AUSTIN (Talk1370.com) -- While Austin's airport continues to see rapid growth, passenger traffic Monday morning was certainly on the upper end of busy - with some travelers calling it chaos.
Airport officials said 8,965 passengers were processed through security before 8 a.m. Sunday morning, on the way towards a total of 30,991 passengers departing through the day on Sunday - one of the busiest days in the airport's history.
Another 8,252 passengers were processed through the TSA checkpoints before 8 a.m. Monday morning. That's about 2,000 more passengers than go through the checkpoints on an average day.
Those heavy passenger volumes - coming fresh off of NASCAR's weekend at Circuit of The Americas as well as the Dell Technologies Match Play - led to some delays at the airport, with long lines and some delays in the rental car dropoff lane - prompting some passengers to ditch their rental cars to try and make their flights.
"While operations have returned to normal," airport officials said in a statement posted to Twitter, "we continue to ask passengers to arrive a minimum of 2 hours in advance now through early April."
Airport officials also advised airlines of a potential fuel shortage Monday afternoon, something that's typically done when airports see busier traffic volumes. According to an airport spokesperson, AUS typically has 2-3 days of fuel on-site to support refueling operations; most airports average a 5 to 7 day supply.
While the advisory doesn't mean immediate impacts for passengers, officials said some flights may have to divert to other airports for refueling - something that happened last year during the Formula 1 weekend, when the airport set its all-time record for passenger departures.
Departing passengers are urged to get to the airport a minimum of two hours prior to their flight for domestic routes, and three hours for international flights. Airport officials say they expect the heavy traffic volumes to continue through early April.
Airport officials say they're working to expedite the improvements contained in the Airport Expansion and Development Program, which aims to add as many as 13 new gates - including a new midfield concourse connected to the existing Barbara Jordan Terminal by an underground tunnel. The expansion plan also calls for increased infrastructure, including fuel storage and other utility improvements.