO real qualified Project Manager to oversee the entire project and bridge the gap between DIA and their top Carriers United & Continental, City Council and BAE. We have been expected to manage the project with everyone working in their silos with no real support or team goal or management as a whole.

Its operational capacity was severely limited by runway layout; Stapleton had two parallel north-south runways and two additional parallel east-west runways that accommodated only commuter air carriers. Denver’s economy grew and expanded greatly in the early 1980s, consequent to booms in the oil, real estate, and tourism industries. An aging and saturated Stapleton Airport was increasingly seen as a liability that limited the attractiveness of the region to the many businesses that were flocking to it. Delays had become chronic. Neither the north-south nor east-west parallel runways had sufficient lateral separation to accommodate simultaneous parallel arrival streams during poor weather conditions when instrument flight rules were in effect. This lack of runway separation and the layout of Stapleton’s taxiways tended to cause delays during high-traffic periods, even when weather conditions were good. Denver’s geographic location and the growing size of its population and commerce made it an attractive location for airline hubbing operations. At one point, Stapleton had housed four airline hubs, more than any other airport in the United States. In poor weather and during periods of hightraffic volume, however, its limitations disrupted connection schedules that were important to maintaining these operations. A local storm could easily congest air traffic across the entire United States.3

With the rapid growth of commercial air travel in the 1970s, the FAA recognized that the nation’s airports contributed significantly to the national economy and international commerce, as well as being a critical mode of transport for the public. Airports needed funding to improve safety and maintain airport infrastructure such as runways, taxiways, NAVAIDS, and land acquisition. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) formed the National Airport System Plan (NASP) to ensure these significant airports received Federal grants to make these improvements. The FAA revised the NASP with the Airport and Airway Improvement Act of 1982 and called the National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems (NPIAS) to reflect the further expansion.

In the early 1980’s, Denver experienced significant economic growth due to the booming oil, real estate, and tourism industries. The major airport that operated within Denver during that time was the Stapleton Airport. Up to 1970, the Stapleton Airport was able to accommodate the demands of Denver but in subsequent years it was unable to meet the ever growing needs of the city. The Stapleton Airport was seen as a liability and limited the attractiveness of businesses that were swarming to it. Issues with handling high traffic volume, disruptions in connection schedules, and an overall poor airport layout led the city of Denver to decide whether they wanted to expand or replace the Stapleton Airport. A study performed in 1983

The 3 bids are all rejected Denver Airport Project Management team approach BAE directly requesting a bid for the project Denver Airport contracts with BAE to expand the United Airlines baggage handling system into an integrated system handling all 3 concourses, all airlines, departing as well as arriving flights. In addition system is to handle transfer baggage automatically. Contract is hammered out in 3 intense working sessions United Airlines changes their plans and cuts out plans for the system to transfer bags between aircraft. Resulting changes save $20m, but result in a major redesign of the United Airlines portion of the system. Change requests are raised to add automated handling of oversized baggage and for the creation of a dedicated ski equipment handling area Continental requests ski equipment handling facilities be added to their concourse as well Chief Airport Engineer, Walter Singer dies. Mr Singer had been one of the driving forces behind the creation of the automated baggage system Change orders raised altering size of ski equipment claim area and adding maintenance tracks so carts could be serviced without having to be removed from the rails Target opening date shifted from 31 Oct 93 to 19 Dec 93 and soon thereafter to 9 Mar 94 Target opening date is shifted again, new target date is 15 May 1994 Original target for

From the city of Denver’s perspective, it was an easy choice to award BAE Automated Systems with the contract. The initial project design (as cited in Montealgre et al, 1996, p. 8) did not incorporate an airport-wide baggage system; the city expected the individual airlines, largely consisting of United and Continental Airlines, to build their own systems in their respective concourses as in most other American airports. The city sent out initial requests for bids to take on the first attempt at implementing such a complex baggage system, with not much response. Eventually they had no choice but to approach BAE, whose superior reputation in the field of baggage handling had already motivated United Airlines to contract them to design their baggage handling system. This system was to be implemented in United’s Concourse B without integration with the other concourses (Montealgre et al, 1996, p. 8). In return, BAE offered the city of Denver a proposal to develop the “most complex automated baggage system ever built” (Montealgre et al, 1996, p. 9). The whole DIA project was to be a public works project involving many shareholders with various financial sources and intentions. The main shareholders

Miami International Airport (MIA) is one of the largest airports in the US. This case study gives the information on the airport, its history and some background. A report provides the information on the ownership type of the airport and its owner. I tried to enlist specific issues and certain facts about the operations and financial information.

Since May 2008, Orlando International Airport has increasingly used higher fees to recover some of the expenses lost in their bulging fuel bills. This trend continued as revenue was hit by low passenger numbers. Additional charges have forced passengers to pay more to check in additional baggage, which can cost $50 or more each way, leading to a lack of pricing transparency in the Orlando International Airport. Airfares are quoted online without including

Piedmont Airlines recently invested over $1 million in state of the art equipment and employee development in order to forecast and analyze the appropriate amount of discounted fares to offer per flight. The company discovered that by offering several discounted flights to consumers willing to book their travel well in advance of their departure date left many options available for the business traveler who needed to book much closer to the actual departure date. The analysis was the task of the Revenue Enhancement Department (RED) managed by Marilyn Hoppe. While this state of the art equipment was a step in the right direction, Marilyn believed that there were still a lot of subjective decisions being made and

The airline industry has seen drastic changes since September 11, 2001. The government ordered a complete shutdown for three days of not only all commercial aircraft but such carriers as domestic flights and emergency aircraft. For days after September 11th, all aircraft stayed on the ground. Even military aircraft had to receive special clearance to fly. In a ripple effect, the entire economy of the United States and the world was put on hold. The New York Stock Exchange shut its doors because of the attacks on the towers of the World Trade Center.

1. From the point of view of the industry incumbents, is the express mail industry attractive? How has Airborne survived, and recently prospered, in its industry? Is its success attributable to its capabilities, its position, or industry attractiveness?