ST JAMES, Jamaica — Senior Strategist in the Tourism Ministry, Delano Seiveright, has revealed that as of 1:00 pm Wednesday, there were delays on approximately 18 flights — both in and outbound — at the Sangster International Airport (SIA).

One flight was cancelled. This was the knock on effect from Wednesday morning’s temporary grounding of all departing flights from the United States (US), he said.

“Many of the flights in and out of Montego Bay are delayed because of the ripple effect from this morning. So, most of the flights are running behind schedule,” Seiveright told OBSERVER ONLINE this afternoon.

A computer glitch at the Federal Aviation Administration brought flights to a standstill across the US until 9:00 am, resulting in hundreds of delays.

READ: All departing US flights grounded after FAA computer outage

The afternoon delays seen at SIA are in stark contrast to operations earlier Wednesday when the impact of the tech glitch in the US had not yet been felt. Speaking with OBSERVER ONLINE in the morning, Shane Munroe, the Chief Executive Officer of MBJ Airports Limited, which is the operator of SIA, said the first flight arriving from the US at 10:29 am was on schedule, there was no backlog and he anticipated that departing passengers would be able to leave on time.

However, Seiveright is cautioning individuals travelling on Wednesday to check with the airlines before going to the airport.

“There is a ripple effect through the entire system. As the hours go by we expect things to fully normalise sometime tomorrow into the weekend,” he said, adding that most flights scheduled within the 11:00 am to 3:00 pm time frame have been impacted.