DENVER (KDVR) — Denver International Airport took one of FOX31’s crews behind the scenes on Monday to get a “snow and tell” about the winter season ahead.
“We are a major hub in this industry, in the middle of the country,” Kyle Lester, the Senior Vice President of maintenance at DIA, said. “We want to keep this airport flying in all sorts of circumstances and weather.”
Lester and other officials at the airport were able to show the team hundreds of pieces of equipment used during the winter season. A lot of the equipment is state-of-the-art and brand new.
“We work hard so the flyer doesn’t see what’s happening behind the scenes and are not impacted,” Lester said.
The winter maintenance crew is not only in charge of keeping everything cleared when it comes to planes, but they are also in charge of Pena Blvd.
“Our team is the best in the industry,” Lester said.
He explained they have right around 200 pieces of equipment and hundreds of employees. They start training several months before the first anticipated snowfall.
“Where else do you get to drive million-dollar toys? It’s like being a little kid,” Issac Escobedo, a crew lead at DIA, said.
Escobedo just celebrated 20 years at DIA and said it’s been a great place to work with a lot of opportunities to advance.
“Year one was white knuckles all the time, scared, didn’t know where the hell I was,” Escobedo said. “Now I’m training people and explaining to them what’s important and what they need to know.”
He said during peak snow operations, they work from 3 a.m. to 3 p.m. He said behind the wheel, there can be dicey moments, so it’s important everyone is fully trained and knows where to go and their role.
“These are big pieces of equipment, and if you don’t know how to run it and you don’t know where you are going, then on top of that, you can’t see,” Escobedo said. “It can be scary and very intimidating.”
He explained drivers need their CDL Class B in order to operate the majority of the machinery there. He said they have now started a program so they can train people to get their CDL.
“We get the airport cleaned, then it starts snowing and we gotta go back out again,” Escobedo said.
DIA works with meteorologists from the Weather Service based out of Boulder, as they assist with weather predictions to make sure things at DIA continue to move smoothly.
“I’m thinking the full first week of November we will start to see that snowfall,” Greg Heavener, a Warning Coordination Meteorologist with the Weather Service, said.
He explained DIA is the fifth-busiest airport in the world and the third-busiest in the country. So their job is to support the airport.
DIA is hiring several positions for winter crews. You can apply here.
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