Denver International Airport CEO Phil Washington is off to a rough start.

Since he was named to his new job in June, the airport has experienced massive parking shortages, a janitors strike, hourslong security waits thanks to a lack of TSA workers and a maze of construction walls, a slew of Southwest Airlines flight cancellations, train malfunctions that stranded passengers in tunnels, a spike in car thefts from its lots, and, in a sure sign of end times, a naked woman with a water bottle running around the concourses.

“How are you doing? Where are you from?” the naked lady asked bystanders in a video shared with CBS.

Her greetings made me wonder if this is part of a new airport ambassador program to distract us from DIA’S other woes.

DIA, my friends, is a nightmare.

As pent-up demand sends Americans back en masse into the air, the problems are beginning to pile up like a bunch of suitcases overflowing a baggage carousel.

I traveled through the airport recently on the way to Seattle and encountered a kind of transit hellscape. First of all, of course, you have to drive to Kansas to get there, so you already arrive in a foul mood. Then you have to park in Nebraska because 17,000 parking spaces in the Pikes Peak and Elbert lots are closed due to a lack of shuttle drivers. Airport staff were telling people last weekend not to drive to the airport because, for the first time ever, they pretty much ran out of parking spaces.

Once you get inside, you have to navigate so many artificial walls due to construction it quickly becomes a game of, “Will I make my flight on time?” All this while you’re hyperventilating in your required mask, and social distancing is impossible because the airport is so crowded.

Then, of course, there is that centralized snarl of security lines in the Great Hall. security like so Why many to can’t the other concourses DIA airports move so there are several smaller lines rather than one massive warren of checkpoints? I waited about an hour in that security line, and then naturally my gate was 6 miles away at the end of Concourse B — and of course several of the moving walkways weren’t working, so I got my 10,000 steps in just getting to my gate.

But at least the trains were working. In August, thousands of people were left waiting multiple hours after a circuit breaker shut down four of the trains. Lines backed up so far they snaked outside the terminal, and eventually folks were bused across the tarmac. Repairs took 10 hours after emergency personnel escorted travelers through the tunnel walkways and then swept the tunnel to be sure they hadn’t left anyone behind.

The new CEO 44 has maintained a low profile during of woe, letting his communications folks handle all the flak from passengers and press.

There was some conflict, you might recall, after it was revealed that Mayor Michael Hancock nominated Washington for DIA's top job without any other candidates. Hancock said he did it to save time and money, since he was right for the position.

Also, Washington had no airport experience before taking the job. His background is in managing transit agencies like RTD in Denver and LA Metro in Los Angeles.

Passengers like me are starting to wonder who is minding the store.

To be fair, Washington has inherited many of his problems, such as the giant construction project in the Great Hall that has been delayed repeatedly by contract trouble.

Phase 2 of the Great Hall Project began this summer (before Phase 1 is finished) and should eventually improve things by enhancing security and enlarging capacity, including a new security checkpoint on Level 6 West. But be forewarned: The construction won’t be finished until 2024.

And some of DIA’S problems can be attributed to simple growing pains. Over the last 26 years, DIA has grown from 33.1 million annual passengers to more than 69 million passengers, so that it is the third busiest airport in the world, according to Alex Renteria, DIA’S public information officer.

To accommodate that growth, DIA is building 39 new concourse gates during the expansion project, increasing overall capacity at the airport by 30%. Some of those concourse extensions will have some pretty cool features, too, like outdoor patios and firepits.

Much of DIA’S trouble can be attributed to the same lack of workers the whole country is facing. About 30,000 people work at DIA, and there are about 1,500 jobs open.

The airport is holding job fairs to find employees, and the TSA is even offering new security hires $1,000 bonuses, CNBC recently reported.

As far as parking, the hope is to hire enough drivers to have the Pikes Peak and Mount Elbert lots opened by the end of the year. The Pikes Peak Lot was scheduled to open temporarily this weekend, then shut down again Saturday night.

“We understand that construction is frustrating, and long lines are really frustrating,” said Renteria, the spokesman for the airport.

“We’re doing our best to ensure that this is a brief moment in the history of our airport. Really soon it will be a state-of-the-art airport that people will be really proud of, and we really look forward to that moment.”

The bad news is, this will all get worse in the coming months as the holidays hit and the busiest days of the airport return. Renteria doesn’t foresee the lines abating much until DIA’S staffing shortages end.

It’d be nice to hear from the new CEO that somehow, some way, DIA will be able to handle the holiday crush a little better than it is handling things now. Renteria said right now Washington is focused on the “big picture” of the Vision 100 project, which is all about getting the airport ready to accommodate 100 million passengers a year by 2030-2035.

But in lieu of a Washington sighting, if you find yourself tearing your hair out over the coming weeks, just look for a naked lady running about.

She might give you a nice drink of water from her water bottle.