Southwest Airlines (WN, Dallas Love Field) is likely to receive approval from Denver City Council (DCC) for the lease of 16 additional gates at Denver International, according to information from an airport spokesperson. Once complete in 2022, the low-cost-carrier will operate 40 gates in the Concourse C at the airport.

The city's Business and Aviation Committee voted on February 26 to move Southwest's use and lease agreement to the full council, where it will be voted on at the meeting on March 9. 16 additional gates are being constructed on Concourse C during an airport-wide USD1.5 billion project. All of those will go to Southwest if approved by the city council next month.

As part of the gate expansion project, some existing gates will be rebuilt to accommodate larger aircraft, some existing spider gates will get their own hold rooms, and some completely new gates will be added. In essence, overall it will be an increase in gate capacity of 30% at the airport.

Southwest spokesman Dan Landson confirmed to The Points Guy that the additional gates would support the carrier's "long-term growth plans" in Denver. The airline presently offers around 190 daily flights from the airport.

According to the ch-aviation Commercial Aviation Operator Capacity Data module, Denver is currently Southwest's third-biggest base, behind Dallas Love Field and Las Vegas Harry Reid, although the three airports are very similar in size, being split by only 370 weekly seats.

The DCC previously approved the lease of 24 more gates at the airport to United Airlines (UA, Chicago O'Hare) in January. The Star Alliance carrier, pre-construction, leased 66 gates in Concourse B at the airport. After construction, United will have 90 gates across Concourses A and B:

  • 12 additional gates are being constructed in Concourse A during the project – all of those will go to United;
  • United will lease 11 existing gates in Concourse A;
  • Several gates in Concourse B are being reconfigured – at the end of the project, Concourse B will have 67 gates – all of those will go to United.

All other airlines are still in lease negotiations with regards to their gate allocations, with a decision likely in the spring. Frontier Airlines (F9, Denver International) is one of those carriers seeking the extra gates from the in-demand capacity at Denver.

United is the airport's biggest customer, controlling over 47% of weekly capacity at the airport, ahead of Southwest with 27% and Frontier with 10%. United presently offers around 480 daily flights from Denver, by 2025, and once the airport expansion is complete, it hopes to offer 700 daily flights.