November 15, 2007
With the holiday travel season imminent and two of the most serious runway incursions in the Nation occurring in Denver in the last year, members of the Colorado Delegation are concerned about the safety of the over 50 million passengers who travel through Denver International Airport annually. To address the issue of runway incursions, United States Senators Ken Salazar, Wayne Allard and Reps. Diana DeGette (CO-01), Mark Udall (CO-02), John Salazar (CO-03), Doug Lamborn (CO-05), Tom Tancredo (CO-06) and Ed Perlmutter (CO-07) sent a letter today to Robert Sturgell, Acting Administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration, asking them to accelerate deployment of the Airport Surface Detection Equipment Model (ASDE-X) for Denver International Airport.

This ground radar system gives air traffic controllers real-time information about all aircraft and vehicles on the airport grounds and is essential to modernizing the air traffic control system and the safety on airport runways. Currently, the new radar system is not scheduled to be implemented until 2010, but the delegation is asking that as a result of the serious incursions at DIA, that they receive the ground radar equipment sooner rather than later.

In the letter the delegation writes, “Given the safety challenges at DIA—the fourth busiest airport in the country, we believe the ASDE-X system should be implemented there without delay, and we ask that you consider moving DIA to the top of the list of the remaining airports that are scheduled to receive it.”

In the past year, two of the most serious runway incursions in the occurred at Denver International Airport and DIA was the only airport in the Nation to have more than one serious runway incursion. Additionally, two less-serious incursions occurred at DIA in the past year.