Awaiting final approval, 30-year industry veteran Kim Day is likely to become the next manager of Denver International (DEN).
Day will replace Turner West when he retires March 31.
Chuck Cannon, a spokesman for DEN, says the process is not yet finalized. He referred calls to Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper, who acknowledged that Day had been selected to fill the position. Day still must meet with local officials and airport workers before the move will be official.
Hickenlooper says Day’s experience at Los Angeles World Airports, where she oversaw 3,000 employees and a $600M operating budget, makes her a fantastic person to plan and oversee expansion at DEN. During her time at LAWA, Day also helped expand Los Angeles International (LAX) from 64 million annual passengers to 80 million.
“By all accounts, she did a very good job of growing that airport and planning for the growth at a turbulent time,” Hickenlooper says, adding that DEN is beginning to face similar capacity issues.
Day, he says, also has built a reputation for being “almost egoless” and worked hard to build coalitions and partnerships with airport employees as well as airline executives.
She left LAWA after six years, the last two of which were spent as executive director, in September 2005. Most recently she has been president and chief executive officer of a Los Angeles-based aviation consulting firm. Prior to that, she had been a director with the Jacobs Consultancy for about one year and had spent more than two decades as an airport architect and planner.
Day beat out three other finalists for the position at DEN.
“We are very excited to get her,” Hickenlooper says. “She clearly had a passion for airports and for public service.”
