Montego Bay’s Sangster International Airport Minimally Affected by Global IT Outage

SAINT JAMES, Jamaica — Montego Bay’s Sangster International Airport (SIA) reported minimal impact from the significant IT outage that disrupted airport operations worldwide.Sharon Hislop Holt, commercial business development and marketing manager at MBJ Airports, the airport’s operator, stated that operations were continuing smoothly despite the global blackout. “Operations at MBJ are currently business as usual,” she told Observer Online.Although the outage caused delays and cancellations globally, SIA experienced only minor disruptions. “There were a few delays and at least one cancellation, but no major impacts,” Hislop Holt confirmed. The specific cancellation was Spirit Flight 1, with other delays listed on the airport’s website.The IT outage, caused by a routine software update from cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike, led to a crash in the Microsoft Windows system. This resulted in temporary grounding of aircraft by US aviation authorities and widespread cancellations and delays in other regions.Despite the challenges, SIA’s resilience has allowed it to maintain operations. “In some ways, it’s related, but what’s happening here isn’t affected by the challenges over there,” Hislop Holt explained, adding that local monitoring of the system would continue.