With clocks having sprung forward, spring break travel season — along with packed airports — is upon us once again.
DFW International Airport and Dallas Love Field expect heavy traffic in the weeks ahead, especially as a partial government shutdown persists. Many Transportation Security Administration officers have gone unpaid, creating massive security line backlogs at a few major airports, including in Houston.
Currently, Dallas area travel hubs aren’t among them, but they are expected to see a surge in passengers asspring break shifts into high gear.
DFW Airport, the central hub of American Airlines, is expecting roughly 4.7 million passengers to pass through the airport between March 5 and March 24. The airport said it is expecting the busiest travel days to be the weekends of March 13-16 and March 20-23.
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Three dates — March 13, 15 and 22 — could each see more than 250,000 travelers pass through the busy travel hub, according to the airport.
The airport recommends travelers arrive at least two hours before domestic flights and three hours prior to international flights.
“Building in extra time can help customers navigate heavier traffic, busy terminal curbs, parking demand and elevated activity at check-in and security screening areas,” DFW said in a statement.
Love Field, where Southwest Airlines is the dominant carrier, is smaller than its crosstown counterpart, but it will also see heavy traffic in its own right. Between Monday and March 22, Love is expected to see 480,000 travelers pass through.
“We’d also anticipate these numbers increasing as new bookings occur throughout each day,” Lauren Rounds, a spokesperson for the airport, told The Dallas Morning News in a statement.
Rounds added that the travel estimates do not take into account the limited flights operated by Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines.
Spring break this year is arriving on the heels of what has been a rocky time for air travel in recent weeks, following the killing of the leader of a powerful Mexican cartel leader and disruptions tied to the U.S. war in Iran.
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‘No significant or abnormal impact’
The latest effects of the partial government shutdown have created long lines at some major U.S. airports, including in Houston, although the impact hasn’t been felt in North Texas so far.
Zachary Greiner, a spokesperson for DFW Airport, said Monday that airport operations “remain normal,” adding that “security screening at the airport is managed by the TSA, so for questions regarding staffing or federal program operations we would recommend reaching out to TSA or DHS directly.”
Rounds told The News that “no significant or abnormal operational impacts have been reported at DAL.”
Chris Sununu, the president and CEO of Airlines for America, a lobbying group representing American, Southwest, Delta, United and others, urged an end to the shutdown as spring break travel approaches.
“As TSA officers are facing a $0 paycheck this week, we are seeing firsthand the significant strains that the current DHS shutdown is causing across the aviation system,” Sununu said in a statement.
“TSA lines are two and three hours long at some airports, causing flights to be delayed and passengers to miss flights,” he added.
“The shutdown is having very real consequences, and hardworking federal aviation workers, the airline industry and our passengers are being used as a political football once again. This is simply unacceptable and un-American.”