3 days after snow storm, Charleston airport still closed, frustrating some travelers

A rare winter storm on the South Carolina coast is still disrupting Lowcountry lives three days after the snow stopped falling.

The normally busy Charleston International Airport remained closed Saturday morning, with no indication from airport officials as to when flights could resume.

“The runways remained closed until further notice,” the airport said in a statement on its website and social media accounts Saturday morning. “Runway and taxiway conditions at the airport are being frequently monitored by airport operations and Joint Base Charleston. The runways will reopen as soon as it is safe for aircraft to take off and land. We are not able to predict when that will be at this time.”

Charleston airport CEO Paul Campbell has said the airport doesn’t have much equipment for removing snow and ice because the area normally sees so little frozen precipitation, the Associated Press reported.

Wednesday’s storm dumped more than 5 inches of snow on the airport, its third-highest snow total since 1938, according to the AP. The airport is the busiest in South Carolina by passenger boarding statistics.

Social media users responded with frustration Saturday morning, calling the continued closure “shameful,” “absurd” and “completely asinine.”

In a response to a Facebook question about what the airport is doing other than “waiting for the ice to melt,” the airport responded that “The runways are being plowed and inspected regularly under direction of Joint Base Charleston to ensure they are safe for aircraft.”