Denver International Airport reports Dec-2018 traffic

The official 2018 numbers are in and Denver International Airport (DEN) shattered the 2017 passenger traffic record with nearly 64.5 million passengers and a new all-time high for international passenger traffic. This is the fifth-consecutive year of record-breaking growth for the airport.

"As Denver continues to grow so does our passenger traffic at DEN and the number of routes our airlines serve," said airport CEO Kim Day. "In 2018, DEN's airline partners added more than 50 routes including 20 new destinations, increasing our global connectivity and making it easier for passengers to connect around the globe. With growth expected to continue, we are focused on the future, expanding our facilities and creating the best passenger experience possible."

Overall, a total of 64,494,613 passengers traveled through DEN in 2018, an increase of 5.1 percent over the previous record of 61,379,396 in 2017. Additionally, DEN's international passenger traffic increased nearly 14 percent over 2017, reaching an all-time high of nearly three million passengers.

Many DEN records were set in 2018, including the busiest day in DEN history on July 13 with over 207,000 passengers traveling through the airport; fifty-six days in 2018 were busier than the airport's busiest day in 2017. July was also the first time passenger traffic surpassed six million in a single month.

Additionally, DEN marked a major milestone in 2018 becoming one of only five U.S. airports to provide scheduled service to 200 destinations. In 2018, DEN served 204 nonstop destinations, 178 domestic and 26 international, including service to 46 states, two more than the previous year. New service announced in 2018 and beginning in 2019 will boost DEN's total nonstop destinations to 212, including 186 domestic destinations in 47 states, and 26 international destinations in 12 countries.

New nonstop international routes contributed to this growth and, as a result, DEN's international passenger traffic increased at a rate nearly three times the rate of the total passenger traffic in 2018. June was the busiest month ever for international passengers at DEN. In 2018, the airport welcomed Edelweiss Air and WestJet, new foreign flag carriers, and added nonstop service to two new international destinations, Paris and Zurich, as well as new service to Calgary and London.

Rounding out the year, December 2018 was the busiest December ever in Denver aviation history with 5.22 million passengers, well above last December's record of 4.95 million, and the first December to serve more than five million passengers. The month was the 15th-consecutive month of record-breaking traffic.

Mail, freight and cargo operations increased seven percent in December, with 59,556,528 pounds of cargo. This was the most cargo through Denver in a single month since March 2006. In all of 2018, 613,590,574 pounds of cargo was handled at DEN, up nearly five percent from 2017.