HOUSTON – Terminal E at George Bush Intercontinental Airport has become one of the busier pickup zones in the airport.
Travelers say construction is leading to chaos.
“Five minutes turned into three hours,” Srimi Chittaluru said.
At IAH, cars heading to terminals C, D and E lined up at the entrance of the airport on Sunday, which caused hours-long delays.
“It was complete gridlock,” Kate Good said.
There’s currently a $1.3 billion construction project that has closed down parts of terminal E, leading to several people’s frustrations.
“I’m a frequent flier. I’m at the airport every week or two and it’s been bad, it’s been very bad, but it just seems to be getting progressively worse,” Good said.
Airport officials warn peak travel times are from Thursday through Sunday between 5:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m.
KPRC 2 looked at ways you can avoid the long wait: As you’re driving along Will Clayton Parkway you’ll see the airport is divided into two turn-offs, terminals C, D and E and terminals A and B. If it’s not completely backed up, the person you’re picking up can take the underground subway to terminals D or C and get picked up from there where there are more available lanes. When you’re ready to leave as you pass C on the left, you’ll want to follow the sign reading airport exit towards A and B. If you continue to travel towards E you’ll see more construction cones and fewer lanes.
Or you can take Kate Good’s approach.
“I ended up going over to terminal B to get a ride with Uber,” she said.
Once again, using the underground ground subway or if you don’t have checked luggage, you can avoid baggage claim and use the skyway train system.
“Well, we see some relief in sight,” said Augusto Bernal, an airport spokesperson.
He said on June 6 disability elevators in Terminal E will reopen inside, meaning the loading zones will reopen for pick up outside of Terminal E.
Also, in early July they are adding a lane of traffic near Terminal E on South Terminal Road.
“You’re spending $1.3 billion, I’m sure you could spend a few thousand dollars to make the traffic flow better inside the airport,” Chittaluru said.
Bernal said additional factors led to Sunday’s backups, including weather delays and a large international conference taking place this week in Houston.