Denver International Airport has been mired in the plans for its new South Terminal, a project that is expected to consume about a third of the $1.5 billion DIA will likely spend on improvements by 2020. But the plan has, as the Denver Business Journal [2] puts it, been "nipped and tucked." The budget for a 500-room hotel, FasTracks station, train bridge, and open-air plaza has been trimmed to $500 million from $650 million.

But some of the cuts may not be discernible: For instance, the hotel will go up, but with one less floor, and the scale of the canopies over the train station will be smaller. Still, there will likely be a bottom line for travelers. DIA chief financial officer Patrick Heck recently told Denver City Council members the cost to airlines for each passenger boarding at DIA will grow to about $15 by 2018 because of new debts for capital improvements, reports the Denver Post [3].