Passengers find long security lines, a few delayed flights at DIA

DENVER -- It was a busy day at Denver International Airport as 184,000 passengers moved through security lines, trying to get home for Christmas.

"We need to get home," said an anxious Hailey Hutson, while standing in line at the south security checkpoint. "All my family is in [Houston] for Christmas, and we really want to be there for that. So, we really need to make this flight today."

Hutson said her flight was scheduled to take off in 40 minutes.  The security wait time was 32 minutes.

"We'll have 10 minutes to spare," she said confidently.

Most passengers moved through the terminal without any problems, but there was some residual frustration with Frontier Airlines, which had canceled a large number of flights earlier in the week.

"I flew in from Chicago, with my son, on Tuesday," said Olympic wrestler T.C. Dantzler. "Our flight was six hours late, and they lost one of our bags."

Dantzler, who lives in Colorado Springs, came back to Denver on Friday, to see if the lost bag had arrived yet.  It hadn't.

He said the airline told him not to call, but to keep checking in person.

"They said if I called, I would probably not be able to get through because they're experiencing a large volume of calls, so it's going to be guesswork, or my luggage will show up on my porch, hopefully by the Fourth of July," he said, half in jest.

"I understand there can be problems," he said.  It's travel. Things can happen.  I just don't like it when they happen to me."

Airport officials say 140,000 passengers are expected to move through the airport on Saturday and 139,000 on Christmas Day.