A plane’s wings and rear tail component are engineered with a very specific shape in order to provide proper lift for flight. Snow and ice on these areas in essence change their shape and disrupts the airflow across the surface, hindering the ability to create lift. Deicing removes snow and ice for safety. At DEN, aircraft deicing is handled by airlines or their contractors, not the airport. But DEN has invested in cutting-edge technology that is reducing wait times at the deicing pads and saving the airlines money via reduced fuel burn. Initiated in 2014, a custom computer program called the Aerobahn Deicing Manager helps the airport and airlines predict the best time for each aircraft to push back from the gate, how long it will take to taxi to the deicing pads, how long it will take to deice and how long it will take to taxi to the runway for takeoff. This program’s use during a typical snow event will reduce airline delays by 2.6 minutes per aircraft and total costs by $88,000. This amounts to a savings of $5.8 million per deice season by improving efficiency and reducing wait times at deice pads.
DEN has 5 centralized deice pads with a total of 27 deicing spaces and 4 deicing contractors. The overall average time to deice an aircraft is less than 16 minutes. Individual times vary greatly though, based on the size of the aircraft and other factors. Individual queue times vary greatly as well, but the average is between 5-7 minutes. About 48-64 aircraft can be deiced per hour. Deicing throughput can’t exceed the runway capacity at any given time. Runway capacity is dictated by the FAA based on weather conditions.
Aircraft Deicing Fluid (ADF) is made up of a chemical called propylene glycol blended with water and additives to allow it to effectively remove ice and snow from aircraft before departure. The cost of fluid varies widely due to market conditions but is generally $8-$12 per diluted gallon.
Glycol is collected at the airport and is recycled into windshield washer fluid and other consumer products. DEN has one of the most comprehensive deicing fluid collection and recycling systems in the world, boasting an average collection rate of about 70% of all fluid applied to aircraft in a typical winter season.
DEN has 70 million gallons of stormwater retention capacity across 13 ponds. On-site storage infrastructure allows for efficient operation near departure runways and helps keep ADF out of the stormwater system.