MONTEGO BAY — Candace Rowlett loves Jamaica, but after a few minutes camped out on the floor of the Sangster International Airport, her luggage used as a headrest, she’s ready to go home to California.

“Everyone’s been real nice, I’ve just had a great time, everybody’s just really friendly here and it’s so nice and wonderful,” she said Thursday from her spot in the airport lobby. “It’s just, you start wanting to go home, okay; it’s time to go home.”

She was supposed to leave on Wednesday but was left stranded, like many passengers around the world, after the US clamped tight its airspace on Tuesday. The security measure was taken after terrorists used three hijacked airplanes as flying bombs to wreak havoc on New York City and Washington DC. A fourth plane that is believed to have been headed for the White House fell short in Pittsburgh after what is believed to have been intervention from passengers on board.

But Rowlett appears to have a long wait before she can get home. Despite earlier assurances that the US would open its airspace Thursday, there was a later announcement that the wounded country was still not allowing entry to flights from any foreign countries.

On Thursday, a handful of hopeful passengers hung around the lobby of the Sangster International Airport, some playing card games to pass the time, others reading or searching for a stray newspaper. In the almost deserted cafeteria, one man was seen licking and placing stamps on a stack of postcards, while others sought advice from airline workers.

Throughout the day, the usually bustling facility that moves the bulk of the island’s visitors was far from busy, and airline personnel spent most of the day leaning on counters and looking bored.

According to operations manager for the Airports Authority of Jamaica, Tony Atkinson, between 12 and 14 flights had been affected for the day, but he was unable to give an indication of the number of passengers affected.

Among those inconvenienced was Dorothy McClure, a US citizen who, along with her husband, has been doing missionary work in Jamaica for the last 11 years. On Thursday, they tried to get their three grandsons home to their parents in Dallas.

Originally destined to leave on an 11:00 am charter flight that failed to show, their hope is that Air Jamaica will be able to take the three boys.

“We’re afraid that war is going to break out and we don’t want them away from their parents,” McClure said.