DEN security wait times have gotten shorter — like, noticeably shorter. After opening new PreCheck lanes this month, peak morning waits dropped from around 20 minutes down to about 12. That’s a 40% cut, which I’ll take.
I flew through Denver last week and honestly didn’t believe the improvement until I timed it myself. Walked up at 7:15am expecting the usual Monday morning crawl and was through in under 15 minutes. Probably should have led with this — for anyone who’s avoided early DEN departures because of security lines, it might be time to reconsider.
The new lanes are dedicated PreCheck, so if you don’t have PreCheck yet, you probably won’t see much difference in the standard lines. But even regular screening seemed to move a bit faster with the PreCheck crowd pulled out of the general queue. That’s what makes these infrastructure improvements endearing — they actually make a measurable difference instead of just being a press release.
