DALLAS — Dallas Love Field had massive lines in the baggage check-in areas of the airport Thursday due to delays in the luggage-checking process, officials said.
Southwest Airlines officials said the airports baggage belt was experiencing problems Thursday morning, "which slows the process of checking luggage."
Airport officials said that while the online baggage screening machines were operating at total capacity, "the extremely high volume" of departing passengers Thursday morning was adding to the congestion in the check-in process.
Long lines could be seen throughout the baggage check-in area and concourse, and out the door onto the sidewalk.
Southwest officials had initially asked passengers to arrive two hours before their flight, but airport officials later extended that ask to three hours. Love Field officials said part of the added number of passengers Thursday was due to the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority convention that wrapped up in downtown Dallas on Wednesday. The convention brought tens of thousands of people to downtown, as Vice President Kamala Harris was the keynote speaker at the event Wednesday.
"Our team at Dallas is working to process Customers and their baggage as quickly as they can," Southwest officials said in a statement.
The check-in delays didn't seem to be having much impact on flights; only 52 delays had been reported at Love Field by 11:30 a.m., and there were no cancellations, according to FlightAware.
Airport officials told WFAA that some passengers will be rebooked on flights departing Friday.
"We still anticipate a high volume of visitors originally scheduled to depart tomorrow. The airport continues to advise early arrivals for tomorrow three hours before departures," a spokesperson said.
Earlier this week, on Monday, Love Field travelers had to be evacuated from the airport after a security machine caught fire.
Officials said they had received a report of a fire in the terminal basement at DAL around 4:15 p.m. Monday. The fire alarm was activated and passengers and staff were evacuated from the terminal.
The source of the small fire was determined to be an L3 machine in the baggage screening area, according to Love Field officials.
The fire was quickly extinguished, officials say, and people were let back in around 4:35 p.m. Airport officials said were no impacts to air traffic.
This is a developing story. Check back for more information.