Jonna McGrath is the first woman to head United Airlines’ operations at Denver International Airport, taking charge during a $2.1 billion overhaul of the airport’s terminal and soaring growth for both the airport and the company.
McGrath, a 35-year veteran of the airline, oversees United’s fastest-growing hub. Since 2019, United, the airport’s dominant carrier, has seen a roughly 30% increase in gate capacity and an 18% increase in the number of passengers in Denver.
United accounted for nearly 50% of DIA’s passengers in February. The airline is logging 464 flights a day out of Denver and expects to exceed 500 this summer.
Overall, DIA had its busiest year ever in 2023, with 77.8 million passengers flying to, from and through Denver, up 12.3% from 2022.
In February, the airline opened a $145 million addition to its flight training center on a 23-acre campus in northeast Denver. United says the center is the largest of its kind. Last year, the company opened two United clubs in Denver, including the airline’s largest club in the world.
McGrath anticipates the pace of growth to continue.
“Denver is great because we have room to grow. We’ll go up to 90 gates by the end of this year. We’re now at 82,” McGrath said.
United has room to expand near the airport as well after buying 113 acres of land in the area last year. Airline officials have said some of the space will be used for another flight-training facility and other buildings. The land purchase has raised speculation that United might eventually move its headquarters from Chicago to Denver.
“That’s a question I get all the time,” McGrath said with a laugh. “We have no plans right now. We’ve been invested in Chicago over many, many years.”
But the land gives United options as it moves forward, she added.
Upward trajectory
McGrath took over as vice president of United’s airport operations in Denver in July 2023. About 4,000 United employees work at DIA. The airline’s total workforce in Colorado is approximately 10,000.
“Denver was always on my list of where I wanted to end up some day,” McGrath said. “I knew I wanted to be closer to home.”
McGrath grew up in the Deadwood area in the Black Hills of South Dakota. She joined United as a frontline worker in 1989 in Rapid City, S.D. Her family ran the marina at Pactola Lake and had a marine and sports shop.
“I was a single mom. I had a 1-year-old baby, and I sold a boat to the manager of United in Rapid City. He offered me a part-time job, and I thought, ‘oh, that’s a cool way to be able to travel and see the world.’ So I thought I’d do it for a couple of years,”
McGrath worked at the Rapid City airport for five years, handling pretty much all the different duties: working on the ramp, deicing planes, dispatching aircraft, pulling up the jet bridge and loading bags and customers.
From there, McGrath transferred to Minneapolis, where she worked “above the wing,” or in customer service. Everything outside is “below the wing.” She went from being a frontline worker to a supervisor and then the manager for United at the Minneapolis airport. She was there for 11 years.
McGrath then went to United’s headquarters in Chicago to work as a business analyst in information technology. The company was developing a new computer system for the frontline agents. She said she didn’t know the “technical stuff.”
“But I understood the job because I’d worked on the front line for many years, and I trained on our system that we were working on,” McGrath. “My job was to tell them what we needed the system to do to best serve our customers.”
When she talks to United employees, especially other women, McGrath said she advises people to take risks and learn new things.
“My first risk was when I went to Minneapolis. I was a single mom and I decided that I wanted a career with United, so I took that leap of faith and moved somewhere new,” McGrath said.
Other stops along the way before landing in Denver included managing United’s operations at airports in Miami, Orlando and Tampa in Florida, and Seattle and Los Angeles. During that time, McGrath said the number of women in leadership positions at United has grown.
“I still sit in rooms where there aren’t a lot of females, but it is growing. Over my 35 years, that growth is noticeable,” McGrath said. “Since my announcement as (vice president) in Denver, we’ve had two more female VP announcements in airport operations.”
McGrath believes United recognizes that women can bring a different perspective to the job. “It doesn’t always have to be that same group of males who have always followed that track or have done that job.”
During a United event for Women’s History Month, McGrath told a crowd at a gate on DIA’s B concourse about growing up in a family that was entrepreneurial. As a teenager, she did the books for the family business.
McGrath said she has also always looked for opportunities in the workplace. “Whenever they said we’re looking for people to take this job, take on this project, I raised my hand because I wanted to learn more.”
McGrath’s confident and empathetic approach as well as her competitive spirit have contributed to her success, said David Kinzelman, United’s senior vice president of airport operations.
“Her experience, passion, and positive outlook made it an easy decision to position her as the leader of our fastest-growing hub,” Kinzelman said in a statement.
As she nears the one-year mark in Denver, McGrath is focused on enhancing the customer’s experience, which includes improving curbside baggage check-in and providing apps that make navigating the airport easier.
United is updating its digital screens and accommodations at the gates, such as new furniture and more cellphone chargers. The overhead bins on the planes are being enlarged to handle more carry-on luggage, McGrath said.
And McGrath said the airline is working closely with the airport as renovations to the terminal and other projects proceed. “We have to have a really great working, collaborative partnership to be successful because as we grow we’re going to put more stress on the airport.”
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