Dallas Love Field returned to normal conditions on Friday following a significant influx of passengers trying to depart the previous day.
Due to delays on July 11, partly caused by the volume of travelers, the airport asked its customers to arrive at least three hours before their departure times.
As early as 8:30 a.m., the airport started to see an unexpected number of travelers.
The airport posted a social media update stating it had to take “additional baggage mitigation measures.”
Photos posted on Dallas Love Field Airpot’s X page show long lines of people.
The airport noted that the baggage screening machines were operating at full capacity. However, due to the extremely high volumes of passengers booked, checking luggage was causing congestion at check-in.
Staffing also seemed to be an issue.
“There was zero employees of any company directing lines or giving out general info of where to go, might not have been the cause of the issue but the lack of service didn’t help,” a social media user with the handle Jayloss6 commented on X.
“From someone whom has been in the line for over four hours, the baggage scale is broken, and the kiosk aren’t being maintained in working order. The current wait time can easily be estimated at 6 hours. @SouthwestAir needs to do better,” X user Talaine444 also commented.
The heavy traffic on Thursday reportedly stemmed, at least in part, from the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority convention held in Dallas earlier in the week, as previously relayed by The Dallas Express. The event resulted in accusations of homophobia after members of the sorority allegedly got attendees of an LGBTQ event ejected from the Crowne Plaza Downtown Dallas prior to Vice President Kamala Harris’ remarks at the convention.
Dallas Love Field posted on Friday that the airport had returned to normal passenger volume and operational levels with lines at standard length.
“Based on bookings from our airline partners, we do not anticipate terminal congestion like yesterday. However, we recommend arriving early, at least 2 hours before departure,” the airline continued in a social media post.