The latest sign that air traffic is still affected by the pandemic: Passenger traffic at Denver International Airport was the third largest in the world in the first half of 2021.
DIA recorded 24.7 million passengers taking off or landing between January and June, according to raw data collected by Airports Council International and analyzed by DIA employees. Only Atlanta and Dallas-Fort Worth airports recorded more passenger traffic during this period. According to DIA, Chinese airports rounded off the top 5.
Prior to the pandemic, DIA was ranked 16th busiest airport in the world and 5th in the United States. This year, the recovery has outpaced that of most other major airports – in large part, airport officials said, due to DIA’s strength as a domestic airport for three airlines.
But business travel continues to lag behind, and international traffic – which slumped last year due to the pandemic’s travel restrictions in many countries – has been slow to recover.
Provided by Denver International Airport
Denver Airport ranked third among the world’s airports in passenger traffic in the first half of 2021.
DIA’s relatively quick recovery caused pain for the travelers, especially as they had to negotiate cumbersome building walls in the terminal. Families and leisure travelers are in large numbers in transit, which leads to long security checks that extend over the baggage claim area of the airport.
The airport has struggled to keep parking spaces free over the past few weekends. DIA temporarily reopened the large Pikes Peak shuttle lot last weekend, but the pandemic shutdown has taken much longer than expected as a contractor struggled to hire enough drivers.
The dynamics of air travel, which DIA favors, has reshuffled the global airport rankings. Large coastal airports, which are hubs for international travel, are still recovering more slowly, and major European airports have completely dropped out of the top 10 rankings.
Chicago O’Hare (6th) and Charlotte (8th) also ranked high in the first half of the year.
The scene at Denver International Airport right now …
Via @AlPaul pic.twitter.com/h158q0Wwft
– Jesse Aaron Paul ☀ (@JesseAPaul) October 18, 2021
For 2020, ACI ranked DIA eighth busiest in the world in terms of passenger traffic, despite the airport’s annual total of 33.7 million passengers, the lowest since 1996.
In 2019, before the pandemic hit, DIA had a record 69 million passengers.
While the rush continues, DIA advises passengers traveling to DIA to arrive two hours before the boarding times of their flights – not the departure times – in order to have enough time for the security check, especially if they are missing the TSA PreCheck or other expedited control pass.
The airport does not currently offer live wait times on its website, but the Transportation Security Administration’s MyTSA phone app estimates wait for each airport by the hour based on recent activity. According to the app, DIA’s busiest times – when waiting times are approaching an hour or even longer – are typically Monday, Thursday and Friday mornings. And on Sundays the waiting times increase from morning to early afternoon and again in the early evening.
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