ST JAMES, Jamaica – MBJ Airports Limited, operator of the Sangster International Airport (SIA), announced that flight operations at Sangster International Airport (SIA) returned to normal on Friday.

Over 50 flights were cancelled and others diverted to the Norman Manley International Airport in Kingston as a result of a temporary closure of the runway at the Sangster International Airport in St James Thursday morning.

No flights could get in or out of SIA between 7:00 am and about 2:30 pm on Thursday. According to Sharon Hislop-Holt, manager, commercial business development and marketing manager at the airport, 30 of the 52 incoming flights were diverted to the Norman Manley International Airport, while 12 were cancelled.

READ: Passengers livid – Closure of Sangster International leaves thousands stranded

But, according to the SIA flight update on Friday, as at 4:30 pm, of the 66 flights scheduled for arrival, 51 flights had landed and two were cancelled. There were no diversions.

Frontier 917 from Atlanta and Air Canada 1992 from Canada were the two cancelled flights, OBSERVER ONLINE was informed.

The last scheduled flight for Friday would be the arrival of American Airlines 2763 from Miami at 7:51pm.

Senior advisor and strategist in the Ministry of Tourism, Delano Seiveright was satisfied that there were no major glitches in the restoration of operation on Friday.

He said while there were issues with the landing system at the airport, “it held up well”.

“Today worked out okay,” Seiveright told OBSERVER ONLINE.

He did not elaborate on the issue with the landing system.

Meanwhile, attempts to get a comment from Shane Munroe, chief executive officer for MBJ proved futile.

Meanwhile, a release from MBJ revealed that some airlines were operating extra flights to accommodate passengers who were affected by Thursday’s disruption in operations.

“We recommend that passengers make contact with their respective airlines for the latest updates on their flight’s status and for any information regarding any changes,” a part of the release stated.

“We wish to express our gratitude to all our passengers, stakeholders and employees for the patience and support shown over the last twenty-four hours, ” it added.