CHARLOTTE — One of the checkpoints at Charlotte Douglas International Airport was closed Wednesday morning for police activity because of an unattended bag.
The airport sent out an alert around 9:30 a.m. saying Checkpoint C was closed, and that passengers should go to Checkpoint A for PreCheck. Just after 10 a.m., the airport said the checkpoint was reopened and operations returned to normal.
The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department initially said the closure was due to an investigation into a “suspicious package.” Within about 10 minutes, the department sent out another update saying the package was an unattended bag.
Police said to expect traffic delays around the airport Wednesday morning, and a Channel 9 photojournalist spotted backups near the arrivals area of the airport.
‘It’s a nightmare’
The brief delay came as the airport anticipates a ramp-up of holiday travelers, but the closure didn’t appear to be impacting flights.
That didn’t help the glut of flyers who were trying to get to their gates after the airport reopened.
“I am furious, livid,” said Gi Persaud, who was stuck in a line of pedestrian traffic Wednesday morning. “There’s a line to get in here, there are lines everywhere. I’m lucky I got to park. I can miss my flight, everyone here could miss their flight.”
Some passengers told us their flights were rerouted, like one to Tulsa that was delayed by about four hours to 2:27 p.m.
“This is ridiculous, hard to get here,” said O’Donald McCain.
Others arrived two hours early for their flight and still hit roadblocks.
“It’s a nightmare kinda,” said Louise Ravosa.
Half an hour before boarding, Ravosa and her husband still hadn’t gone through security. They eventually got in line for their flight.
Police said they eventually found the owner of the unattended bag, but they hope a similar incident doesn’t happen again with millions more people still waiting for a flight for Christmas.
(WATCH: Charlotte airport working on traffic solutions for the holiday season)
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