GC Session Travelers Make Headlines During Massive Delays
22 July 2025 |
Celebrating 10 days of blessing and community with a world church is a beautiful experience until it’s time to head home. Attendees of the 62nd General Conference Session made headlines on Sunday when the mass exit of travelers led to extreme lines at the St. Louis Lambert International Airport. Footage from multiple news outlets showed thousands lining up for terminal 2 to make their way home.
On Monday, the airline released this statement:
“Sunday morning St. Louis Lambert International Airport experienced a high volume of departing passengers. Much of this was due to the large number of delegates going home from the Seventh-day Adventists’ General Conference. We understand many of the delegates arrived at the airport early for flights scheduled later in the day. The situation was exacerbated by most passengers needing to check bags and few of these passengers being a member of a program designed to expedite airport security, such as TSA Pre-check or CLEAR. This led to the airport ticket counters and TSA security lines being overwhelmed. St. Louis Lambert International Airport apologizes for any delay experienced on Sunday.”
As the morning passed, the line began to grow into the road and onto highways, leading to an over five hour wait in the heat and humidity without access to water or restrooms. Many travelers, faced with the daunting line and delayed processing, had to reschedule their flights or missed them entirely. A few travelers were counted as “no-show” meaning they couldn’t be refunded for their flights but received vouchers. The airport was so overwhelmed that errors were made even after travelers made it into the physical airport for check-in.
Since numerous travelers were unable to leave on Sunday due to missed flights or unwillingness to remain in line, Monday held its own flurry of departures, though fortunately, it did not seem as hectic as the day before.
