Dallas Love Field Airport asks passengers to arrive 3 hours early due to check-in delays

Dallas Love Field Airport is asking passengers to arrive at least three hours before their flights’ departure times Thursday due to delays at the check-in areas.

As early as 8:30 a.m., the airport experienced an unusually large number of passengers flying out of Dallas. In a post on X, Dallas Love Field officials initially recommended passengers to arrive two hours early.

While baggage screening machines were being operated at full capacity, extremely high volumes of passengers checking in and booking their luggage are causing congestion at check-in, the airport said.

In photos posted on X, long lines are seen overflowing inside and out of the airport.

Southwest Airlines officials said the airport’s baggage belt was experiencing problems Thursday, contributing to the “slow process of checking luggage,” Star-Telegram media partner, WFAA-TV reported. Southwest Airlines is Dallas Love Field’s main airline.

Dallas Love Field officials added that the larger than normal amount of passengers was also due to the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority convention that took place in Dallas on Wednesday, according to WFAA. Vice President Kamala Harris was the keynote speaker at the event.

By 11:30 a.m. FlightAware reported 52 delays at Dallas Love Field, WFAA reported. As of 3:15 p.m., the website is not showing any delays at Love Field.

The Love Field website showed a 33-minute wait time for general boarding passengers to get through TSA on Thursday afternoon.