Denver International is the second-best airport in America at not losing your stuff, study finds
Jul 21, 2026, 3:43 PM
For a city whose airport is best known for a demonic horse, a conspiracy-theory-inducing baggage tunnel and being roughly 45 minutes from everything, DIA just quietly picked up one of its best compliments in years: It’s the second-best major airport in the country at not losing your belongings.
New data from travel-tech company Holafly, which analyzed 10 years of TSA mishandling and lost-and-found complaint data across the 20 busiest airports in the United States, found that Denver International logged just 6.43 combined complaints per million passengers — second-lowest in the nation behind only San Francisco International at 3.83. Over the full decade from 2015 to 2025, DIA recorded a total of just 2,765 complaints, combining 2,683 mishandling complaints and a mere 82 lost-and-found complaints. For an airport that handles more than 40 million passengers a year, that’s remarkably tidy.
For context, Orlando International — where your luggage apparently goes to die — topped the list at 19.19 complaints per million passengers. New York’s JFK was right behind at 18.30, followed by Miami at 18.25. Denver’s rate is roughly one-third of Orlando’s, which means you’re about three times more likely to lose your sunglasses in Florida than your suitcase at DIA. Boston Logan, which we recently learned has the worst drivers in America, also can’t seem to keep track of your bags, coming in at 13.49. Even the vaunted Chicago O’Hare — which handles a comparable volume of travelers — logged a rate of 7.58, nearly 20% higher than Denver.
The most commonly lost item at DIA? Keys. According to the study’s search volume analysis, “keys lost at Denver International Airport” generated a total search volume of 5,200 — beating out phones, AirPods, laptops and wallets. Which means the most Colorado thing possible is happening: People are flying out for vacation, realizing somewhere over Kansas that their car keys are sitting in a TSA bin at Jeppesen Terminal, and Googling it from 35,000 feet.
DIA may still be the airport where your Uber costs $40 and takes longer than some domestic flights, but at least when you land, your bag will be there.
