Central Florida airports close ahead of Hurricane Irma

ORLANDO, Fla. — UPDATE: 2:30 p.m. Sunday: Ormond Beach Municipal Airport and the control tower are closed until at least Tuesday.

UPDATE: 5 p.m. Most airports in Central Florida are closed as Hurricane Irma nears.

Daytona Beach International Airport will close at 6 p.m. Saturday.

UPDATE: 5:35 p.m. Thursday: Orlando Melbourne International Airport will close its terminal at 6 p.m. Saturday. The airfield will be open for private aircraft.

UPDATE 4:45 p.m. Thursday: Orlando Sanford International airport will suspend commercial flights after 5:15 p.m. Saturday. Passengers should check flights with their airline.

UPDATE: Orlando International Airport will cease all commercial flights starting at 5 p.m. Saturday.

EARLIER: Passengers say it was a hectic day at Orlando International Airport as thousands of flyers dealt with cancellations, missed flights and costly re-bookings ahead of Hurricane Irma.

Danny Mrohs said he had to stand his ground Wednesday when trying to change his flight out of OIA.

“The airline gave us a hassle over charging us for a change of flight,” he said. “They wanted to charge us another $200 per ticket and I had to really get nasty about it before they agreed to waive the charge.”

Airline contact information can be found here.

Another flyer who only gave her name as Kimberly, said the weather made her miss a connecting flight and American Airlines told her getting on another would be nearly twice the cost of her entire trip to Dubai.

“I tried to rebook online,” she said. “Unfortunately, they said they would charge me the cost of a round-trip flight.”

That flight would have run about $2,000, she said.

In a statement, American Airlines said the airline “will cap our pretax fares at $99 for main cabin seats on direct, single-leg flights out of Florida for tickets sold through Sept. 10.”

The announcement came after JetBlue posted on Twitter that it was reducing the cost of flights out of Florida to $99.

Airport officials urge travelers to check the status of their flight before coming to OIA.

Cox Media Group