Southwest eyes new gates at its Denver concourse

Southwest Airlines has requested to operate out of all 16 new gates that will be added to its concourse at Denver International, as part of an aggressive growth plan at the Mile High City. Southwest already leases 24 gates on concourse C at Denver, and has expressed interest in the 16 additional gates that are coming as part of an ongoing expansion. "We'd like all of them," Southwest CE Gary Kelly said Wednesday. "It would put us at 40 gates. With our productivity we can do a lot of flights with that… We try to manage our costs carefully and we won't commit to that real estate unless we were certain we are going to use it." Denver airport plans to add 39 gates across its 3 concourses, as part of a US$3.5b programme. An airport spokesperson said that the airport is in talks with "a number of carriers" on leasing the new gates. <br/>