IT Outage Causes Travel Troubles at Fort Lauderdale Airport

Operations at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport were back to normal after an IT issue caused a headache for travelers on New Year's weekend.

On Saturday morning, there was a crowded terminal one at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport.

The airport tweeted an explanation to the chaos that said an IT outage impacted their security screening and other systems in terminal one.

.#FLL has experienced an IT outage this morning that is impacting security screening & other airport systems in Terminal 1. Our team is working diligently to ensure that all systems are back up soon. We thank you for your patience while we work to resolve this issue.

— Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood Int'l Airport (FLL) (@FLLFlyer) December 31, 2022

Hours later, they gave an update saying operations were back to normal and they apologized for the inconvenience.

IT Outage Update No. 2: All impacted areas in Terminal 1 have resumed normal operations. Our @TSA partner is working steadfastly to process the volume of travelers waiting in line. We appreciate your patience on this busy #holiday weekend. Our apologies for this inconvenience.

— Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood Int'l Airport (FLL) (@FLLFlyer) December 31, 2022

According to flight tracking website FlightAware, there were at least 120 flights going in or out of Fort Lauderdale that were delayed.

“We'll do 12 hours in the airport before we even get a chance to leave Florida," said Lawrence Montoya, a passenger whose flight was delayed.

Montoya and his family had just got off a cruise and they were hoping the recent travel headaches would not impact them.

“We had been reading about it and we were hoping by the time we are at the cruise line that things would be cleared up. But now, this morning was a rude awakening," Montoya said.

Travelers were counting the minutes until they could take off and go home as the clock to midnight kept ticking.

“But it just keeps getting pushed around. We are newly engaged, so hopefully we'll be able to watch the ball drop and give each other our first kiss as an engaged couple," said another passenger Cornell Freeney.

Freeney and his fiancée were stuck at the airport for hours.

“We had a couple of cancellations. Luckily, we were able to get rebooked, but now we're just waiting and we're stuck with our bag because we can't really check them in until the time of our flight," Freeney said. "But it just keeps getting pushed around.”

With some vacations receiving a chaotic ending, some travelers wrapped up 2022 with lessons learned.

“I think next time I will try to fly, you know, a couple of days in advance to try to avoid it or give myself a little wiggle room,” Freeney said.