Airport Management

  Operation and Control

The City of Denver owns and operates Denver International Airport. Under the city charter, the management, operation and control of Denver International Airport is delegated to the city’s Department of Aviation. Denver’s mayor appoints a manager to direct the Department of Aviation, and the manager reports directly to the mayor. 

Denver has designated the department as an “enterprise” as defined by the Colorado Constitution, and the department has the authority to issue its own revenue bonds or other financial obligations in the name of the city.

 Read more in the City Charter. Search by keyword "aviation" or "airport system."

  Manager of Aviation

Kim Day has more than 30 years of experience, including service as executive director of Los Angeles World Airports, a system comprising Ontario International Airport, Van Nuys Airport, Palmdale Regional Airport, and the world’s fifth-busiest airport, Los Angeles International. Before assuming the top position with LAWA, she oversaw design and construction for the system. She also spent 20 years as an architect and planner, specializing in airports.

Kim Day is strong, approachable, and inspiring, according to the people who work with her. Day received her bachelor of architecture degree from Cornell University and completed graduate course work at the University of California, Berkeley.

Her career began with DMJM (Daniel, Mann, Johnson & Mendenhall), a major international architectural and engineering firm. As vice president with the firm, she oversaw many aviation and transportation projects, from pre-Olympics improvements at Kingsford Smith International Airport in Sydney, Australia, to two new terminals at Ontario International Airport, to a privatization proposal for Perth International. At the well-known architectural, design, and planning firm Gensler, she participated in renovations at Corpus Christi International Airport, and at Will Rogers Airport in Oklahoma City.

Day’s most recognized achievements were at Los Angeles World Airports. As executive director, she managed 3,000 employees and oversaw a $600 million operating budget. She obtained federal, state, and city entitlement, as well as airline support for the $11 billion LAX master plan—a plan that addresses growth of LAX from 64 million annual passengers to nearly 80 million passengers. She negotiated a $350 million reimbursement with the Transportation Security Administration and maintained an AA bond rating after Sept. 11, 2001, the only major airport authority in the United States to do so. She executed a $500 million community benefits agreement with a coalition of 20 community groups to prevent litigation.

As LAWA’s deputy executive director of project and facilities development, she was responsible for all capital projects. Her projects included the design for the renovation of Tom Bradley International Terminal at LAX and the lobby baggage screening system, which went operational on Dec. 31, 2002, making Los Angeles the first Category X airport to achieve 100-percent baggage screening.

Following her time at Los Angeles World Airports, Day worked with Jacobs Consultancy (formerly Leigh Fisher), an aviation planning company, and then started her own consultancy.

In announcing Day’s appointment as Denver’s manager of aviation, Mayor Hickenlooper praised her as "not only a strong strategic thinker" but also a strong operational manager.

She is now leading the future of Denver International Airport and wants to ensure DIA is sustainable in the coming decades. She sees DIA bringing in more international service, increasing cargo, raising revenues, and, most importantly, making the passenger experience even better than it is today. Kim Day believes in Denver International Airport and she is motivated to see that the airport remains the world’s premier aviation facility.