Passengers voice frustration with Charlotte airport

By the numbers: The airport expects 1.18 million passengers between July 2-8, a 12% uptick compared to 2023.

• 191,000 of those passengers are expected to be local passengers departing from Charlotte, which is a 15.6% increase compared to last year, according to the airport.

Zoom in: Charlotte tied for 69th out of 104 other U.S. airports for annual on-time departures in 2023.

Driving the news: In June, the airport tweeted it was "a tough travel day," and issued an apology for any negative experiences customers may have had.

• We asked our newsletter subscribers to share recent travel experiences at CLT, both good and bad. Here's what they said:

Editor's note: Responses have been edited for clarity and brevity.

Stuck on the tarmac

Mike S., a Charlotte resident and frequent traveler for business, was stuck on the tarmac twice in June for an hour after his flight arrived on time because there wasn't a gate available.

• "I'm sure the construction has something to do with it but it seems more like American Airlines is either overwhelmed or overbooked and is causing some passengers problems," said Mike S.
• "Even though 90% of our gates are American Airlines, I don't hold the airline's performance against the airport itself," Becky W. says.

What they're saying: "Weather and airline delays along with increased summer travel are the main factors" an airport spokesperson tells Axios.

What we're watching: Concourse A phase II expansion will open this fall, adding 10 new gates, seven of which Delta will use, two for Frontier and one common-use gate. But the airport says new gates won't be a factor.

• Instead the airport's new $1 billion runway, which should open in the fall of 2027, should reduce wait times. It will allow for 20 additional arrivals and departures during peak hours in 2028 and 32 in 2033, according to the airport.
• "The runway's north and south end-around taxiways will reduce aircraft operating time while eliminating long with times for passengers' aircraft to get to their gates," an airport spokesperson says.

Congestion

An uptick in passenger traffic means more people in the lobby and the terminal.

• "The airport is a disaster, way over capacity," Jim R. says. "You couldn't tell the difference between the customer service line and the baggage drop line in mid-June."
• Dennis S., who flies out of Charlotte about three times a month for work, says, except for Concourses A and D, the "concourses are way too narrow for the amount of passengers that must pass through them."

Traffic getting to the terminal has been frustrating passengers as well.

• "When picking someone up, it took me 15 minutes to get from the cell phone lot to the arrivals," Jim R. says. "Way too much traffic."
• The cell phone lot is about a mile from the terminal and is meant to help mitigate congestion.
• If you're picking someone up, have them meet you at departures instead of arrivals. It will speed the process up, and try to pick them up as close to the end of the line as possible to avoid creating a bottleneck.

Cleanliness

"Charlotte Douglas is the dirtiest airport I have visited," Todd M. says.

What they're saying: The airport is cleaned daily, an airport spokesperson tells Axios.

Endless Construction

The airport is in the middle of a $4 billion capital investment project called Destination CLT, which has been going on for years.

• Passengers say they feel like the airport is always under construction.

What we're watching: Airport officials say they don't want it to end because construction means the airport is still growing.

Baggage claim

• "Slowest baggage claim in the U.S. I travel all over the U.S. and Canada. Seldom do I check a bag, but when I must, CLT has the slowest baggage return of any airport," Dennis S. says.
• Linda T., whose flight arrived after 2am due to delays, says she was never given baggage claim information for her flight. "On the 'board' where the baggage claim was supposed to pop up, they did not even list our flight. We did not 'exist.' The AA app did not help either but that is more AA than the airport, I think," she says.

What they're saying: The airport saw "18% more bags last year than the year before," Jack Christine, the airport's Chief Infrastructure Officer, told Charlotte City Council in January. Christine described the uptick as "unprecedented."

• Concourse A expansion includes a new baggage handling system.
• Once the airport's terminal lobby expansion is complete, baggage claim is also expected to move more smoothly, according to an airport spokesperson.

The other side: While readers say there are several areas for the airport to improve, they credit airport staff with being friendly and describe the airport as easy to navigate.

My thought bubble: These problems aren't unique to Charlotte. Last month, my flights out of Boston and Athens, Greece were both delayed while we were on the tarmac.