Denver International Airport wins national award for snow, ice removal operations
DENVER (KDVR) — If you ever look outside of a plane window before takeoff, you will likely have noticed how busy the tarmac can be. Vehicles headed in every direction, people with different vests holding various items and planes landing and taking off.
All of those people hold the same job titles as other airport workers across the world, but working at Los Angeles International Airport is far different than working at Denver International Airport.
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One thing the employees at DIA have to deal with is the harsh snow and ice that develops in Colorado. When the ice and snow begin to interfere with flights, the crews must work quickly and efficiently to ensure a fast turnaround and safe takeoffs and landings.
The crews at DIA were so good at dealing with the frigid, icy and snowy situations that the airport won the Balchen/Post Award for 2024.
The award is given to the airport with the best snow and ice removal programs across the United States. DIA won the award in the category for large commercial airports, which is the fourth time in history that the airport has been named the recipient.
'We're extremely proud of our snow teams for upholding the highest standards during challenging winter conditions and keeping one of the busiest airports in North America operating safely,' Denver International Airport CEO Phil Washington said in a press release. 'As we continue to maintain our facility to the highest standards and prepare for 100 million passengers, our snow team maintains its reputation as one of the most efficient snow operations in the nation.'
The Balchan/Post Award has been presented by the Northeast Chapter of the American Association of Airport Executives at the International Aviation Snow Symposium and honors the work of airports in commercial flights, general aviation and military categories.
The award is awarded for excellence in categories, including:
In-depth preparedness
Effectiveness of the snow and ice control program
Timeliness and accuracy of communications during the program and post-storm activity
DIA is the largest commercial airport by land mass in the United States, so the crews have a lot of ground to cover in a limited amount of time.
The snow and ice program is responsible for handling six runways, 300 lane miles of roads, which is the distance from the airport to the Utah state border if the roads were placed in a straight line and 30 acres of parking lots, which hold about 40,000 parking spaces and cover the size of about 23 football fields.
To deal with such a massive task, the airport deploys nearly 500 trained snow removal personnel, 209 pieces of airside snow removal equipment and 48 pieces of landslide snow removal equipment.
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It took those teams an average of 17 minutes to fully clear a runway.
In 2024, a total of 47.7 inches of snow had to be dealt with.
During its 30 years of operation, the airfield has only had to close six times because of snowy weather conditions, according to DIA.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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