Did legal marijuana make for a busier than normal January 2014 at Denver International Airport?
In early February we looked at the data for Colorado-bound flight searches in January 2014 that predicted DIA was going to see a mammoth month of traffic — potentially because of the Jan. 1 start of legal marijuana sales in the state, potentially because of Broncos playoff games or killer powder at the resorts in the Rockies.
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The official numbers released by DIA this morning prove at least part of that hypothesis correct: January 2014 saw a .8 percent increase over the airport’s travelers in 2013 — seeing a total of 4,056,858 passengers, the biggest January in the airport’s 19-year history.
“This January, Denver International Airport saw very strong origin and destination traffic from each of our major carriers: United, Southwest and Frontier, indicating that there were large numbers of people traveling to and from Denver,” Kim Day, Denver’s manager of aviation, said in a release. “When the airport sees record-breaking increases in passenger traffic, this translates to a positive economic outlook for the entire Rocky Mountain region and indicates that we are off to a strong and successful 2014.”
