GoKawiilDenver Stapleton Airport's constraints prompted a new hub build-out
Denver's Stapleton Airport grew from a mail-carrier airstrip in the 1930s into a major hub after airline deregulation pushed United, Continental, Western and Frontier to base hub operations there. By the 1980s, its runways sat too close together for simultaneous instrument approaches, and surrounding terrain, private land and legal disputes with Adams County blocked any expansion.