Denver International Airport CEO Phillip Washington and his eight top executives flew round-trip to Madrid in April for a three-day airport terminal conference, with all nine flying either first or business class on every leg of the trip.
One of the tickets cost over $19,000 while another was just shy of $16,000, according to records obtained by CBS News Colorado under Colorado’s Open Records Act.
“International travel is costly,” Washington said during a Zoom interview about the trip. In this case, the Madrid trip cost about $165,000, or an average of $18,000 for each traveler, including flights, hotels, meals, conference costs, and ground transportation.
Asked why the contingent needed to fly the most expensive class of service on every leg to and from Spain, Washington said, “our policy allows us to do that.”
The flight website Kayak showed round-trip tickets from Denver to Madrid can cost as little as $1,300, and premium economy seats can be purchased for around $3,000.
Washington went on to say that first-class travel for him and his executive team is critical to their productivity: “You got to hit the ground running. You literally go from the plane to a meeting or a conference or whatever. This is — for those reasons — this is allowed in our travel policy, and we did.”
But the actual flight tickets obtained by CBS News Colorado showed that the executives landed in Madrid at about 9 a.m. or 10 a.m. on the morning of April 7. But records for the 2025 Passenger Terminal Expo show the conference didn’t begin until 24 hours later, on the morning of April 8.
The conference drew about 1,700 airport executives, consultants, and aviation experts sharing information about the newest technology and trends in airport terminals. Several of the DIA executives either spoke at the conference or sat on panels.
Two other U.S. airports — Dallas-Fort Worth and Los Angeles International, which both are similar in passenger traffic to DIA — sent far fewer representatives than DIA. Los Angeles International said it sent four representatives to Madrid, while Dallas said it sent five employees.
“We were the talk of the conference,” Washington said.
The round-trip flights for DIA Chief Operating Officer Dave Laporte came out to $19,194.21, while the flights for William Poole, the airport’s senior vice president of planning and design, totaled $15,764.71. Washington’s flights came in at $12,324.01, and flights for his chief of staff, Maria Meleandez, were $12,324.21.
“We always try to get the cheapest fares we can get,” said Washington.
But Meleandez apparently violated DIA’s employee travel policy, which allows employees to add a maximum of two business days onto their work trips. The apparent intent of the rule is to prevent employees from using work trips as jumping off points for lengthy vacations. But that’s exactly what Meleandez did. At the conclusion of the conference on April 10, she then went on to travel in Europe for about two weeks, not returning on her business class flight to Denver until late April, well beyond the two-day limit.
“I did not know about the rule,” said Washington. “We’ll deal with that accordingly. We will take care of this.”
While the conference concluded on the afternoon of April 10, the DIA travelers — except for Meleandez — all left on Friday, April 11, headed back to Denver, giving them the weekend to rest and recuperate. Asked about upgrading to first and business class on the way home and if that could have been done more economically, Washington said simply, “the policy allows that, so we took advantage of that.”
The other five DIA executives’ round-trip fares ranged from $9,000 to $11,000 each.
Overall, Washington said the expenditure was, in his view, well worthwhile.
“Those costs may seem high; they are an investment in our people,” said the CEO. “We sent who we sent, and they are going to pay dividends as we build out this infrastructure.”
He said what they learned at the conference will defray future costs at DIA and end up saving money: “I have no reservations about what we picked up there. I think it was a great investment for the Rocky Mountain region, the city of Denver, DIA, and the national airspace.”
The funding for the trip comes from DIA revenues, which are derived from what passengers pay for concessions, parking fees, rental car revenues, and other user fees.
While Washington defended the class of travel and trip costs, he said, “we always review and reexamine all our policies. We’ll take a look at this one. If it makes sense to revise it, we will do that.”
The post Denver airport flew 9 execs to Madrid 1st class, business class; one ticket was over $19k and “policy allowed it” first appeared on Voxtrend News.
