Travelers at Charleston International Airport met with delays and cancellations after global tech outage

NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCBD) – Travelers were met with delays and cancellations at airports across the country, including at Charleston International Airport, after a software update by Crowdstrike, a cybersecurity company, did not go as planned.

The airport in North Charleston has been busy throughout the day with people waiting to catch their flight out of the Charleston area.

“I’m returning home to Delaware – traveling into Philadelphia International. Got delayed about an hour and a half. Not the most convenient thing in the world, but you know, it’s a domino effect. My flight to Philly went out late, so now the flight here is going to be late,” said Ishmael Dixon, who was in town for work. “Hopefully get to make it to my family before dinnertime.”

“I’m flying home to Minneapolis. I have a funeral to go to,” said Corinne Dickey. “I’m hoping to be able to rebook to get home today. The funeral is in the morning.”

Others are headed out for once-in-a-lifetime trips…

“So, we’ve been saving up for two years to go on an EF trip and they canceled it early today. We’re missing two days of our trip that we’ve been saving up thousands for,” said Alli Elliott, who was headed to Italy.

“I really wanted to go to Venice. And we were going to Venice first, so we’re going to miss most of that time,” added Ava Jacobs.

Joanne Dolan and her daughter, Reagan, just spent a week vacationing at the beach and visiting her other daughter here in Charleston.

“We received notification from my husband early this morning: check your flight, check your arrival time, check your departure- and he’s home, our son is home, his girlfriend’s home, all working. But everybody’s shut down. Nobody can connect to the internet or anything like that. So, we’re not sure what’s happening,” said Dolan who was headed home.

“We’re headed back to Philly. We’ve been here for about a week. It’s been great, but I’m nervous with all this going on,” her daughter added.

Charleston International Airport issued an alert for travelers early Friday morning saying the Federal Aviation Administration had issued a nationwide ground stop, causing flight cancellations and delays.“The FAA is closely monitoring a technical issue impacting IT systems at U.S. airlines. Several airlines have requested FAA assistance with ground stops until the issue is resolved,” the agency said on X, formerly Twitter.

A look at arrivals and departures on the airport’s website throughout the day revealed a long list of flight issues.

“If you notice on the delayed flights, you’re seeing that most of them are pushed back about an hour, hour and a half, maybe two hours. So not such a big division. As far as canceled flights, so far up until about one this afternoon we’ve only had about four cancellations and they’re working as hard as they can,” said Spencer Pryor, chief communications officer for the Charleston International Airport.

The airport encouraged travelers to check with their airlines about delays or cancellations before heading to the airport.