El Paso International Airport has overflow of luggage after Southwest Airlines cancels flights

EL PASO, Texas -- The El Paso International Airport continues to experience complications with Southwest Airlines as holiday travelers make their way to the Borderland.

While the Southwest Airlines check-in lines have slowed down, the baggage claim area sees more bags than passengers.

There are rows of luggage left behind waiting to be claimed. Many of the bags made it to El Paso before their owner did because of the Southwest flight cancellations.

Susan Drewry booked two separate flights with Southwest airlines they both were canceled. Drewry was supposed to return to El Paso by 3:00 p.m. on Sunday, but because of the cancellations, she returned to El Paso late Tuesday evening after renting a car and driving back from Dallas.

"I didn't ever expect it to happen because I've been flying Southwest a long time, and they've never had any problems like this. I mean, we've had flight delays and occasionally a cancellation but not often and not when the whole system practically goes down," said Drewry.

According to Southwest Airlines, they are finalizing a resource that will help reunite people with lost or missing baggage.

Southwest also plans to operate at a reduced schedule. They are flying roughly one-third of their schedule for the next several days until the fight issues are under control.