Security-screening wait times at Denver International Airport during the busy summer travel season should be about half as long as last year, officials said.
At a DIA briefing Thursday, Patrick Ahlstrom, the Transportation Security Administration’s director at the airport, said screening wait times have averaged seven minutes this year at peak travel times. That compares with 15 minutes last year.
The TSA now has more screeners available for staffing passenger checkpoints since DIA has shifted to an automated system for screening checked luggage.
DIA expects to get three bomb-detection “trace portals” by the end of the summer to help screen passengers for explosives. The machines may enable the phaseout of hand pat-downs of passengers.
Passengers step into the portals and puffs of air are blown over their bodies to dislodge any trace amount of explosive. Air samples are collected to reveal the presence of such chemical evidence.