ST. LOUIS – Passengers flying with Southwest Airlines encountered significant delays and long wait times Sunday morning at St. Louis Lambert International Airport, as massive crowds descended on the terminal following a major religious convention held over the weekend.
Social media was flooded with complaints and photos of passengers packed into painfully slow-moving lines. Many expressed deep frustration over the slow check-in and baggage drop-off process, saying it caused them to miss their scheduled flights despite arriving hours in advance. Some travelers even reported delays approaching three hours just to get through the line.
Customers shared stories of missed connections and unexpected cancellations, with Southwest reportedly labeling some of the affected passengers as “no shows.” This policy meant travelers were left with only travel vouchers and no monetary reimbursement in several cases. One affected passenger claimed the ordeal cost them roughly $12,000 in non-refundable expenses.
Among those impacted were mission groups, including families traveling with elderly individuals and children. These groups noted the difficulty of standing in long lines in warm conditions, compounded by a scarcity of water fountains and limited access to vending machines. At one point, airport police briefly sealed entry doors in an attempt to control the overwhelming flow of people.
The disruption was largely attributed to the departure of around 50,000 attendees from the Seventh-Day Adventist General Conference, a major gathering that concluded in St. Louis this weekend. Many of the convention’s participants flew into the city, leading to an unusual spike in outgoing passenger traffic on Sunday morning.
By later in the day, Southwest reported improvements to wait times and advised customers to utilize their mobile app for real-time updates. Lambert International Airport later issued a public statement acknowledging the delays and offering an apology for the inconvenience. “This morning, St. Louis Lambert International Airport experienced a high volume of departing passengers,” it read. “Much of this was due to the large number of delegates going home from the Seventh-day Adventists’ General Conference… The situation was exacerbated by most passengers needing to check bags and few of these passengers being a member of a program designed to expedite airport security, such as TSA Pre-check or CLEAR.”
