Myrtle Beach airport slowly getting back to normal after global technology outage

MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. (WBTW) — A Myrtle Beach International Airport spokesman said Friday afternoon that things were slowly returning to normal after a worldwide cyber outage overnight left hundreds of passengers in long lines and caused other disruptions across the U.S.

Numerous arriving and departing flights were either delayed or canceled entirely, according to the airport’s online flight-tracking page . Airport spokesman Ryan Bechter said as of 5 p.m., 21 flights had been canceled, while the total number of delays wasn’t immediately known.

“For the most part, flights are starting to resume a little bit more normally than they were, there were some occasional delays that travelers are going to see throughout the day that have already been posted or cancellations that have been posted,” Betcher told News13. “What we’re seeing now is the airlines are working to get their operations back on a normal schedule. Like we said earlier, anytime there’s this major kind of disruption to their operations, it’s going to cause lingering delays throughout the rest of the day.”

Airlines and airports in the United States and around the world reported problems, with some flights grounded. Retail outlets, banks, railway companies and hospitals in several parts of the world were also affected in what appeared to be an unprecedented internet disruption.

At the Myrtle Beach early Friday afternoon, officials said most of the car rental companies that operate at the airport did not have any vehicles available to rent. Employees with Budget Car Rental told News13 that they did not have cars available before the outage because they are in the middle of their busy season and many cars were already reserved or in use.

Earlier on Friday, Spirit Airlines passenger Erica Watts told News13 that she was booked on a flight to Fort Lauderdale, Florida. She said airport officials told passengers no one would be flying out of MYR until after 11 a.m.

The airport’s online check-in and self-service kiosks were also disabled. Airlines spent the day logging passengers manually, slowing down the process.

“We feel stranded, can’t check in luggage, people are trying to decide if they should go home or stick around to see if flights will depart,” Watts said. “People are all standing in the lobby area.”

Betcher said the complexities of the systems made it difficult to resume normal operations.

“It’s pretty incredible when you think about airline networks and the operations and complexities of those,” he said. “So it just takes time for the airlines to kind of essentially be able to recover and bring back that kind of normalized operations.”

He also said every airline is different.

“Every airline has a different type of fleet strategy or network strategy,” Betcher said. “So it just, it just impacted them all differently. Some of the aircraft this morning, or some of the airlines this morning went out on time. Others were doing manual type boarding processes. So it really just had a different impact on the different carriers and how they strategize and kind of essentially bring their operations back online.”

The fact that the outage was so widespread complicated things even more, Betcher said.

“Something that’s a little bit unusual about this type of situation is this [information technology] issue was really a widespread issue that … really affected multiple carriers,” he said. “So that’s not something we always see. But it was a pretty drastic impact on all the airlines. But they really are starting to kind of bring those schedules back up. And we’re hoping that we’ll see some normalized operations as the afternoon goes on.”

Early Friday morning, the airport released the following statement:

“A global IT outage has resulted in nationwide flight disruptions this morning, and as a result, various arriving and departing flights at Myrtle Beach International Airport (MYR) are experiencing delays and/or cancellations. As the morning progresses, flight operations are beginning to resume with some of the affected airlines, but lingering impacts are likely to continue throughout the day. Travelers flying out of MYR today are strongly encouraged to check their respective airline’s website or mobile app for any changes or updates to their flight status prior to arriving at the airport, and impacted travelers should contact their airline directly for itinerary changes or rebooking. ”

Equana Galloway-Bullard was among those stuck at the airport overnight because of the outage. She was scheduled to fly out at 6:30 p.m. to New Jersey on Frontier Airlines.

“At first, they told us it was IT issues, and so the first thing that came to my mind was is the system hacked,” she said.” Then, an hour later, they said it was the storm and then they were saying there were some technical issues on the plane so I don’t know what’s going on.”

After her flight was canceled, Galloway-Bullard said she rebooked a flight on American Airlines. However, it’s not scheduled to depart until Friday evening.”

“We never left,” she said. “We have been at the airport since last night. They didn’t accommodate us.”

Traveler Christopher Zielak said the disruption was taking a toll on his family.

“I don’t even know if my flight is still on or not. There’s it’s not even on the board yet. So we’re just we’re kind of up in the air right now,” he said. “Lines aren’t moving. I can’t check in kiosks are working. It’s just mayhem.”

Among the major U.S. airlines, Delta said shortly before 8 a.m. that it had resumed some flights after pausing its global flight schedule. The airline issued a travel waiver for all customers who have booked flights departing on Friday.

In North Carolina, some services were interrupted at the Division of Motor Vehicles business services. Those included driver’s license offices and license plate agencies. The DMV, which has 115 driver’s license offices, said it will try to reach out to customers to reschedule appointments. The outage is also affecting some MyNCDMV.gov online services.

The South Carolina Department of Motor Vehicles told News13 the agency did not experience any interruptions as a result of the outage.

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Dennis Bright is a Digital Producer at News13 . He joined the team in May 2021. Dennis is a West Virginia native and a graduate of Marshall University in Huntington, West Virginia. Follow Dennis on, Facebook , X, formerly Twitter , and read more of his work here .

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Savannah Denton joined News 13 in July 2023 as a reporter and producer. Savannah is from Atlanta, Georgia, and is a graduate of the University of Alabama. Follow Savannah on X, formerly Twitter, and read more of her work here .

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Adriana Cotero is News13’s weekend evening anchor and a morning reporter. She joined the team in July 2023 after working in the island of Guam. Adriana is from Saline, Michigan, and graduated from Central Michigan University. Follow Adriana on Facebook , X, formerly Twitter, and Instagram and read more of her work here .

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