Abandoned rental cars snaked the road outside Austin-Bergstrom International Airport Monday morning and passengers waited in a security line that reached outside the terminal and onto the sidewalk.
Some travelers queued for hours, missed flights or even had to make alternative travel arrangements on weekends as the airport was unable to handle an unusually high passenger traffic generated in part by several high-profile sporting events.
Airport officials even took the step on Monday to issue a fuel shortage warning due to a lack of available fuel supply – a measure that, according to an airport spokesman, is becoming more common as the airport gets busier with more scheduled flights. A fuel shortage warning calls for flights to arrive with more fuel than usual in case there is no fuel available for them at ABIA.
More: 6 things to know about the Austin airport, which is getting busier these days
What caused the Austin-Bergstrom delays?
Airport officials said in a statement that ABIA regularly sees large numbers of passengers, especially before 8 a.m. Thursday, Friday, Sunday and Monday. Federal Transportation Security Administration staffers transported nearly 9,000 passengers for 8 a.m. Sunday27 March and about 8,250 before then Monday.
“These volumes reflect thousands of Austin visitors traveling home after attending events,” including the Texas Relays, the World Golf Championships-Dell Technologies Match Play and NASCAR races at Circuit of the Americas, the statement said. “In response to strong demand for air travel (the airport) continues to accelerate terminal improvements through the Airport Expansion and Development Program and by working with our partners, such as the TSA, to fill staff positions.”
Sandy Musa, who lives about 20 minutes from the airport, said she didn’t even bother with the security line Monday morning when she saw it was outside the building. She arrived at 6 a.m., about 90 minutes before her flight to Las Vegas for a work conference. When she spoke to a security guard, she said, she was told she would not make her flight.
“The line was wound from one end of the airport to the other,” she said. “It’s not like there were just a few people hanging around the automatic doors. You had to go to one side or the other of the airport to get into one of those lines. I would never have made it even if I had been there two hours earlier.”
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Musa said he was frustrated that the airport had not communicated to passengers in advance on social media how early they should arrive to catch flights, given the unusual number of people. She said she was still deciding whether to catch another flight later Monday or give up the trip altogether.
Patricia Mancha, a spokesperson for the TSA in southwestern states, including Texas, said the Austin airport had 15,000 more visitors per day this weekend than usual. She cited the area’s sporting events and airlines adding flights to their schedules from Austin as factors.
Mancha said the Austin TSA was preparing for the weekend by hiring additional staff and approving overtime hours. Mancha also said Austin isn’t alone with increased volume of travel. Nationwide, 2.3 million people passed through airport security on Sunday, compared to 1.57 million on that day last year.
Ausitn airport also suffered from a queue of abandoned rental cars on Monday morning, causing some people additional delays.
“The return line for the rental car was the result of a somewhat irregular situation. What happened was a rental car came to a stop on the curb,” airport officials said in a statement. “The car rental staff instructed the customers to go ahead and leave the vehicle with the keys inside. This caused other passengers with rental cars to follow and leave their rental cars at the curb. When the airport staff was made aware of this, we contacted the rental car company to send additional staff…to get the vehicles off the curb.”
Kelly Nagel, who was in Austin for a wedding this weekend, said she was one of those who left her rental car with the keys in the front seat to catch her flight after standing in line for about 30 minutes Monday morning to get it. return the vehicle.
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Nagel said she was able to bypass much of the security line because she has TSA PreCheck and was able to make her flight home to Pennsylvania. She said she received a call from the rental car company during her layover that the vehicle had been returned safely.
What to do to avoid delays on your next flight?
Mancha said the best way people can help speed up security is to arrive with enough time and not to put any prohibited items in their hand luggage. People should plan to arrive at the airport two hours before a domestic flight and three hours before an international flight, she said.
“If people bring prohibited items to the checkpoint, they slow down the line,” she said. “TSA, the airport, the airlines, we all work together to get people to their final destination. So it is very important that people pack their patience. Our people really try to help you through it.”
This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: What’s happening at Austin airport? Long lines, abandoned rental cars
