Passengers at San Diego International Airport endured hours-long lines and packed terminals Tuesday morning after an IT outage crippled the airline ticketing system.
The disruption began early in the day and quickly snarled operations at the Southern California hub, leaving travelers stranded in winding queues as staff struggled to process check-ins manually. An airport spokesperson confirmed that the facility remained open throughout the incident and that flights continued to arrive and depart, though significant delays rippled across the schedule.
Around 8:30 a.m., the airport’s official social media accounts posted an urgent advisory urging travelers to build in extra time before their flights and to verify their departure status directly with their carriers rather than relying on airport displays. The post identified the root cause as an IT outage affecting ticketing infrastructure, though it did not specify which systems or vendors were involved.
The spokesperson did not provide an estimated resolution time or indicate how many flights had been impacted by the slowdown. Passengers took to social media throughout the morning to share photos of terminals packed shoulder-to-shoulder with frustrated travelers, some reporting wait times stretching well beyond normal security and check-in periods.
Airlines operating at the airport typically rely on interconnected reservation and departure control systems to manage passenger manifests, seat assignments, and boarding passes. When those systems fail, carriers must revert to slower manual processes or temporary workarounds that bottleneck the entire flow from curb to gate. Tuesday’s outage appeared to follow that pattern, with the ticketing slowdown creating a domino effect that congested lobbies and strained gate areas.
The airport’s early-morning advisory represented its first public acknowledgment of the problem, arriving roughly an hour and a half after many travelers had already begun reporting chaos online. The message struck a measured tone, emphasizing continuity of operations while warning of ongoing headaches.
San Diego International serves as the primary commercial airport for the San Diego metropolitan area and handles more than 25 million passengers annually. It operates with a single terminal divided into two halves, meaning any system-wide disruption has limited physical space to absorb overflow crowds.
By mid-morning, the full scope of the outage remained unclear, with neither the airport nor individual carriers releasing comprehensive figures on cancellations or average delay lengths. Travelers were advised to monitor their airline’s website or mobile app for real-time updates rather than calling overwhelmed reservation lines.